Generating Makefiles

[David A. Greene]

I have a build system where some .mk files get generated to specify
additional dependencies.  One of these .mk files can't be generated
until some tools have been built.  Those tools generate other files which
are queried to generate the .mk file.  The .mk files are included at the
end of the Makefile in the usual way.

Here's the twist.  there are rules like this (illustrative):

debug:
        $(MAKE) BUILDDIR=$(BUILDDIR)/debug

The .mk files are stored in $(BUILDDIR)/make.

Perhaps you can see where I'm going.  If I invoke the debug rule I don't
want to have to generate the .mk files and the programs that are involved
in generating them twice (once in the "original" BUILDDIR and once in
$(BUILDDIR)/debug).

Is there a way to have make ignore some include directives if certain
rules are invoked?  Or is there some other way to do what I want.

I inherited this build system and there are various constraints that
make serious reengineering impossible.

                                               -Dave