Re: limitations of 'include' directive?

[Paul D. Smith]

%% gk <address@hidden> writes:

  g> I am trying to include a makefile which contains the names of other
  g> makefiles to include.  If the first makefile is out of date, it is
  g> rebuilt using a pattern rule but after that point no more files can
  g> be included.

  g> It appears that make only gives you one shot when using
  g> auto-generated included makefiles: all included makefiles must be
  g> named in the top level makefile.

Make definitely will try to rebuild _all_ included makefiles, no matter
how deep they are.  Here's an example:

  $ cat Makefile
  %.mk : %.mk.in ; cp $< $@
  include one.mk
  all:;@echo $(FOO)

  $ cat one.mk.in
  FOO = one
  include two.mk

  $ cat two.mk.in
  FOO = two

  $ make
  Makefile:2: one.mk: No such file or directory
  cp one.mk.in one.mk
  one.mk:2: two.mk: No such file or directory
  cp two.mk.in two.mk
  two

  $ make
  two


Your rules are very complex so I didn't spend a lot of time on them, but
it sounds to me like your pattern rule is not matching the included
makefiles.

You can use "make -d" to watch what make is trying to rebuild and how
it's trying to match the rules.

If you can't figure it out please provide a small, simple example (like
I used above) that doesn't need lots of extra files and directories and
demonstrates the problem.

-- 
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 Paul D. Smith <address@hidden>          Find some GNU make tips at:
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