You can't have more than 1 pattern variable but if they are all of the same form you can generate all these rules via $(eval); first define a function that gene

You can't have more than 1 pattern variable but if they are all of the same form you can generate all these rules via $(eval); first define a function that generates one rule, then invoke it for all combinations. Unfortunately this sort of thing is not very readable because make function parameters are numbered, not named. define genrule $(1)-$(2).$(3): $(1).f $(2).f $(1).txt $(2).txt pos/$(3) ./something --pos=$(3) --f1=$(1).f --f2=$(2).f $(1).txt $(2).txt > $$@ endef $(foreach lang1,$(LANGS),\ $(foreach lang2,$(filter-out $(lang1),$(LANGS)),\ $(foreach pos,$(POS),\ $(eval $(call genrule,$(lang1),$(lang2),$(pos))))))