I want to write a Makefile which is able to forward all given targets to a Makefile in a different directory. For simplicity the forwarding itself is removed from the example, because the problem starts earlier.

But I struggle with the very basic things:

.PHONY: x

%:
    @echo Default rule

__dummy__:
    @echo No targets rule

• If I call make without parms: “No targets rule” is printed what is expected.
• If I call make y : “No targets rule” is executed, expected!
• But if I call make x: make: Nothing to be done for 'x'. is printed which makes me wonder!

x as file or directory should be allowed to be in the current directory.

How can I forward all calls to make to catch one of my rules? In other words: How write a rule that picks all phony targets as well.