Re: semicolon effects

[Paul Smith]

On Tue, 2021-04-27 at 05:10 +0800, 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson wrote:
> > > > > > "PS" == Paul Smith <psmith@gnu.org> writes:
> PS> In the second example, the "Z" command is by itself so it's
> "simple" so
> PS> make uses its fast path solution, which is to fork and exec "Z"
> PS> directly without a shell.  Thus you get an error from make.
> 
> OK, but please have the message distinguish like these do:
> 
> $ cat /tmp/G
> cat: /tmp/G: No such file or directory
> $ /tmp/G
> bash: /tmp/G: No such file or directory
> $ touch /tmp/G
> $ cat /tmp/G
> $ /tmp/G
> bash: /tmp/G: Permission denied

GNU make uses the gnulib library to search for executables on the PATH,
it doesn't implement its own search.

I think the behavior you're seeing is due to a bug in the older version
of gnulib that was used to build your version of GNU make, which as
since been fixed.  When I run this using a version of GNU make built
with the latest gnulib I get this:

$ cat Makefile
B:
        :; Z
C:
        :
        Z

$ rm -f Z

$ PATH=.:$PATH make B
:; Z
/bin/sh: 1: Z: not found
make: *** [Makefile:2: B] Error 127

$ PATH=.:$PATH make C
:
Z
make: Z: No such file or directory
make: *** [Makefile:5: C] Error 127

$ touch Z

$ PATH=.:$PATH make B
:; Z
/bin/sh: 1: Z: Permission denied
make: *** [Makefile:2: B] Error 126

$ PATH=.:$PATH make C
:
Z
make: Z: Permission denied
make: *** [Makefile:5: C] Error 127