Re: [bug #60165] Multiple pattern rules with single rule

[Paul Smith]

On Tue, 2022-07-19 at 21:00 +0200, Jean-Baptiste Poittevin wrote:
> Well, allow me to cite the documentation linked :
> 
> This is a behaviour which seems reasonable to me, sufficiently
> consistent for me to try to implement it. It is somehow sad that the
> same rule is not applicable for pattern rules, although syntax is
> very similar.

Indeed, if back when make was written and pattern rules were added in
the 1980's this had been made consistent, then that would be fantastic.

But we've had 30+ years and untold hundreds of thousands of makefiles
created where ":" in explicit rules means "exploded targets" and ":" in
pattern rules means "grouped targets".  We simply can't change that,
even if it means there's an inconsistency in the grammar.  That's just
the sad reality of being a foundational tool, like "make" :).