[bug #29074] -include target fails to issue Error in 3.81

[Tom Honermann]

Follow-up Comment #3, bug #29074 (project make):

Quoting from the make 3.81 manual:

<quote>
   If you want `make' to simply ignore a makefile which does not exist and
cannot be remade, with no error message, use the `-include' directive instead
of `include', like this:

     -include FILENAMES...

   This acts like `include' in every way except that there is no error (not
even a warning) if any of the FILENAMES do not exist.  For compatibility with
some other `make' implementations, `sinclude' is another name for `-include'.
</quote>

The "and cannot be remade" statement could be interpreted in several ways:
1: No rule exists for building the include target.
2: No rule exists for building the include target, or the target rule
failed.

I do think it would be useful to have a syntax that supports ignoring include
files that do not exist and which have no target rules for building them but
which does issue an error if an attempt to rebuild them fails.  I would argue
that this is typically the desired behavior (and apparently the historical
behavior prior to version 3.81).

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