GNU Make

GNU Make
A Program for Directing Recompilation
GNU make Version 3.77.
May 1998

Richard M. Stallman and Roland McGrath

Copyright c 1988, ’89, ’90, ’91, ’92, ’93, ’94, ’95, ’96, ’97 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Published by the Free Software Foundation

59 Temple Place – Suite 330,
Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
Printed copies are available for $20 each.
ISBN 1-882114-80-9

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the
copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the con-
ditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed
under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another lan-
guage, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice
may be stated in a translation approved by the Free Software Foundation.

Cover art by Etienne Suvasa.

Chapter 1: Overview of make 1

1 Overview of make
The make utility automatically determines which pieces of a large program need to be
recompiled, and issues commands to recompile them. This manual describes GNU make,
which was implemented by Richard Stallman and Roland McGrath. GNU make conforms
to section 6.2 of IEEE Standard 1003.2-1992 (POSIX.2).
Our examples show C programs, since they are most common, but you can use make
with any programming language whose compiler can be run with a shell command. Indeed,
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 provides 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 data
base 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 data base.
You can provide command line arguments to make to control which files should be
recompiled, or how. See Chapter 9 [How to Run make], page 73.

1.1 How to Read This Manual

If you are new to make, or are looking for a general introduction, read the first few
sections of each chapter, skipping the later sections. In each chapter, the first few sections
contain introductory or general information and the later sections contain specialized or
technical information. The exception is Chapter 2 [An Introduction to Makefiles], page 3,
all of which is introductory.
If you are familiar with other make programs, see Chapter 12 [Features of GNU make],
page 105, which lists the enhancements GNU make has, and Chapter 13 [Incompatibilities
and Missing Features], page 109, which explains the few things GNU make lacks that others
have.
For a quick summary, see Section 9.7 [Options Summary], page 78, Appendix A [Quick
Reference], page 123, and Section 4.7 [Special Targets], page 24.

1.2 Problems and Bugs

If you have problems with GNU make or think you’ve found a bug, please report it to
the developers; we cannot promise to do anything but we might well want to fix it.
Before reporting a bug, make sure you’ve actually found a real bug. Carefully reread
the documentation and see if it really says you can do what you’re trying to do. If it’s not
2 GNU make

clear whether you should be able to do something or not, report that too; it’s a bug in the
documentation!
Before reporting a bug or trying to fix it yourself, try to isolate it to the smallest possible
makefile that reproduces the problem. Then send us the makefile and the exact results make
gave you. Also say what you expected to occur; this will help us decide whether the problem
was really in the documentation.
Once you’ve got a precise problem, please send electronic mail to:
bug-make@gnu.org
Please include the version number of make you are using. You can get this information
with the command ‘make --version’. Be sure also to include the type of machine and
operating system you are using. If possible, include the contents of the file ‘config.h’ that
is generated by the configuration process.
Chapter 2: An Introduction to Makefiles 3

2 An Introduction to Makefiles
You need a file called a makefile to tell make what to do. Most often, the makefile tells
make how to compile and link a program.
In this chapter, we will discuss a simple makefile that describes how to compile and link
a text editor which consists of eight C source files and three header files. The makefile can
also tell make how to run miscellaneous commands when explicitly asked (for example, to
remove certain files as a clean-up operation). To see a more complex example of a makefile,
see Appendix C [Complex Makefile], page 131.
When make recompiles the editor, each changed C source file must be recompiled. If a
header file has changed, each C source file that includes the header file must be recompiled to
be safe. Each compilation produces an object file corresponding to the source file. Finally,
if any source file has been recompiled, all the object files, whether newly made or saved
from previous compilations, must be linked together to produce the new executable editor.

