Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!WHEATIES.AI.MIT.EDU!beareq!quants4!schorr
From: beareq!quants4!schorr@WHEATIES.AI.MIT.EDU (Andrew Schorr)
Newsgroups: gnu.utils.bug
Subject: (none)
Message-ID: <8903141351.AA29166@quants4>
Date: 14 Mar 89 13:51:06 GMT
Sender: daemon@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Distribution: gnu
Organization: GNUs Not Usenet
Lines: 52

Roland,

   I am experiencing the following problem with version 3.39 of GNU Make
(I have the same problem with version 3.25):

Directory test contains Makefile, main.c, and the sub-directory sun3.
Contents of Makefile:

   Depend: main.c
	   touch $@
   # in real life, touch would be replaced by a command to automatically
   # update the dependency file

   include Depend

   prog: main.o
	   $(CC) -o $@ $^


I have the following alias defined:
   alias Make     "make -C $ARCH -f ../Makefile 'VPATH=..' \!*"
where the environment variable ARCH is set to sun3.
With nothing in the sub-directory sun3, I enter:
   Make prog
The output from make is:
   make: fopen: Depend: No such file or directory
   touch Depend
   make[1]: *** No way to make target `prog'.  Stop.
I don't understand why I get an error here.

Now, without changing anything, I type Make prog again; I get:
   cc    -c ../main.c -o main.o
   cc -o prog main.o
Now, everything is as it should be.

If I now touch main.c and enter Make prog again, I get:
   touch Depend
   make: `prog' is up to date.

Typing Make prog once again, I get:
   cc    -c ../main.c -o main.o
   cc -o prog main.o
 
It appears that make correctly re-makes the included file Depend.
However, when it re-execs itself, it seems unable to find the rules
for making the target specified on the command line.
I should note that everything works perfectly when the sub-directory
is not utilized (i.e. performing the same commands with the alias
Make replaced by the command make gives the expected/correct behavior).

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