> Consider this makefile: > > .PHONY: a b > a:; @echo a > b:; @echo b > b: | a
Your problem with this Makefile is that it never creates any files a or b. This means that your order only prerequisite on a allways has to be made. > % make b a > a > b > make: Nothing to be done for 'a'. > > Correct order, but the last message seems strange. First as a (order-only) prerequisite for b, a is made. Then b is made. Then make was asked to make a but it does remember that a already has been made and prints out that nothing to be done. If your Makefile would have created the file a the order-only prerequisite would have made sense. It would then mean that b would depend upon the existance of a but it would not care about the timestamp of a. So if a exist and is newer than b there is no need to remake b of a is a order-only prerequisite. > If so, is there another way to achieve what I want? This totally depends upon what you want. regards Henrik
