Re: Make does not throw an error for target without a recipe?

[Paul Smith]

On Thu, 2014-06-26 at 16:19 -0400, Patrick Donnelly wrote:

> Updating makefiles....
>  Considering target file 'test.mk'.
>   Looking for an implicit rule for 'test.mk'.
> [...]
> 
> Why is it trying to build target test.mk...???

See
http://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/Remaking-Makefiles.html

>  File 'foo' does not exist.
>  Looking for an implicit rule for 'foo'.
> [...]
>  No implicit rule found for 'foo'.
>   Considering target file '/etc/passwd'.
>    Looking for an implicit rule for '/etc/passwd'.
> [...]
>    No implicit rule found for '/etc/passwd'.
>    Finished prerequisites of target file '/etc/passwd'.
>   No need to remake target '/etc/passwd'.
>  Finished prerequisites of target file 'foo'.
> Must remake target 'foo'.
> Successfully remade target file 'foo'.
> make: Nothing to be done for 'foo'.
> 
> So the interesting thing here is that Make decides it needs to remake
> `foo' but it doesn't do anything (based on strace output). Then it
> decides it was successful?

See:
http://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/Force-Targets.html

> That doesn't make any sense... How do I get Make to fail if it can't
> make the target?

You have to give make a recipe to run.  Then if the recipe fails (exits
with a non-zero error code), make will fail.