This is only an issue if you do indeed have files or folders named the same as targets, right? For example, if you do have an "all" file, you want make to ignor

This is only an issue if you do indeed have files or folders named the same as targets, right? For example, if you do have an "all" file, you want make to ignore the file when considering the 'all' target, you'd apply .PHONY to the 'all' target.