mixed implicit rules problem

[Yaroslav Halchenko]

Dear Makers,

I thought that it is a bug in the recent make since I've first
encountered this situation while fixing RC bug in Debian distro (make of
version 3.80+3.81.rc2-1) but it is also present on slightly older system
running 3.80-9.

To make it short -- here is an example
( taken from my bug report
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=351646 )

> cat  Makefile
SO=1
T=2
VER=$(SO).$(T)

lib%.so:lib%.so.$(SO)
        ln -snf $$(basename $<) $@

lib%.so.$(SO):lib%.so.$(VER)
        ln -snf $$(basename $<) $@

a/b/c/lib%.so.1.2: a/b/c/libz%.so
        cat $< >| $@
        
> rm a/b/c/* -f
> /var/tmp/test# echo 1 > a/b/c/libzz.so.1.2
> /var/tmp/test# make a/b/c/libz.so
make: *** No rule to make target `a/b/c/libz.so'.  Stop.
> /var/tmp/test# make a/b/c/libz.so.1.2
ln -snf $(basename a/b/c/libzz.so.1.2) a/b/c/libzz.so.1
ln -snf $(basename a/b/c/libzz.so.1) a/b/c/libzz.so
cat a/b/c/libzz.so >| a/b/c/libz.so.1.2
rm a/b/c/libzz.so a/b/c/libzz.so.1
> /var/tmp/test# make a/b/c/libz.so
ln -snf $(basename a/b/c/libz.so.1.2) a/b/c/libz.so.1
ln -snf $(basename a/b/c/libz.so.1) a/b/c/libz.so
rm a/b/c/libz.so.1

As you can see, make could not figure out full graph of implicit rules
on how to derive libz.so from libzz.so.1.2.

Please advise -- is it me not fully understanding something or there is
something to fix? 

Please CC in replies - I am not on any list

-- 
Yaroslav Halchenko
Research Assistant, Psychology Department, Rutgers-Newark
Office: (973) 353-5440x263 | FWD: 82823 | Fax: (973) 353-1171
        101 Warren Str, Smith Hall, Rm 4-105, Newark NJ 07105
Student  Ph.D. @ CS Dept. NJIT

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