2.1 What a Rule Looks Like

A simple makefile consists of “rules” with the following shape:
target . . . : dependencies . . .
command
...
...
A target is usually the name of a file that is generated by a program; examples of targets
are executable or object files. A target can also be the name of an action to carry out, such
as ‘clean’ (see Section 4.4 [Phony Targets], page 22).
A dependency is a file that is used as input to create the target. A target often depends
on several files.
A command is an action that make carries out. A rule may have more than one command,
each on its own line. Please note: you need to put a tab character at the beginning of every
command line! This is an obscurity that catches the unwary.
Usually a command is in a rule with dependencies and serves to create a target file if any
of the dependencies change. However, the rule that specifies commands for the target need
not have dependencies. For example, the rule containing the delete command associated
with the target ‘clean’ does not have dependencies.
A rule, then, explains how and when to remake certain files which are the targets of the
particular rule. make carries out the commands on the dependencies to create or update
the target. A rule can also explain how and when to carry out an action. See Chapter 4
[Writing Rules], page 15.
A makefile may contain other text besides rules, but a simple makefile need only contain
rules. Rules may look somewhat more complicated than shown in this template, but all fit
the pattern more or less.
4 GNU make

2.2 A Simple Makefile

Here is a straightforward makefile that describes the way an executable file called edit
depends on eight object files which, in turn, depend on eight C source and three header
files.
In this example, all the C files include ‘defs.h’, but only those defining editing commands
include ‘command.h’, and only low level files that change the editor buffer include ‘buffer.h’.
edit : main.o kbd.o command.o display.o \
insert.o search.o files.o utils.o
cc -o edit main.o kbd.o command.o display.o \
insert.o search.o files.o utils.o

main.o : main.c defs.h

cc -c main.c
kbd.o : kbd.c defs.h command.h
cc -c kbd.c
command.o : command.c defs.h command.h
cc -c command.c
display.o : display.c defs.h buffer.h
cc -c display.c
insert.o : insert.c defs.h buffer.h
cc -c insert.c
search.o : search.c defs.h buffer.h
cc -c search.c
files.o : files.c defs.h buffer.h command.h
cc -c files.c
utils.o : utils.c defs.h
cc -c utils.c
clean :
rm edit main.o kbd.o command.o display.o \
insert.o search.o files.o utils.o
We split each long line into two lines using backslash-newline; this is like using one long
line, but is easier to read.
To use this makefile to create the executable file called ‘edit’, type:
make
To use this makefile to delete the executable file and all the object files from the directory,
type:
make clean
In the example makefile, the targets include the executable file ‘edit’, and the object
files ‘main.o’ and ‘kbd.o’. The dependencies are files such as ‘main.c’ and ‘defs.h’. In
fact, each ‘.o’ file is both a target and a dependency. Commands include ‘cc -c main.c’
and ‘cc -c kbd.c’.
When a target is a file, it needs to be recompiled or relinked if any of its dependencies
change. In addition, any dependencies that are themselves automatically generated should
be updated first. In this example, ‘edit’ depends on each of the eight object files; the object
file ‘main.o’ depends on the source file ‘main.c’ and on the header file ‘defs.h’.
Chapter 2: An Introduction to Makefiles 5

A shell command follows each line that contains a target and dependencies. These shell
commands say how to update the target file. A tab character must come at the beginning of
every command line to distinguish commands lines from other lines in the makefile. (Bear
in mind that make does not know anything about how the commands work. It is up to you
to supply commands that will update the target file properly. All make does is execute the
commands in the rule you have specified when the target file needs to be updated.)
The target ‘clean’ is not a file, but merely the name of an action. Since you normally
do not want to carry out the actions in this rule, ‘clean’ is not a dependency of any other
rule. Consequently, make never does anything with it unless you tell it specifically. Note
that this rule not only is not a dependency, it also does not have any dependencies, so the
only purpose of the rule is to run the specified commands. Targets that do not refer to files
but are just actions are called phony targets. See Section 4.4 [Phony Targets], page 22, for
information about this kind of target. See Section 5.4 [Errors in Commands], page 36, to
see how to cause make to ignore errors from rm or any other command.

