automatic linking links too many files

[Federico Poloni]

Hello everyone,
According to GNU Make documentation,

> Linking a single object file
> n is made automatically from n.o by running the linker (usually
> called ld) via the C compiler. The precise command used is `$(CC)
> $(LDFLAGS) n.o $(LOADLIBES) $(LDLIBS)'.
>
> This rule does the right thing for a simple program with only one
> source file. It will also do the right thing if there are multiple
> object files (presumably coming from various other source files), one
> of which has a name matching that of the executable file.
[...]
> Each kind of file automatically made into `.o' object files will be
> automatically linked by using the compiler (`$(CC)', `$(FC)' or
> `$(PC)'; the C compiler `$(CC)' is used to assemble `.s' files)
> without the `-c' option. This could be done by using the `.o' object
> files as intermediates, but it is faster to do the compiling and
> linking in one step, so that's how it's done.

But when I try to make this simple example with three files:

`Makefile' contains:
executable: textfile

`executable.cpp' contains:
int main(){
  return 0;
}

`textfile' contains:
asdasdasdas

the output of `make' is
g++     executable.cpp textfile   -o executable
/usr/bin/ld:textfile: file format not recognized; treating as linker script
/usr/bin/ld:textfile:1: Error: syntax error
collect2: Error: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [executable] Error 1

That is, make tries to pass textfile to the linker even if it is not a 
"kind of file automatically made into `.o' object files".

Is this a bug or am I missing something?

The command `make --version' on my machine returns
GNU Make 3.81
Copyright (C) 2006  Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

This program built for x86_64-pc-linux-gnu


Regards,
--
Federico Poloni