Re: [PATCH 0/1] old-fashioned suffix rules cannot have any prerequisites

[Bruno Haible]

[CCing bug-gettext, because po/Makefile.in.in comes from GNU gettext.]

Petr Ovtchenkov wrote in
<https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2020-04/msg00000.html>

> Template po/Makefile.in.in use old-fashioned suffix rules
> for generating .gmo. But this rules do not allow any prerequisites.
> 
> See:
> 
> https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/Suffix-Rules.html#Suffix-Rules
> 
> <snip>
>   Suffix rules cannot have any prerequisites of their own. If they have
>   any, they are treated as normal files with funny names, not as suffix
>   rules. Thus, the rule:
>   ...
> </snip>
> 
> This lead to problem when used relatively new GNU Make:
> <snip>
>   make[3]: *** No rule to make target 'en.gmo', needed by ...
> </snip>

Please, to make it easier for me to reproduce, could you tell which version
of GNU make you're using?

> In this patch I am avoid significant changes and gmake-specific
> syntax.

But % pattern rules are GNU make specific syntax, since this syntax is not
specified by POSIX [1]. I fear that I'll have to use a more complicated fix...

Bruno

[1] https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/make.html