D315 - A document beside a Makefile names that Makefile's rules

Status: decided Date: 2026-09-26

obscene-tool doccheck resolves a make <rule> reference against the root Makefile and against a Makefile in the document's own directory, if there is one.

Why: a README beside its own Makefile that tells the reader to cd there and run a rule was reported as naming a missing rule. A negative from a gate that looked in only one place is a fact about the gate.

Rejected: requiring every document to write make -C <dir> - makes the document worse to satisfy the gate.