Re: Unexpected Actions Show By Running "make -d -f makefile"

On Tue, Aug 4, 2026 at 6:54 PM Jon Forrest <[email protected]> wrote:

> My question is why is make treating an argument that is clearly
> specified as a makefile name as a target?


This is the behavior. Make updates its makefiles whether specified
with -f or one of the default names.
If you want to prevent make from updating a makefile you can add a
double colon rule to the makefile
e.g. in the case of makefile called "hello.mk"
hello.mk::;
This is described in detail in the manual.

regards, Dmitry