makefile - Make error of mixed implicit and normal rules

Question

When building an open source project I met error of:

make  subdir=manual -C manual ..=../ subdir_lib
Makefile:235: *** mixed implicit and normal rules.  Stop.

Code from line 235 of the Makefile as follows:

235: $(objpfx)stubs ../po/manual.pot $(objpfx)stamp%:
236:    $(make-target-directory)
237:    touch $@

Answer 1

That error message is printed by GNU make when you have something that looks like a pattern rule output (containing a %) as well as something that looks like a normal output (no %) on the left-hand side of a : in a rule declaration. For example:

%.pat normal:
        @echo $@

So on line 235 of your Makefile, you have managed to put together something that "looks like" that construct. To avoid the error, fix that declaration, most likely by splitting it into two:

%.pat:
        @echo $@

normal:
        @echo $@

Without seeing the complete makefile that produced this error there's not much more advice we can give you.