Inference Rule May Fail When Spaces on Blank Command Line (50383)

SUMMARY

When using inference rules in an NMAKE description file, the target/dependency line must be followed by a blank line (no space characters); otherwise, the inference rule commands will not be executed. NMAKE checks this line for any ASCII characters; if ANY characters exist, NMAKE will ignore the inference rule and try to execute the line, even if it contains only a space or spaces.

The following is a simple example, which demonstrates this problem:

.c.exe:
  cl $**
 
ALL : main.exe
 
main.exe : main.c
<space>
				

Nothing happens if this description file is passed to NMAKE because the space character causes NMAKE to assume there are explicit commands following the target/dependency line, causing it to ignore the inference rule. Note that this is expected behavior for NMAKE.