make - pattern rule target wrongly treated as intermediate

Question

I have a makefile that does something like this:

.INTERMEDIATE: gen0.tmp gen1.tmp
.PHONY: %_test
%_test: tests/%.so
    ln -fs $< test.so
tests/%.so: gen.o test_src/%.c
    cc -shared $^ -o $@
gen.c: gen0.tmp gen1.tmp
    cat $^ > $@
gen%.tmp:
    seds and awks and non-relevant stuff

As far as i have understood make's documentation, all files created from implicit rules are treated as intermediate, but that is not true for pattern rules, yet whatever .so i create with %_test rule is being deleted with other intermediate files, unless it existed before calling make. What is wrong here?

Also

.SECONDARY: tests/%.so

Doesn't work and

.SECONDARY:

does, but then targets explicitly marked as .INTERMEDIATE aren't beeing deleted, and i don't think marking my main target as .SECONDARY is good practice.

PS: i use make version 3.81

Have you tried using [`.PRECIOUS`](https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/Special-Targets.html)? It should work even [with patterns](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27090032/why-secondary-does-not-work-with-patterns-while-precious-does). — Eugeniu Rosca, Jul 09 '15 at 07:29
it still would be just a workaround. other good workaround is to remove `%_test` rule and do the `ln` in `test/%.so. I'm not looking for a way to preserve intermediate file, i'm looking for a way to make file non-intermediate, as it should be — Ryba, Jul 09 '15 at 07:48

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 09 '15 at 21:06

2

I don't understand your statement all files created from implicit rules are treated as intermediate, but that is not true for pattern rules.

A pattern rule IS a (type of) implicit rule. It absolutely is the case that targets which are created as a result of a pattern rule may be considered intermediate.

answered Jul 09 '15 at 21:06

MadScientist

92,819
9
109
136

then i may have understood doc wrong. I tought that by implicit it means whatever is not in makefile, but works. – Ryba Jul 10 '15 at 07:01
Nope. Explicit rules are ones where the target is an actual file; this includes static pattern rules. Implicit rules are ones where make computes the target from the rule: it includes both suffix rules and pattern rules. The list of rules make knows about internally that aren't in the makefile are referred to as built-in rules. – MadScientist Jul 10 '15 at 16:13

make - pattern rule target wrongly treated as intermediate

1 Answers1