🚀 go-pugleaf

Julie Zelenski writes
> In article <BuF2u0.EIC@monitor.com> howard@monitor.com (Howard Brenner)  
> writes:
> I can't watch innocent source files get eaten without wanting to help  
out.   
> Here's the text from NextAnswers.736.   Be sure to put the PRECIOUS  
target  
> in the *postamble* (SRCFILES isn't defined til after Makefile gets  
> processed)
> 
> Julie Zelenski
> Developer Support
> 
> make removes files
> 
> Q:  Every now and then, if I use control-c to interrupt a make(1), it  
> decides to remove one of  my files.  I admit that my code isn't always  
the  
> cleanest, but is my computer trying to tell me something?  Is there a  
cure  
> for this? 
> 
> A:  There is a bug in make where it sometimes removes a source file  
> instead of the target when interrupted.  Here is a script of one of  
those  
> nasty interchanges between you and make:
> 
> hostname> make debug
> ^C*** `File.m' removed
> *** Exit 2
> Stop.
> 
> hostname> make debug
> Make:  Don't know how to make File.m.  Stop.
> *** Exit 1
> Stop.
> 
> As a workaround, you can add the .PRECIOUS pseudo-target in your  
> Makefile.postamble to protect yourself from this unwanted deletion.   
(See  
> below for more about .PRECIOUS)  It should depend on SRCFILES (which  
> covers CFILES, MFILES, HFILES, nibs, tiffs, etc).
> #
> #  Make sure we don't remove anything by accident if 
> #  interrupted at the wrong time.
> #
> PRECIOUS : $(SRCFILES)
> 
> 
> 
> About .PRECIOUS
> 
> make normally stops if any command it generates returns a non-zero exit  
> code.  Before quitting, however, it removes the current target it is  
> making.  The assumption here is that target is probably in a partly  
> finished state.  If it were left in place, it would show as up-to-date  
in  
> subsequent invocations of make, due to its now-revised date of last  
> modification.  
> 
> There may be occasions when you do not want the target removed upon  
> occurrence of errors.  The .PRECIOUS: pseudo-target allows you to  
specify  
> any file you do not want destroyed.  For example., the description fie  
> entry
> 	.PRECIOUS : target1 target2 target3
> prevents any of the three named targets from being removed by make.   
This  
> entry can occur anywhere in the description file.
> 
> QA736
> 
> Valid for 1.0
> Valid for 2.0
> 

Thanks for all the help and responses I have received.  The command is now  
in my Makefile.postamble!