RE: how to allow multiple empty commands?

[Mark Galeck (CW)]

>objects depend on it.  On the second and succeeding objects it just
says  "Pruning file `foo.h'."
Right, it your case indeed it says "pruning", but in my case, which is just 
multiple empty commands, make either complains (with :;) , or goes right to 
work (with ::;), which is neither of them I would want.  

>
stop using recursive make and switch to a single make process (but
still multiple files of course) that does everything.


No, I am not talking about recursive make here.  I am talking about a 
situation, where there are lots of header and source files, which object files 
depend on , and I don't want make to look for ways to "make" those header and 
source files, I just want it to find them and bedone.  


>Hmm, can you point us at where the manual says that?  I didn't see a
statement like that in a quick scan, but I've been known to see right
through entire paragraphs...


Yes, in section 3.7 it says

"If you know that one or more of your makefiles cannot be remade and you want 
to keep make from performing an implicit rule search on them, perhaps for 
efficiency reasons, you can use any normal method of preventing implicit rule 
lookup to do so. For example, you can write an explicit rule with the makefile 
as the target, and an empty command string (see Using Empty Commands)."

So, "any normal method"  ???  what is another method other than the one they 
are quoting?  

Mark