Wow, this is really old. But I also cannot see any reason not to delete an explicitly named target regardless of whether it's a regular file or directory.

As can be easily found out, either by a simple experiment or by reading the code in commands.c/delete_target, make does not even try to delete failed targets declared as prerequisites to .DELETE_ON_ERROR if they are not regular files.

If this is desired behavior, the manual does not mention it. I argue that it is not desired. An application I am working on builds directories as target, and, for the reasons mentioned in the manual, leaving them hanging around after a failed build is confusing for the human, and produces wrong results for the program.

The problem has been reported on the bug-make list as http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-make/2003-01/msg00014.html (receiving no replies).

Bengt Martensson <nospam@bengt-martensson.de>