Maybe a bug in make manual. https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/make.html#Overriding-Makefiles

[????]

https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/make.html#Overriding-Makefiles

The last 2 paragraph of chapter [3.5 How Makefiles are Remade ]

>>>> Original Manul >>>>>>>>>>>>

However, on occasion you might actually wish to prevent updating of even the makefiles. You can do this by specifying the makefiles as goals in the command line as well as specifying them as makefiles. When the makefile name is specified explicitly as a goal, the options ??-t?? and so on do apply to them.

Thus, ??make -f mfile -n mfile foo?? would read the makefile mfile, print the recipe needed to update it without actually running it, and then print the recipe needed to update foo without running that. The recipe for foo will be the one specified by the existing contents of mfile.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

I think the option you want to explain is '-n', rather than '-t'. So the sentance should be:

 >>>> When the makefile name is specified explicitly as a goal, the options ??-n?? and so on do apply to them. <<<<<<<

I'm not sure whether I'm right , thank you for your time, that's all.

Best regards!