Re: is this a make bug?

[Alan Barrett <apb%cequrux.com@localhost>]

On Sun, 14 Sep 2014, David Holland wrote:
> that is, the ::= modifier consumes the entire rest of the 
> modifier string and doesn't stop on colons or treat those as 
> further modifiers.

I think it's intentional.  The :old_string=new_string modifier is 
documented as "It must be the last modifier specified", and it 
dates from a time when it was the only modifier.  POSIX make still 
has :old_string=new_string as the only modifier, and I think we 
should continue to process it in a POSIX-compatible way.  Users 
who want different behaviour can use :C/// and :S///.

--apb (Alan Barrett)