when multiple pattern rules match a target

Question

The GNU make manual says

It is possible that more than one pattern rule will meet these criteria. In that case, make will choose the rule with the sho

Answer 1

You are probably using a make version lower than 3.82.

In version 3.81 and lower, the selection criterion was different; make would choose the first rule that matched the pattern. The documentation you are referring to is for version 3.82. That version does choose the rule with the most specific stem, which is according to your expectations.

From the file NEWS in the make source tree:

Version 3.82
...
* WARNING: Backward-incompatibility!
  The pattern-specific variables and pattern rules are now applied in the
  shortest stem first order instead of the definition order (variables
  and rules with the same stem length are still applied in the definition
  order). This produces the usually-desired behavior where more specific
  patterns are preferred. To detect this feature search for 'shortest-stem'
  in the .FEATURES special variable.