Make and ace

Netters, Once again, here I am... I'm trying to get make to recognize .ace.arc as an implicit rule. I've got: .SUFFIXES : .ace .arc and .ace.arc : saceprep -o ($D@) $? And then something like: $(BIN)/foo.arc : $(SRC)/foo.ace This works fine for .per.frm (ok I do have to 'cp' the .frm file because there is no -o option (in fact the -o option for saceprep seems rather recent)), but I can't get it work for .ace.arc. My only guess is that there is something special about the letters 'ace' or 'arc'. But then I've printed out all of implicit rules (make -p) and can't find anything that would do that. The saceprep line also works correctly when used as an explicit rule. make IS recognizing that the arc file is out of date, it just won't recognize my implicit rule. (I've already checked for stupid things like spaces vs tabs, in fact I copied the working .frm entries into a fresh file, made them work and then changed them to ace/arc - no joy). It comes out and says it's out of date. In debug mode it finds the implicit rule: (right match = foo.ace) but then DOESN'T take the next step of: foo.ace ---.ace.arc--- foo.arc In case it makes a difference: HPUX A.08.02 9000/847 make Revision 66.43 thanks in advance j. stumped in Boithe _____________________________________________________________________________ Jack Parker - Contractor | Hewlett Packard, BSMC Boise, Idaho, USA| If you keep staring at it like that, jparker@hpbs2561.boi.hp.com | your nose is going to grow (208) 396-5388 (W) (208) 384-1623 (H) | into the bark. _____________________________________________________________________________