Re: makefile error output

[Paul D. Smith]

%% "Mike Maxwell" <address@hidden> writes:

  mm> Noel Yap wrote:

  >> What version of make are you using?  What does "make --version"
  >> output?

  mm>   Gnu  3.79.1

  >> Make should've said it couldn't build foo.ReadMe before it said
  >> anything about foo.bar.  Are you sure that it didn't?

  mm> Yes, that was exactly what I was wishing it would have said, and
  mm> it didn't.

It will say this if you defined an explicit rule, since then make knows
that _THIS_ rule should work, and if a prerequisite can't be created it
can tell you about it.

If you defined an implicit rule then make can't know that _this_
implicit rule should have matched, out of all the different implicit
rules that might have matched, so printing an error about not being able
to create a particular prerequisite is not appropriate.

The debug output _WOULD_ tell you that make considered this rule, and it
would even tell you that it tried to find a way to build the
prerequisite and couldn't.

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