make: Overriding Makefiles
3.6 Overriding Part of Another Makefile
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Sometimes it is useful to have a makefile that is mostly just like
another makefile. You can often use the 'include' directive to include
one in the other, and add more targets or variable definitions.
However, it is invalid for two makefiles to give different recipes for
the same target. But there is another way.
In the containing makefile (the one that wants to include the other),
you can use a match-anything pattern rule to say that to remake any
target that cannot be made from the information in the containing
makefile, 'make' should look in another makefile. 
Pattern
Rules, for more information on pattern rules.
For example, if you have a makefile called 'Makefile' that says how
to make the target 'foo' (and other targets), you can write a makefile
called 'GNUmakefile' that contains:
foo:
frobnicate > foo
%: force
@$(MAKE) -f Makefile $@
force: ;
If you say 'make foo', 'make' will find 'GNUmakefile', read it, and
see that to make 'foo', it needs to run the recipe 'frobnicate > foo'.
If you say 'make bar', 'make' will find no way to make 'bar' in
'GNUmakefile', so it will use the recipe from the pattern rule: 'make -f
Makefile bar'. If 'Makefile' provides a rule for updating 'bar', 'make'
will apply the rule. And likewise for any other target that
'GNUmakefile' does not say how to make.
The way this works is that the pattern rule has a pattern of just
'%', so it matches any target whatever. The rule specifies a
prerequisite 'force', to guarantee that the recipe will be run even if
the target file already exists. We give the 'force' target an empty
recipe to prevent 'make' from searching for an implicit rule to build
it--otherwise it would apply the same match-anything rule to 'force'
itself and create a prerequisite loop!
Info Catalog
make: Remaking Makefiles
make: Makefiles
make: Reading Makefiles