> The .PHONY forces make to update the file, even though it has no
> dependencies and would otherwise be considered up-to-date.
Then you should force the target instead; this is an abuse of .PHONY.
previous_var: FORCE
echo $(VAR) > previous_var
FORCE: # no prerequisites
# no rule
will do what you want, where .PHONY does other things (which might by
why you aren't seeing the results you expect). A non-existent target,
with no prerequisites and no command to create it, always forces
things that depend on it to be remade.
Eddy.
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