Use single-target Makefile patterns for manual pages
#6032
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Beginning with version 4.4 of the GNU make(1) command, the warning message "pattern recipe did not update peer target" is output if a recipe does not build all of its assigned targets. The next release of GNU make(1) will treat this condition as an error; for reference, see: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info-gnu/2022-10/msg00008.html Our Makefile contains several pattern rules which generate ROFF and HTML manual pages from our AsciiDoc source files, and these specify multiple targets because the AsciiDoc source files lack a manual section number (e.g., 1 or 5), while the target files must contain those numbers (e.g., "man/man1/git-lfs.1"). With the latest versions of GNU make(1), these rules cause the command to output its warning message, because they do not generate all the specified targets. For instance, only the "man/man1/git-lfs.1" file will be generated from the "git-lfs.adoc" source file; no "man/man5/git-lfs.5" or "man/man7/git-lfs.7" files will be created. To avoid problems in the future, we rewrite the rules which generate our finished man pages so they only specify the targets that will be created by the given recipe. We also adjust our use of the $^ automatic variable to $< because we only define a single prerequisite (i.e., source file) for each recipe, and so can reference it explicitly with $<, per the documentation: https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/Automatic-Variables.html
larsxschneider
approved these changes
Apr 16, 2025
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Beginning with version 4.4 of the GNU
make(1)command, the warning messagepattern recipe did not update peer targetis output if a recipe does not build all of its assigned targets. The next release of GNUmake(1)will treat this condition as an error, per the v4.4 release notes.Our Makefile contains several pattern rules which generate roff and HTML manual pages from our AsciiDoc source files, and these specify multiple targets because the AsciiDoc source files lack a manual section number (e.g.,
1or5), while the target files must contain those numbers (e.g.,man/man1/git-lfs.1).With the latest versions of GNU
make(1), these rules cause the command to output its warning message, because they do not generate all the specified targets. For instance, only theman/man1/git-lfs.1file will be generated from thegit-lfs.adocsource file; noman/man5/git-lfs.5orman/man7/git-lfs.7files will be created.To avoid problems in the future, we rewrite the rules which generate our finished man pages so they only specify the targets that will be created by the given recipe.
We also adjust our use of the
$^automatic variable to$<because we only define a single prerequisite (i.e., source file) for each recipe, and so can reference it explicitly with$<, per the documentation.