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Re:I'm Switching to Python and Actually Liking It by tomku on Wednesday July 16, 2025 @10:03PM (#44588976)
If you use Make as a task runner like in the article, please make sure that you're also declaring your tasks as .PHONY targets: https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/Phony-Tar...

Otherwise, the existence of a file or folder with the same name as your task ("test", for example) will stop that task from being run, which might be very annoying if you're using the Makefile as part of a script or CI or something where you won't notice the "Nothing to be done for..." message.

Re:I'm Switching to Python and Actually Liking It by dapperdrake on Thursday July 17, 2025 @12:04AM (#44589609)
Oh, is that the actual reason it’s for?

IIRC the info pages just say that it is for targets that lack a file. This is way easier to remember.