GNU bug report logs - #46052
Colons fooling GNUmakefile mode

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From: Kévin Le Gouguec <kevin.legouguec <at> gmail.com>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 46052 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, jidanni <at> jidanni.org
Subject: bug#46052: Colons fooling GNUmakefile mode
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 2021 15:58:58 +0100

Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> writes:

> I'm not sure a target line cannot possibly start with a TAB.

I'll admit to not being an expert in makefile syntax; I do find this
entry in (info "(make) Error Messages") encouraging though:

> 'recipe commences before first target. Stop.'
> 'missing rule before recipe. Stop.'
>      This means the first thing in the makefile seems to be part of a
>      recipe: it begins with a recipe prefix character and doesn't appear
>      to be a legal 'make' directive (such as a variable assignment).
>      Recipes must always be associated with a target.

While that phrasing doesn't rule out subsequent targets from starting
with a TAB, empirically that seems to be the case:

#+begin_src makefile
foo:
	echo foo

	bar:
	echo bar
#+end_src

$ make
echo foo
foo
bar:
make: bar:: No such file or directory
make: *** [makefile:3: foo] Error 127

#+begin_src makefile
foo:
	echo foo

QUUX = CORGE

	bar:
	echo bar
#+end_src

$ make
makefile:6: *** recipe commences before first target.  Stop.

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