Troublesome filenames in a Makefile

[JT Williams]

Hello,

It seems that Make 3.79.1 (version info appended) has trouble with
filenames (in a Makefile) that contain "special" characters (the colon,
in particular, and perhaps other characters as well).


% cat Makefile
# Makefile

SRC = 2001\;6(2)\:126--135.pdf

all:    $(SRC)
        test -f "$<" && echo yes

# end of Makefile

% touch '2001;6(2):126--135.pdf'

% make all
make: *** No rule to make target `2001;6(2)\:126--135.pdf', needed by `all'.  
Stop.

The semicolon is properly escaped, but the `\' used to escape the colon
survives as part of the file name.  The file (with the backslash in the
name) does not exist, and `make' complains.  So now do this:

% touch '2001;6(2)\:126--135.pdf'

and `make' will find it:

% make
test -f "2001;6(2)\:126--135.pdf" && echo yes
yes


If the colon is not escaped in the Makefile, `make' will
interpret $(SRC) as a munged archive member reference:

% make
Makefile:5: *** target pattern contains no `%'.  Stop.

---

% make --version
GNU Make version 3.79.1, by Richard Stallman and Roland McGrath.
Built for sparc-sun-solaris2.8
Copyright (C) 1988, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 2000
        Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Report bugs to <address@hidden>.