multiple targets from one recipe and parallel execution

Question

I have a project which includes a code generator which generates several .c and .h files from one input file with just one invocation of the code generator. I have a rule w

Answer 1

This is how make is defined to work. A rule like this:

foo bar baz : boz ; $(BUILDIT)

is exactly equivalent, to make, to writing these three rules:

foo : boz ; $(BUILDIT)
bar : boz ; $(BUILDIT)
baz : boz ; $(BUILDIT)

There is no way (in GNU make) to define an explicit rule with the characteristics you want; that is that one invocation of the recipe will build all three targets.

However, if your output files and your input file share a common base, you CAN write a pattern rule like this:

%.foo %.bar %.baz : %.boz ; $(BUILDIT)

Strangely, for implicit rules with multiple targets GNU make assumes that a single invocation of the recipe WILL build all the targets, and it will behave exactly as you want.