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.TH MAKE 1 "03 March 2012" "GNU" "User Commands"
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make \- GNU make utility to maintain groups of programs
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[\fIOPTION\fR]... [\fITARGET\fR]...
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utility will determine automatically which pieces of a large program need to
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be recompiled, and issue the commands to recompile them. The manual describes
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the GNU implementation of
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which was written by Richard Stallman and Roland McGrath, and is currently
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maintained by Paul Smith. Our examples show C programs, since they are very
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common, but you can use
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with any programming language whose compiler can be run with a shell command.
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is not limited to programs. You can use it to describe any task where some
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files must be updated automatically from others whenever the others change.
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you must write a file called the
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that describes the relationships among files in your program, and the states
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the commands for updating each file. In a program, typically the executable
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file is updated from object files, which are in turn made by compiling source
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Once a suitable makefile exists, each time you change some source files,
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this simple shell command:
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suffices to perform all necessary recompilations.
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program uses the makefile description and the last-modification times of the
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files to decide which of the files need to be updated. For each of those
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files, it issues the commands recorded in the makefile.
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executes commands in the
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to update one or more target
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is typically a program.
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will look for the makefiles
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Normally you should call your makefile either
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because it appears prominently near the beginning of a directory
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listing, right near other important files such as
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The first name checked,
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is not recommended for most makefiles. You should use this name if you have a
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makefile that is specific to GNU
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and will not be understood by other versions of
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is '\-', the standard input is read.
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updates a target if it depends on prerequisite files
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that have been modified since the target was last modified,
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or if the target does not exist.
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These options are ignored for compatibility with other versions of
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\fB\-B\fR, \fB\-\-always\-make\fR
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Unconditionally make all targets.
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\fB\-C\fR \fIdir\fR, \fB\-\-directory\fR=\fIdir\fR
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before reading the makefiles or doing anything else.
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options are specified, each is interpreted relative to the
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This is typically used with recursive invocations of
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Print debugging information in addition to normal processing.
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The debugging information says which files are being considered for
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remaking, which file-times are being compared and with what results,
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which files actually need to be remade, which implicit rules are
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considered and which are applied---everything interesting about how
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.BI \-\-debug "[=FLAGS]"
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Print debugging information in addition to normal processing.
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are omitted, then the behavior is the same as if
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for all debugging output (same as using
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for more verbose basic debugging,
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for showing implicit rules,
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for details on invocation of commands, and
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for debugging while remaking makefiles. Use
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to disable all previous debugging flags.
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\fB\-e\fR, \fB\-\-environment\-overrides\fR
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Give variables taken from the environment precedence
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over variables from makefiles.
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\fB\-f\fR \fIfile\fR, \fB\-\-file\fR=\fIfile\fR, \fB\-\-makefile\fR=\fIFILE\fR
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\fB\-i\fR, \fB\-\-ignore\-errors\fR
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Ignore all errors in commands executed to remake files.
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\fB\-I\fR \fIdir\fR, \fB\-\-include\-dir\fR=\fIdir\fR
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Specifies a directory
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to search for included makefiles.
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options are used to specify several directories, the directories are
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searched in the order specified.
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Unlike the arguments to other flags of
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directories given with
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flags may come directly after the flag:
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is allowed, as well as
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This syntax is allowed for compatibility with the C
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\fB\-j\fR [\fIjobs\fR], \fB\-\-jobs\fR[=\fIjobs\fR]
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Specifies the number of
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(commands) to run simultaneously.
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If there is more than one
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option, the last one is effective.
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option is given without an argument,
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will not limit the number of jobs that can run simultaneously.
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\fB\-k\fR, \fB\-\-keep\-going\fR
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Continue as much as possible after an error.
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While the target that failed, and those that depend on it, cannot
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be remade, the other dependencies of these targets can be processed
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\fB\-l\fR [\fIload\fR], \fB\-\-load\-average\fR[=\fIload\fR]
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Specifies that no new jobs (commands) should be started if there are
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others jobs running and the load average is at least
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(a floating-point number).
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With no argument, removes a previous load limit.
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\fB\-L\fR, \fB\-\-check\-symlink\-times\fR
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Use the latest mtime between symlinks and target.
