-n option not working under selected circumstances

[gabriele balducci]

Hi there,

just stumbled on this while building openssl.

Usually I run `make -n install' to see where things will eventually
go. However, to my great surprise, I found that `make -n install' DID
ACTUALLY INSTALL everything!

After some work, it turns out that the problem can be reproduced (for
me) by the following Makefile:

t1 :
        rm -f ./mom && touch ./mom && echo "$(MAKE)"

t2 :
        rm -f ./mom ; \
        touch ./mom ; \
        echo "$(MAKE)"

t3 :
        rm -f ./mom
        touch ./mom
        echo "$(MAKE)"


All works as if the `-n' option is not honored when the variable
$(MAKE) (and apparently only that) is referenced in a target's shell
line:

make -n t1     will create ./mom (while it should not)

make -n t2     ditto

make -n t3     will work as expected, i.e. no ./mom file created



I can add that a very similar misbehavior has been already recently
reported:

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-make/2009-12/msg00019.html


The make version is:

  # make --version
  GNU Make 3.81
  Copyright (C) 2006  Free Software Foundation, Inc.
  This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
  There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
  PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

  This program built for i686-pc-linux-gnu
  # 

Apologies if I am misunderstanding something.

Thanks for your work and for any information about this issue


ciao
gabriele