Mark print-% target as phony.

.PHONY does not take patterns (such as print-%) as prerequisites.
Have print-% depend on FORCE and mark FORCE as phony.

$ # on master
$ make print-host
host=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
$ touch print-host
$ make print-host
make: 'print-host' is up to date.
$
$ git co mark_print_as_phony
Switched to branch 'mark_print_as_phony'
$ make print-host
host=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
$ touch FORCE
$ make print-host
host=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu

Makefile.am

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 # file COPYING or http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php.
 
 # Pattern rule to print variables, e.g. make print-top_srcdir
-print-%:
+print-%: FORCE
 	@echo '$*'='$($*)'
 
 ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I build-aux/m4

depends/Makefile

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 .NOTPARALLEL :
 
 # Pattern rule to print variables, e.g. make print-top_srcdir
-print-%:
+print-%: FORCE
 	@echo '$*'='$($*)'
 
 # When invoking a sub-make, keep only the command line variable definitions
@@ -284,3 +284,4 @@ download: download-osx download-linux download-win
 $(foreach package,$(all_packages),$(eval $(call ext_add_stages,$(package))))
 
 .PHONY: install cached clean clean-all download-one download-osx download-linux download-win download check-packages check-sources
+.PHONY: FORCE

src/Makefile.am

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 # file COPYING or http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php.
 
 # Pattern rule to print variables, e.g. make print-top_srcdir
-print-%:
+print-%: FORCE
 	@echo '$*'='$($*)'
 
 DIST_SUBDIRS = secp256k1 univalue