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 4.5.1 'VPATH': Search Path for All Prerequisites
 ------------------------------------------------
 
 The value of the 'make' variable 'VPATH' specifies a list of directories
 that 'make' should search.  Most often, the directories are expected to
 contain prerequisite files that are not in the current directory;
 however, 'make' uses 'VPATH' as a search list for both prerequisites and
 targets of rules.
 
    Thus, if a file that is listed as a target or prerequisite does not
 exist in the current directory, 'make' searches the directories listed
 in 'VPATH' for a file with that name.  If a file is found in one of
 them, that file may become the prerequisite (see below).  Rules may then
 specify the names of files in the prerequisite list as if they all
 existed in the current directory.  Writing Recipes with Directory
 Search Recipes/Search.
 
    In the 'VPATH' variable, directory names are separated by colons or
 blanks.  The order in which directories are listed is the order followed
 by 'make' in its search.  (On MS-DOS and MS-Windows, semi-colons are
 used as separators of directory names in 'VPATH', since the colon can be
 used in the pathname itself, after the drive letter.)
 
    For example,
 
      VPATH = src:../headers
 
 specifies a path containing two directories, 'src' and '../headers',
 which 'make' searches in that order.
 
    With this value of 'VPATH', the following rule,
 
      foo.o : foo.c
 
 is interpreted as if it were written like this:
 
      foo.o : src/foo.c
 
 assuming the file 'foo.c' does not exist in the current directory but is
 found in the directory 'src'.
 

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