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From: dead!schorr@ai.mit.edu (Andrew J. Schorr)
Newsgroups: gnu.utils.bug
Subject: GNU Make 3.55 problems with force targets
Message-ID: <8910062204.AA04831@dead.dead>
Date: 6 Oct 89 22:04:51 GMT
Sender: daemon@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Distribution: gnu
Organization: GNUs Not Usenet
Lines: 29

Roland,
   I am having a problem with force targets.  I am using version 3.55
of GNU make on an IBM RT PC running version 2.2.1 of AIX.

Example:
Directory z contains the following Makefile, and nothing else:

   clean: FORCE
	   echo "Cleaning..."

   FORCE:

If I type make clean, I get the following response:
   echo "Cleaning..."
   Cleaning...

Now I type "touch clean"; I expect this to have no effect on the behavior.
I again run make clean, and I see the following:
   make: `clean' is up to date.
The RT's bundled version of make does give the desired behavior.

Note that if I use the .PHONY special target, I get the desired behavior.
Also, surprisingly enough, simply omitting the FORCE dependency also gives me
the desired result (I would expect this case to give the behavior that I
actually observed when I used the FORCE dependency).  This also contradicts
the behavior of the RT's bundled make.

Thanks for your help,
Andrew Schorr <dead!schorr@wheaties.ai.mit.edu>