target override only if there is a recipe for it?

[Brian J. Murrell]

I am trying to override a target that has a general definition in an
included Makefile with a more specific one.  But it seems that the
override only happens if the overriding target has a recipe?

I.e:

Makefile.mk:
 1 foo.gz:
 2    echo "foo" | gzip > $@

Makefile:
 1 include Makefile.mk
 2
 3 %.gz: %
 4     rm -f $@
 5     gzip $<
 6 
 7 foo:
 8     echo "better foo" > $@
 9 
10 foo.gz: foo

My expectation is that the foo.gz target on line 10 of Makefile
overrides the one on line 1 of Makefile.mk, but it doesn't unless I
make it:

foo.gz: foo
    rm -f $@
    gzip $<

by redundantly adding the %.gz: % recipe to it.

Is this intended behaviour?

Also, is there a way to suppores of the "warning: overriding recipe for
target" messages that make emits?  I realize they can be useful when
you inadvertently override a target, but it would be nice to indicate
in the Makefile that you understand you are overriding a target and
don't want the warning.

Cheers,
b.

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