From: utzoo!decvax!genrad!wjh12!foxvax1!brunix!rayssd!dhb
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Title: Re: Question on Make
Article-I.D.: rayssd.1078
Posted: Tue Apr 19 10:21:26 1983
Received: Fri Apr 22 07:22:44 1983
References: bmcg.313

I was about to flame you on reading manuals when I decided to double
check the manuals and realized that you are right, .DEFAULT is not
documented.

Basically, it is used to define a *DEFAULT* transformation if make
cannot figure out how to make the specified target from the indicated
dependencies.  For example, consider the following:

	.DEFAULT:
		cp $*.joe $*.sam

	file1.sam: file1.joe

This could also have been accomplished by defining .joe and .sam as
valid suffixes and then defining the transformation from .joe to
.sam.  Transformations are not sufficient however, if you also use
filename prefixes, which the current make (4.1bsd or earlier) will
not recognize.   My understanding is that this ability is being
added to a new release of make (system V maybe?).

	Dave Brierley, ...!decvax!brunix!rayssd!dhb