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Q50383: Inference Rule May Fail If Blank Command Line Contains Spaces |
/pubs/pc/reference/microsoft/kb/Q50383/ |
Article: Q50383
Version(s): 1.00 1.01 1.10 1.11 1.12 | 1.11 1.12
Operating System: MS-DOS | OS/2
Flags: ENDUSER |
Last Modified: 24-JAN-1991
When using inference rules in an NMAKE description file, the target/
dependency line must be followed by a blank line (no space
characters); otherwise, the inference rule commands will not be
executed. NMAKE checks this line for any ASCII characters; if ANY
characters exist, NMAKE will ignore the inference rule and try to
execute the line, even if it contains only a space or spaces.
The following is a simple example, which demonstrates this problem:
.c.exe:
cl $**
ALL : main.exe
main.exe : main.c
<space>
Nothing happens if this description file is passed to NMAKE because
the space character will cause NMAKE to assume there are explicit
commands following the target/dependency line, causing it to ignore
the inference rule. Note that this is expected behavior for NMAKE.
MAKE version 4.x inference rules/description blocks do not exhibit
this behavior. This is something to keep in mind when converting
description files from MAKE to NMAKE.