[cs631apue] HW5 questions

[Rob Hoffmann]

> The intention is for you to learn how to read code, understand what it
> does and, if necessary, make changes.  If those changes involve removing
> some things, then that's fine; if it involves adding things, that's
> fine; if it involves re-arranging things, that's fine, too.
Okay. I did remove some things (after searching cross-compatibility 
websites, of course) but the difference in functionality is not noticeable.

I have a different question. Is there an existing inherent meaning to 
the command "make patch"? To clarify, I have in my Makefile the rule:

patch:
<patch command>

When I run "make patch", I receive the following message:

make: `patch' is up to date.

I thought I was running the patch command incorrectly, but then I 
experimented by changing the make rule to "test". When I run "make 
test", the command works properly, with the following output:

patching file src/bin/ls/cmp.c
patching file src/bin/ls/ls.c
patching file src/bin/ls/ls.h
patching file src/bin/ls/main.c
patching file src/bin/ls/print.c
patching file src/bin/ls/util.c
rhoffman at marvin:~/cs631/hw5$

This also works with terms other than "test". Could you clarify why the 
that particular phrasing ("patch") would cause the make rule to not work 
properly?

-Rob