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\fB\-n\fR, \fB\-\-just\-print\fR, \fB\-\-dry\-run\fR, \fB\-\-recon\fR
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Print the commands that would be executed, but do not execute them (except in
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certain circumstances).
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\fB\-o\fR \fIfile\fR, \fB\-\-old\-file\fR=\fIfile\fR, \fB\-\-assume\-old\fR=\fIfile\fR
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Do not remake the file
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even if it is older than its dependencies, and do not remake anything
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on account of changes in
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Essentially the file is treated as very old and its rules are ignored.
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\fB\-O\fR[\fItype\fR], \fB\-\-output\-sync\fR[=\fItype\fR]
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When running multiple jobs in parallel with \fB-j\fR, ensure the output of
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each job is collected together rather than interspersed with output from
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is not specified or is
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the output from the entire recipe for each target is grouped together. If
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the output from each command line within a recipe is grouped together.
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output from an entire recursive make is grouped together. If
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output synchronization is disabled.
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\fB\-p\fR, \fB\-\-print\-data\-base\fR
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Print the data base (rules and variable values) that results from
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reading the makefiles; then execute as usual or as otherwise
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This also prints the version information given by the
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To print the data base without trying to remake any files, use
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.IR "make \-p \-f/dev/null" .
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\fB\-q\fR, \fB\-\-question\fR
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Do not run any commands, or print anything; just return an exit status
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that is zero if the specified targets are already up to date, nonzero
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\fB\-r\fR, \fB\-\-no\-builtin\-rules\fR
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Eliminate use of the built\-in implicit rules.
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Also clear out the default list of suffixes for suffix rules.
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\fB\-R\fR, \fB\-\-no\-builtin\-variables\fR
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Don't define any built\-in variables.
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\fB\-s\fR, \fB\-\-silent\fR, \fB\-\-quiet\fR
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Silent operation; do not print the commands as they are executed.
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\fB\-S\fR, \fB\-\-no\-keep\-going\fR, \fB\-\-stop\fR
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Cancel the effect of the
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This is never necessary except in a recursive
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might be inherited from the top-level
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via MAKEFLAGS or if you set
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in MAKEFLAGS in your environment.
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\fB\-t\fR, \fB\-\-touch\fR
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Touch files (mark them up to date without really changing them)
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instead of running their commands.
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This is used to pretend that the commands were done, in order to fool
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future invocations of
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Information about the disposition of each target is printed (why the target is
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being rebuilt and what commands are run to rebuild it).
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\fB\-v\fR, \fB\-\-version\fR
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Print the version of the
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program plus a copyright, a list of authors and a notice that there
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\fB\-w\fR, \fB\-\-print\-directory\fR
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Print a message containing the working directory
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before and after other processing.
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This may be useful for tracking down errors from complicated nests of
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.B \-\-no\-print\-directory
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even if it was turned on implicitly.
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\fB\-W\fR \fIfile\fR, \fB\-\-what\-if\fR=\fIfile\fR, \fB\-\-new\-file\fR=\fIfile\fR, \fB\-\-assume\-new\fR=\fIfile\fR
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Pretend that the target
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has just been modified.
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flag, this shows you what would happen if you were to modify that file.
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it is almost the same as running a
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command on the given file before running
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except that the modification time is changed only in the imagination of
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.B \-\-warn\-undefined\-variables
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Warn when an undefined variable is referenced.
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exits with a status of zero if all makefiles were successfully parsed
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and no targets that were built failed. A status of one will be returned
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determines that a target needs to be rebuilt. A status of two will be
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returned if any errors were encountered.
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The full documentation for
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is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the
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programs are properly installed at your site, the command
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should give you access to the complete manual.
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See the chapter ``Problems and Bugs'' in
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.IR "The GNU Make Manual" .
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This manual page contributed by Dennis Morse of Stanford University.
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Further updates contributed by Mike Frysinger. It has been reworked by Roland
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McGrath. Maintained by Paul Smith.
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Copyright \(co 1992-1993, 1996-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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GNU Make is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
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terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
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Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later
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GNU Make is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
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WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR
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A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
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You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
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this program. If not, see
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.IR http://www.gnu.org/licenses/ .
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