MAKE(1) GNU MAKE(1)
User Commands User Commands
28 February 2016
NAME
make - GNU make utility to maintain groups of programs
SYNOPSIS
make [OPTION]... [TARGET]...
DESCRIPTION
The make utility will determine automatically which pieces of a large
program need to be recompiled, and issue the commands to recompile
them. The manual describes the GNU implementation of make, which was
written by Richard Stallman and Roland McGrath, and is currently
maintained by Paul Smith. Our examples show C programs, since they
are very common, but you can use make with any programming language
whose compiler can be run with a shell command. In fact, make is not
limited to programs. You can use it to describe any task where some
files must be updated automatically from others whenever the others
change. To prepare to use make, you must write a file called the
makefile that describes the relationships among files in your program,
and the states the commands for updating each file. In a program,
typically the executable file is updated from object files, which are
in turn made by compiling source files. Once a suitable makefile
exists, each time you change some source files, this simple shell
command:
make
suffices to perform all necessary recompilations. The make program
uses the makefile description and the last-modification times of the
files to decide which of the files need to be updated. For each of
those files, it issues the commands recorded in the makefile. make
executes commands in the makefile to update one or more target names,
where name is typically a program. If no -f option is present, make
will look for the makefiles GNUmakefile, makefile, and Makefile, in
that order. Normally you should call your makefile either makefile or
Makefile. (We recommend Makefile because it appears prominently near
the beginning of a directory listing, right near other important files
such as README.) The first name checked, GNUmakefile, is not
recommended for most makefiles. You should use this name if you have
a makefile that is specific to GNU make, and will not be understood by
other versions of make. If makefile is '-', the standard input is
read. make updates a target if it depends on prerequisite files that
have been modified since the target was last modified, or if the
target does not exist.
OPTIONS
-b, -m
These options are ignored for compatibility with other versions
of make.
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MAKE(1) GNU MAKE(1)
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28 February 2016
-B, --always-make
Unconditionally make all targets.
-C dir, --directory=dir
Change to directory dir before reading the makefiles or doing
anything else. If multiple -C options are specified, each is
interpreted relative to the previous one: -C / -C etc is
equivalent to -C /etc. This is typically used with recursive
invocations of make.
-d Print debugging information in addition to normal processing.
The debugging information says which files are being considered
for remaking, which file-times are being compared and with what
results, which files actually need to be remade, which implicit
rules are considered and which are applied---everything
interesting about how make decides what to do.
--debug[=FLAGS]
Print debugging information in addition to normal processing. If
the FLAGS are omitted, then the behavior is the same as if -d was
specified. FLAGS may be a for all debugging output (same as
using -d), b for basic debugging, v for more verbose basic
debugging, i for showing implicit rules, j for details on
invocation of commands, and m for debugging while remaking
makefiles. Use n to disable all previous debugging flags.
-e, --environment-overrides
Give variables taken from the environment precedence over
variables from makefiles.
-E string, --eval string
Interpret string using the eval function, before parsing any
makefiles.
-f file, --file=file, --makefile=FILE
Use file as a makefile.
-i, --ignore-errors
Ignore all errors in commands executed to remake files.
-I dir, --include-dir=dir
Specifies a directory dir to search for included makefiles. If
several -I options are used to specify several directories, the
directories are searched in the order specified. Unlike the
arguments to other flags of make, directories given with -I flags
may come directly after the flag: -Idir is allowed, as well as -I
dir. This syntax is allowed for compatibility with the C
preprocessor's -I flag.
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-j [jobs], --jobs[=jobs]
Specifies the number of jobs (commands) to run simultaneously.
If there is more than one -j option, the last one is effective.
If the -j option is given without an argument, make will not
limit the number of jobs that can run simultaneously.
-k, --keep-going
Continue as much as possible after an error. While the target
that failed, and those that depend on it, cannot be remade, the
other dependencies of these targets can be processed all the
same.
-l [load], --load-average[=load]
Specifies that no new jobs (commands) should be started if there
are others jobs running and the load average is at least load (a
floating-point number). With no argument, removes a previous
load limit.
-L, --check-symlink-times
Use the latest mtime between symlinks and target.
-n, --just-print, --dry-run, --recon
Print the commands that would be executed, but do not execute
them (except in certain circumstances).
-o file, --old-file=file, --assume-old=file
Do not remake the file file even if it is older than its
dependencies, and do not remake anything on account of changes in
file. Essentially the file is treated as very old and its rules
are ignored.
-O[type], --output-sync[=type]
When running multiple jobs in parallel with -j, ensure the output
of each job is collected together rather than interspersed with
output from other jobs. If type is not specified or is target
the output from the entire recipe for each target is grouped
together. If type is line the output from each command line
within a recipe is grouped together. If type is recurse output
from an entire recursive make is grouped together. If type is
none output synchronization is disabled.
-p, --print-data-base
Print the data base (rules and variable values) that results from
reading the makefiles; then execute as usual or as otherwise
specified. This also prints the version information given by the
-v switch (see below). To print the data base without trying to
remake any files, use make -p -f/dev/null.
-q, --question
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``Question mode''. Do not run any commands, or print anything;
just return an exit status that is zero if the specified targets
are already up to date, nonzero otherwise.
-r, --no-builtin-rules
Eliminate use of the built-in implicit rules. Also clear out the
default list of suffixes for suffix rules.
-R, --no-builtin-variables
Don't define any built-in variables.
-s, --silent, --quiet
Silent operation; do not print the commands as they are executed.
--no-silent
Cancel the effect of the -s option.
-S, --no-keep-going, --stop
Cancel the effect of the -k option.
-t, --touch
Touch files (mark them up to date without really changing them)
instead of running their commands. This is used to pretend that
the commands were done, in order to fool future invocations of
make.
--trace
Information about the disposition of each target is printed (why
the target is being rebuilt and what commands are run to rebuild
it).
-v, --version
Print the version of the make program plus a copyright, a list of
authors and a notice that there is no warranty.
-w, --print-directory
Print a message containing the working directory before and after
other processing. This may be useful for tracking down errors
from complicated nests of recursive make commands.
--no-print-directory
Turn off -w, even if it was turned on implicitly.
-W file, --what-if=file, --new-file=file, --assume-new=file
Pretend that the target file has just been modified. When used
with the -n flag, this shows you what would happen if you were to
modify that file. Without -n, it is almost the same as running a
touch command on the given file before running make, except that
the modification time is changed only in the imagination of make.
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User Commands User Commands
28 February 2016
--warn-undefined-variables
Warn when an undefined variable is referenced.
EXIT STATUS
GNU make exits with a status of zero if all makefiles were
successfully parsed and no targets that were built failed. A status
of one will be returned if the -q flag was used and make determines
that a target needs to be rebuilt. A status of two will be returned
if any errors were encountered.
SEE ALSO
The full documentation for make is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If
the info and make programs are properly installed at your site, the
command
info make
should give you access to the complete manual.
BUGS
See the chapter ``Problems and Bugs'' in The GNU Make Manual.
AUTHOR
This manual page contributed by Dennis Morse of Stanford University.
Further updates contributed by Mike Frysinger. It has been reworked
by Roland McGrath. Maintained by Paul Smith.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright c 1992-1993, 1996-2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This
file is part of GNU make. GNU Make is free software; you can
redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. GNU
Make is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General
Public License along with this program. If not, see
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
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