Microsoft KB Archive/50383

Knowledge Base

Inference Rule May Fail When Spaces on Blank Command Line

Article ID: 50383

Article Last Modified on 10/23/2003

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APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Program Maintenance Utility 1.2
• Microsoft Program Maintenance Utility 1.2
• Microsoft Program Maintenance Utility 1.2
• Microsoft Program Maintenance Utility 1.2
• Microsoft Program Maintenance Utility 1.2
• Microsoft Program Maintenance Utility 1.2
• Microsoft Program Maintenance Utility 1.3
• Microsoft Program Maintenance Utility 1.4
• Microsoft Program Maintenance Utility 1.4
• Microsoft Program Maintenance Utility 1.4
• Microsoft Program Maintenance Utility 1.4
• Microsoft Program Maintenance Utility 1.4

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This article was previously published under Q50383

SUMMARY

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 causes 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.

MORE INFORMATION

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.

Additional query words: kbinf 1.10 1.20 1.30 1.40

Keywords: kb16bitonly KB50383

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