archive files problem

[Paola Sivera]

Hi! 
I need some clarification about a problem I found with 
archive files. 
We have been used for many years make 3.70 on HP-UX. Now 
we are moving to make 3.79 (with gcc 3.0.4). 

Many Makefiles for C code had the following target: 

updateLib: ../object/alrmParseMsg.o ../object/alrmAttach.o 
        ar -ru $(LIB)/libCCS.a $^

that doesn't work any longer with the new stuff because 
when I run 

make updateLib 

it calls the preprocessor and first of all makes a 

../object/alrmParseMsg.cpp file (???) 

then tries to compile alrmParseMsg.c and fails. 

Why this *.cpp files? 

I solved the problem (without understanding) changing the target 
like this: 

updateLib:  
        ar -ru $(LIB)/libCCS.a ../object/alrmParseMsg.o
../object/alrmAttach.o

Any help will be very much appreciated! 
Thanks!
-- 
Paola Sivera