Re: makefile line number when errors

[Edward Welbourne]

> Not really sure why, but the - on the beggining of the "-unknown-exe"
> seems to cause the error to be (ignored).

The command part of a make rule can optionally begin with various
characters that modify how make runs the command or responds to the
results of running it; a command-line starting with "-" is run and
treated as having succeeded even if the command "fails" in the usual
terms of the system (i.e. it exits with a non-zero status, on POSIX
systems).  See the make manual, section 5.5 "Errors in Commands".

So what's happening is that your command named "-unknown-exe" is being
parsed as a prefix character "-" followed by a command named
"unknown-exe" (which apparently isn't found).  Command-names beginning
with - (or @ and probably a few other candidates) are problematic in
make files as a result of these command-prefix characters !  I don't
see an obvious way to work around this, unless your shell has some
equivalent of the POSIX shell's exec.

        Eddy.