> A single target (a single node in the dependency graph) of Make does exactly one thing: it takes input files, some dependencies and generates _exactly_one_ output file.

I'm still not really following the point about one output file? That might be Make's stated purpose, but a Makefile rule can certainly create extra files as a side effect (or do pretty much anything a shell user could do, from creating directories and downloading files to launching applications)

One of my projects has a single makefile rule which downloads and unzips a tarball, applies a patch to it, then builds the application within, resulting in half a dozen binaries which are then used in building the rest of the project.

Edit: Ah - I see what you mean now, in your subsequent comment.