Inferred Dependents and Rules

  • Article

Nmake.exe assumes an inferred dependent for a target if an applicable inference rule exists. A rule applies if the following conditions are true:

  • ToExt matches the target's extension.
  • FromExt matches the extension of a file that has the target's base name and that exists in the current or specified directory.
  • FromExt is in .SUFFIXES; no other FromExt in a matching rule has a higher .SUFFIXES priority.
  • No explicit dependent has a higher .SUFFIXES priority.

Inferred dependents can cause unexpected side effects. If the target's description block contains commands, Nmake.exe executes those commands instead of the commands in the rule.

See Also

Targets | Dependents | Inference Rules

 Last updated on Friday, October 08, 2004

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