dry run differs from actual run

[Sam Fok]

Hi,

I often use the dry-run option to debug makefiles. However, I've attached a makefile where make does not execute all of the commands "make -n" said it would. Below is a sequence of commands to be run with the attached makefile. The inline comments describe my expectations . I've pasted a sample output run of these commands here. 

I am using 

GNU Make 3.81

built for

x86_64-pc-linux-gnu

Thanks,

Sam

####################################################

# start by building everything

make

# check that build is clean

make

# yes build is clean

# what files were created?

ls

# let's update foo.in

touch foo.in

# what does make say it will do?

make -n

# okay, let's run make

make

# why didn't make do what "make -n" said it would do? try again?

make

# nope. what does make say it will do?

make -n

####################################################

####################################################

# let's clean up the list files

make clean_lists

# what does make say it will do? (now with debugging output)

make -r -d -n

# see the line that says "Must remake target `list'."

# okay, let's run make with debugging output

make -r -d

# see that there is no line mentioning remaking target `list'

# again make differs between dry and actual runs

####################################################

####################################################

# let's clean up the list files

make clean_lists

# let's store the commands make says it would run during the dry run

make -n > scratch.sh

# let's run those commands

sh scratch.sh

# now what does make say?

make

# see that build would be clean if make did what it said it would do during dry-run

####################################################

Makefile
Description: Binary data