Article ID: 50383
Article Last Modified on 10/23/2003
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
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
