dependency generation: 'make clean' problem

[matthias_k]

Hello,

I'm working on a makefile with automatic dependency generation for a C++ 
program and stumbled over an annoying problem:

Since I am including the generated dependencies files to create the 
object targets, they are processed *always*, even when I call 'make 
clean'. Calling clean when no dependency files exist to be included, 
they will be generated -- and thereafter deleted by the 'rm' command 
again...

That's not really the behaviour I want. Is there any way to tell make to 
NOT include and generate the dependency files when "make clean" is called?

Thanks in advance,
Matthias

PS: In case you want to see the source, here's the Makefile, unaltered 
with all its potential errors *g* (I'm still working on it):

# begin Makefile

TARGET   := gtkmm.elf

SRC_TYPE := cpp
INC_TYPE := h

REL_DIR  := Release
DBG_DIR  := Debug

CXX      := g++
DEBUG    := -g
OPT      := -o2

# Additional directories (system dirs and subdirs of ./ need not be 
specified)
USER_LIB_DIRS :=
USER_INC_DIRS :=

# Libraries to explicitly link
LIBRARIES := $(shell pkg-config gtkmm-2.4 --libs)

SOURCES := \
main.cpp

LDFLAGS  := $(USER_LIB_DIRS) -Wall -pedantic -ansi -std=c++98 $(OPT) 
$(DEBUG)
CXXFLAGS := $(USER_INC_DIRS) -Wall -pedantic -ansi -std=c++98 -c $(DEBUG)

RM         := rm -rf
ROOT_DIR   := .
OUT_DIR    := $(shell if [ -z $(DEBUG) ] ; then echo 
"$(ROOT_DIR)/$(REL_DIR)" ; else echo "$(ROOT_DIR)/$(DBG_DIR)" ; fi)
LOCAL_DIRS := $(shell for FILE in $(ROOT_DIR)/* ; do if [ -d $$FILE ] && 
[ "$$FILE" != $(OUT_DIR) ]; then echo -n "$$FILE " ; fi ; done)
OUT_FILE   := $(ROOT_DIR)/$(TARGET)
OBJECTS    := $(SOURCES:%.$(SRC_TYPE)=$(OUT_DIR)/%.o)

vpath
vpath %.$(SRC_TYPE) $(LOCAL_DIRS)
vpath %.$(INC_TYPE) $(LOCAL_DIRS)
vpath %.d $(OUT_DIR)

# 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Rule Patterns
# 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
$(OUT_DIR)/%.d: %.$(SRC_TYPE)
        @mkdir -p $(OUT_DIR) ; echo ; echo "Processing $(@:.d=.o) ..." ; \
        echo "... creating dependencies for $^" ; \
        set -e; $(RM) $@; \
        $(CXX) -MM -MG -P -w $(CXXFLAGS) $< > $@

$(OUT_DIR)/%.o: %.$(SRC_TYPE) $(OUT_DIR)/%.d
        @mkdir -p $(OUT_DIR) ; set -e ; echo "... building $@" ; \
        $(CXX) $(CXXFLAGS) $< -o $@ ; \
        echo "Success!" && echo

# 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Build Targets
# 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

all: $(OUT_FILE) finish

-include $(SOURCES:%.$(SRC_TYPE)=$(OUT_DIR)/%.d)

$(OUT_FILE): $(OBJECTS)
        @set -e; echo "Processing $@ ..." ; echo "... building $@" ; \
        $(CXX) $(LDFLAGS) -o $(ROOT_DIR)/$@ $(OBJECTS) $(LIBRARIES) ; \
        echo "Success!" ; echo

clean:
        @echo "Clean sweep!" ; \
        $(RM) $(OUT_FILE) $(OBJECTS) $(OUT_DIR)/*.d

finish:
        @echo -n "Compilation finished at " ; date ; echo

.PHONY: clean finish

# eof