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I am using GNU make 3.81. Here is a test makefile that demonstrates the problem: define BOZO a$(1): b c touch a$(1) endef $(foreach i,1 2 3,$(call BOZO,$(i))) The idea here is to use a macro template (BOZO) to generate rules that follow a predictable pattern. Problem: when I run make on this makefile I get an error saying: Makefile.fake:10: *** multiple target patterns. Stop. (where line 10 is the line with the foreach). Now, I know what that error normally indicates. Let's see what that line expands to by using the info function to send the expansion to standard out. I change line 10 to be: $(info $(foreach i,1 2 3,$(call BOZO,$(i)))) and I run: $ make -n a1: b c touch a1 a2: b c touch a2 a3: b c touch a3 make: *** No targets. Stop. Note that the "no targets" message is expected, since the $(info ...) function evaluates to empty but causes make to print the generated rules. Let's run those rules then shall we? $make -n > out.txt make: *** No targets. Stop. $make -f out.txt a1 a2 a3 touch a1 touch a2 touch a3 $ AAARGH! The rules work fine. So... is the bug in make, or in my understanding? One final clue that might help diagnose: if I change the foreach line to: $(foreach i,1,$(call BOZO,$(i))) (so that foreach has only one iteration) and then do $make a1 I get a different error: make: *** No rule to make target `a1'. Stop. I don't know of any way to "see" the expansion of $(foreach ) that make sees except for $(info ) , and its output is legal, so I'm quite stumped.

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