Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!agate!ucbvax!hplabs!hpda!hpcuhb!hpindda!collin
From: collin@hpindda.HP.COM (Collin Park)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Bug in make man page.
Message-ID: <4470012@hpindda.HP.COM>
Date: 25 Oct 89 23:28:30 GMT
References: <17523@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Organization: HP Information Networks, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 20

sorry for posting without being a wizard, but i couldn't resist...

> which is ofcourse backwards, it should read:
           ^^^^^^^^
	To this naive user of 'make', this "of course" wasn't obvious.

> 
> 	... unless the target is a directory or is a dependency of the
> 	special name ".PRECIOUS".
> 
> I wonder how long this has been in the man page.  My guess is forever, and
> that it slips by since people read it, get it wrong, but ofcourse it's right
					 ^^^^^^^^^^^^
> so they never notice they read the manpage wrong.

	Unfortunately I read the manpage right, tried it, it didn't work, 
	so gave up.  I think 'make' told me that it didn't know how to make 
	".PRECIOUS" or something like that.

	Guess some of us are too literal-minded....