Re: How to specify a dependence on a directory?

[John Calcote]

On 11/20/2009 4:18 PM, Peng Yu wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 5:11 PM, David Boyce<address@hidden>  wrote:
>    
> > On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 5:42 PM, Peng Yu<address@hidden>  wrote:
> >      
> > > Is there way to specify a dependence on a directory?
> > >
> > > directory: somefile
> > >   some_command
> > >
> > > If any file in 'directory' is older than 'somefile', then I want to
> > > run 'some_command'. I'm wondering how to do this.
> > >        
> > Then you don't want a dependence on a directory. You want to depend on
> > the full set of files _within_ the directory, a very different thing.
> > I suspect $(wildcard $(dir)/*) is what you want.
> >      
> But if there are no files in the directory, I still want some_command
> to run. How to do it?
>    

In that case, you don't want $(wildcard $(dir)/*). Rather, you want an 
explicit list of files you expect to find in that directory after the 
commands are executed.

John