[bug #28983] forcing a target matching a pattern rule shadows the rule's actions

[Paul D. Smith]

Update of bug #28983 (project make):

                  Status:                    None => Not A Bug              
             Open/Closed:                    Open => Closed                 

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Follow-up Comment #8:

A few things.  First, I cannot reproduce at all the behavior you show in your
original bug description, where sometimes using a pattern rule make will
rebuild file.o.  If you use a pattern rule, make should NEVER rebuild file.o
(if it's declared .PHONY) and that's exactly the behavior I see.  If you can
reproduce that behavior, that would indeed be a bug.  Please provide more
details in that case.

Second, the behavior difference you see is a direct consequence of one of the
primary purposes of the .PHONY feature, and is described clearly in the
manual:

   Since it knows that phony targets do not name actual files that
could be remade from other files, `make' skips the implicit rule search
for phony targets (*note Implicit Rules::).  This is why declaring a
target phony is good for performance, even if you are not worried about
the actual file existing.


So, in your examples with pattern rules, no pattern rule search is done and
thus _there is no recipe to build file.o_ so make doesn't build it.  This is
identical to the behavior you'd see if there were no pattern rule at all.  If
you define a target explicitly for file.o, then make will see that and try to
build it (every time, because it's marked PHONY).

Because this is behaving exactly as described in the manual I'm marking this
as "Not a Bug".  However, if you have an alternative behavior that you think
would make more sense please feel free to comment here; if you convince me
I'll be happy to reopen this and make it an enhancement request instead.

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