Re: Idea: Standard way to negate special targets

[Paul Smith]

On Tue, 2019-06-11 at 16:25 -0400, David A. Wheeler wrote:
> Add a syntax to *disable* a special target for
> a particular rule.  I propose that it be
> a whitespace-surrounded "!" in the prerequisites
> followed by the special target being disabled. E.g.:
> 
> ~~~~
> .ONESHELL:
> 
> tricky_target: ! .ONESHELL prerequisite

The thing I don't like about this is it's not clear where the "!"
applies.  Does it apply to just the next prereq?  One assumes, but the
syntax is not clear.  What if you have:

  tricky_target: ! .ONESHELL .PHONY prerequisite

... ?

What about modifying the target name itself, like:

  tricky_target: .!ONESHELL .PHONY ...

I can't decide if that's better or worse.