OT -- gentle makefile assistance?

[will trillich <will@serensoft.com>]

okay, i used to know how these makefiles worked, but that was a
few lifetimes ago... :(

i'm doing many iterations on the edit-run-edit cycle in creating
a postgresql 7.2.1 (woody) and thought that make would be able
to help keep my inter-dependencies in line.

of course, there's no "object" file as there is when compiling
C. does there HAVE TO BE some output stored somewhere? maybe i
can have the results of "psql $(DB) -f <source.sql>" redirected
to an outfile for timestamp tracking purposes?

right now i've got (simplified for bandwidth):

	PG=psql $(DB) -f
	ALL= \
		fns.sql \
		person.sql \
		dates.sql

	Makefile: $(ALL)

	.PRECIOUS: $(ALL)

	all: $(ALL)

	fns.sql:
		touch $@
		$(PG) $@

	# if fns.sql changes, re-run person.sql
	person.sql: fns.sql
		touch $@
		$(PG) $@

	# changes to person.sql? re-run dates.sql
	dates.sql: person.sql
		touch $@
		$(PG) $@

so if i munge (touch) fns.sql, person.sql is 'made' and so is
dates.sql -- but fns.sql is beyond reach. what has my grokker not
assimilated? it's gonna be something obvious, i can tell...

-- 
I use Debian/GNU Linux version 3.0;
Linux server 2.2.17 #1 Sun Jun 25 09:24:41 EST 2000 i586 unknown
 
DEBIAN NEWBIE TIP #106 from Joost Kooij <joost@topaz.mdcc.cx>
:
Wondering HOW TO GET CPAN MODULES FOR PERL THAT ARE
DEBIAN-FRIENDLY? Many perl modules are already Debianized:
	apt-get install lib<MODULE>-perl
	apt-get install libdbi-perl libmd5-perl libmime-base64-perl
To recover from using CPAN installs directly, reinstall all the
perl debs on your system.  If you use the --reinstall option to
apt-get, it is almost easy, even.
  To create Debian-friendly *.deb packages from Perl modules,
	apt-get install dh-perl-make
and then you can build your own.

Also see http://newbieDoc.sourceForge.net/ ...