Hello, It seems that Make 3.79.1 (version info appended) has trouble with filenames (in a Makefile) that contain "special" characters (the colon, in particular, and perhaps other characters as well).
% cat Makefile # Makefile SRC = 2001\;6(2)\:126--135.pdf all: $(SRC) test -f "$<" && echo yes # end of Makefile % touch '2001;6(2):126--135.pdf' % make all make: *** No rule to make target `2001;6(2)\:126--135.pdf', needed by `all'. Stop. The semicolon is properly escaped, but the `\' used to escape the colon survives as part of the file name. The file (with the backslash in the name) does not exist, and `make' complains. So now do this: % touch '2001;6(2)\:126--135.pdf' and `make' will find it: % make test -f "2001;6(2)\:126--135.pdf" && echo yes yes If the colon is not escaped in the Makefile, `make' will interpret $(SRC) as a munged archive member reference: % make Makefile:5: *** target pattern contains no `%'. Stop. --- % make --version GNU Make version 3.79.1, by Richard Stallman and Roland McGrath. Built for sparc-sun-solaris2.8 Copyright (C) 1988, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Report bugs to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. _______________________________________________ Bug-make mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-make