Important Notice

The pages on this site contain documentation for very old MS-DOS software, purely for historical purposes. If you're looking for up-to-date documentation, particularly for programming, you should not rely on the information found here, as it will be woefully out of date.

                                             ◄Up► ◄Contents► ◄Index► ◄Back►
─────NMAKE──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
     The dependents in a dependency are specified after the colon:
 
          targets : [dependents]
 
     The dependents section lists zero or more dependent names. Usually
     a dependent is a file used to build the target. However, a
     dependent can be any valid filename, or it can be a pseudotarget.
     You can specify a path with the filename. Dependents are not case
     sensitive. Separate each name with one or more spaces or tabs.
     See: ◄Pseudotargets►
          ◄Search Paths for Dependents►
 
     Along with dependents explicitly listed in the dependency, NMAKE
     can assume an inferred dependent derived from an inference rule.
     NMAKE builds inferred dependents into the dependency tree. An
     inferred dependent is considered to appear earlier in a dependents
     list than explicit dependents. When an inferred dependent in a
     dependency is out-of-date with respect to a target, NMAKE invokes
     the commands block associated with the dependency, just as it does
     with an explicit dependent.
     See: ◄Inference Rules►
          ◄Inferred Dependents►
 
     NMAKE uses the dependency tree to make sure that dependents are
     updated before their targets. If a dependent file doesn't exist,
     NMAKE looks for a way to build it; if it already exists, NMAKE
     looks for a way to make sure it is up-to-date. If the dependent is
     listed as a target in another dependency, or if it is inferred,
     NMAKE checks that the dependent is up-to-date with respect to its
     own dependents; if the dependent file is out-of-date or doesn't
     exist, NMAKE executes the commands block for that dependency.
                                    -♦-