Re: Ignored implicit rule

[Paul D. Smith]

%% Michael Harris <address@hidden> writes:

  mh> I inherited a Solaris Makefile and am converting it to run on Linux 
  mh> gmake.  I have a Makefile that includes the rule:
  mh> %.o : %.pl
  mh>          $(CP) $< $*.o
  mh>          @echo
  mh> (I changed it from a suffix to an implicit rule)

  mh> This rule simply renames a perl script.  When I type make -r I get:
  mh> #--------------------------------------------------
  mh> # Building nvo_extract_flux
  mh> #--------------------------------------------------
  mh> # makeall = announce   nvo_extract_flux
  mh> # SCRIPTS = nvo_extract_flux.pl
  mh> # script_exec = nvo_extract_flux
  mh> make: *** No rule to make target `.o', needed by `nvo_extract_flux'.  
Stop.

This has nothing to do with your implicit rule.

The problem is somewhere else, in a part of the makefile you have not
shown us: probably a variable setting.

As the error tells you, make thinks that the target 'nvo_extract_flux'
depends on the file '.o'.  That is, the actual value '.o', not a suffix
'.o' or something.

Since you don't have a file '.o' in your directory, and make can't
figure out how to build one (presumably because you don't have a file
'.pl' in your directory), it gives the above error.

I suspect that you have a line like this:

  nvo_extract_flux : $(SOURCE).o

or something like that and the SOURCE variable (for example) is empty.
Since you don't provide the proper part of your makefile there's little
else we can say.

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Paul D. Smith <address@hidden>          Find some GNU make tips at:
 http://www.gnu.org                      http://make.paulandlesley.org
 "Please remain calm...I may be mad, but I am a professional." --Mad Scientist