current directory, @code{make} searches the directories listed in
@code{VPATH} for a file with that name. If a file is found in one of
them, that file becomes the dependency. Rules may then specify the
-names of source files as if they all existed in the current directory.
+names of source files in the dependencies as if they all existed in the
+current directory.
In the @code{VPATH} variable, directory names are separated by colons.
The order in which directories are listed is the order followed by
@table @code
@item vpath @var{pattern} @var{directories}
Specify the search path @var{directories} for file names that match
-@code{pattern}. If another path was previously specified for the same
+@var{pattern}. If another path was previously specified for the same
pattern, the new path is effectively appended to the old path.@refill
The search path, @var{directories}, is a colon-separated list of
@noindent
@c !!! following paragraph rewritten to avoid overfull hbox
In this example, the value of @samp{$^} would be a value such as
-@samp{src/foo.c ../headers/defs.h hack.h}; you would use
-@samp{$(firstword $^)} to extract just @samp{src/foo.c}.@refill
+@samp{src/foo.c ../headers/defs.h hack.h}; you would use
+@samp{$(firstword $^)} to extract just @samp{src/foo.c}. Since you want
+to do this so often, the automatic variable @code{$<} is always the
+first dependency, the same as @samp{$(firstword $^)}.@refill
@node Implicit/Search, Libraries/Search, Commands/Search, Directory Search
@subsection Directory Search and Implicit Rules