Re: 'Generic' pattern rules

[marc]

Sure. Here is a subset of the actual Makefile:

----BEGIN----

OPENSSL = openssl
KEYSIZE = 2048
SUBJECT = /CN=foobar

.EXPORT_ALL_VARIABLES:

%.key:
        $(OPENSSL) genrsa -out $@ $(KEYSIZE)

%.req: %.key
        $(OPENSSL) req -out $@ -key $< -subj $(SUBJECT) -new -batch

carbon.req: carbon.key

hydrogen.req: SUBJECT = /CN=hydrogen.example.com
hydrogen.req: myrsa2048.key

----END----

When 'make carbon.req' is executed, 'carbon.key' is first created if 
not already present (first pattern rule), and then 'carbon.req'

However, when 'make hydrogen.req' is executed, 'myrsa2048.key' is not 
taken into account since the pattern rule is meant to match 
'hydrogen.req: hydrogen.key'.

The only solution I found so far is to use canned recipes instead of 
pattern rules. But that's not that elegant...

> There is probably a complicated way to most (but not all) of what
> you're trying to do. Can you give a more detailed example that's
> closer to your actual use case?