Re: When recipe starts with spaces and contains colon

On Sat, 2026-01-31 at 11:18 +0800, lijh.8 via Users list for the GNU
implementation of make wrote:
> Recipe in both Makefiles starts with spaces.
> Is not the argument to echo command a quoted text string?
> Why example 1 does not report `missing separator` too?
>=20
> $ cat Makefile
> test:
>     @echo "recipe starts with space and has : colon, isn't
> this a quoted text string "

It's because by adding a colon, you've added a separator.  So there's
now not a missing separator.

Make doesn't "do" quoting, at all.  To make, single- and double-quote
characters are treated like an "a" or "b" or any other simple
character.

So, the line:

   @echo "colon : here"

is interpreted by make as a rule with two targets '@echo' and '"colon',
each with a prerequisite 'here"'.

If the colon is missing then there's no seprator and so make interpret
this line.