Is VPATH Iterative?

[Jim Tison]

Folks:

We're back on 3.76.1 because we're running GNU make on a non-mainstream 
platform for which the port was done some years ago -- nobody's done the 
update port to 3.79.1 yet (although I'm giving it serious consideration).

A colleague of mine asks an interesting question about VPATH. He claims 
that, within the execution of a single makefile, he has just made an 
object within a directory path named as one of the VPATH operands (not 
cwd). The very next rule within that same makefile states a dependency 
on that object, and make cannot find it through VPATH.

Is this a bug? The documentation, as far as I can read, gives me no hint 
whether or not the directory search is performed *in the filesystem* for 
each new rule (dependency list) or not. From the behavior he claims, I'd 
have to guess that make builds a list of the VPATH directory contents 
once, and doesn't refresh it.

Help? If this is a bug, I've got a case that can be reproduced. If it's 
not, I'll be happy to correct my colleague. I've checked the ChangeLog 
in 3.79.1 and no corrective items jump out at me.


Thanks in advance,
Jim Tison