2.3 How make Processes a Makefile

By default, make starts with the first target (not targets whose names start with ‘.’).
This is called the default goal. (Goals are the targets that make strives ultimately to update.
See Section 9.2 [Arguments to Specify the Goals], page 73.)
In the simple example of the previous section, the default goal is to update the executable
program ‘edit’; therefore, we put that rule first.
Thus, when you give the command:
make
make reads the makefile in the current directory and begins by processing the first rule. In
the example, this rule is for relinking ‘edit’; but before make can fully process this rule, it
must process the rules for the files that ‘edit’ depends on, which in this case are the object
files. Each of these files is processed according to its own rule. These rules say to update
each ‘.o’ file by compiling its source file. The recompilation must be done if the source file,
or any of the header files named as dependencies, is more recent than the object file, or if
the object file does not exist.
The other rules are processed because their targets appear as dependencies of the goal.
If some other rule is not depended on by the goal (or anything it depends on, etc.), that
rule is not processed, unless you tell make to do so (with a command such as make clean).
Before recompiling an object file, make considers updating its dependencies, the source
file and header files. This makefile does not specify anything to be done for them—the ‘.c’
and ‘.h’ files are not the targets of any rules—so make does nothing for these files. But
make would update automatically generated C programs, such as those made by Bison or
Yacc, by their own rules at this time.
After recompiling whichever object files need it, make decides whether to relink ‘edit’.
This must be done if the file ‘edit’ does not exist, or if any of the object files are newer than
it. If an object file was just recompiled, it is now newer than ‘edit’, so ‘edit’ is relinked.
Thus, if we change the file ‘insert.c’ and run make, make will compile that file to update
‘insert.o’, and then link ‘edit’. If we change the file ‘command.h’ and run make, make will
recompile the object files ‘kbd.o’, ‘command.o’ and ‘files.o’ and then link the file ‘edit’.
6 GNU make

2.4 Variables Make Makefiles Simpler

In our example, we had to list all the object files twice in the rule for ‘edit’ (repeated
here):
edit : main.o kbd.o command.o display.o \
insert.o search.o files.o utils.o
cc -o edit main.o kbd.o command.o display.o \
insert.o search.o files.o utils.o
Such duplication is error-prone; if a new object file is added to the system, we might
add it to one list and forget the other. We can eliminate the risk and simplify the makefile
by using a variable. Variables allow a text string to be defined once and substituted in
multiple places later (see Chapter 6 [How to Use Variables], page 45).
It is standard practice for every makefile to have a variable named objects, OBJECTS,
objs, OBJS, obj, or OBJ which is a list of all object file names. We would define such a
variable objects with a line like this in the makefile:
objects = main.o kbd.o command.o display.o \
insert.o search.o files.o utils.o
Then, each place we want to put a list of the object file names, we can substitute the
variable’s value by writing ‘$(objects)’ (see Chapter 6 [How to Use Variables], page 45).
Here is how the complete simple makefile looks when you use a variable for the object
files:
objects = main.o kbd.o command.o display.o \
insert.o search.o files.o utils.o

edit : $(objects)
cc -o edit $(objects)
main.o : main.c defs.h
cc -c main.c
kbd.o : kbd.c defs.h command.h
cc -c kbd.c
command.o : command.c defs.h command.h
cc -c command.c
display.o : display.c defs.h buffer.h
cc -c display.c
insert.o : insert.c defs.h buffer.h
cc -c insert.c
search.o : search.c defs.h buffer.h
cc -c search.c
files.o : files.c defs.h buffer.h command.h
cc -c files.c
utils.o : utils.c defs.h
cc -c utils.c
clean :
rm edit $(objects)
Chapter 2: An Introduction to Makefiles 7

2.5 Letting make Deduce the Commands

It is not necessary to spell out the commands for compiling the individual C source
files, because make can figure them out: it has an implicit rule for updating a ‘.o’ file from
a correspondingly named ‘.c’ file using a ‘cc -c’ command. For example, it will use the
command ‘cc -c main.c -o main.o’ to compile ‘main.c’ into ‘main.o’. We can therefore
omit the commands from the rules for the object files. See Chapter 10 [Using Implicit
Rules], page 83.

When a ‘.c’ file is used automatically in this way, it is also automatically added to the
list of dependencies. We can therefore omit the ‘.c’ files from the dependencies, provided
we omit the commands.

Here is the entire example, with both of these changes, and a variable objects as
suggested above:
objects = main.o kbd.o command.o display.o \
insert.o search.o files.o utils.o

edit : $(objects)
cc -o edit $(objects)

main.o : defs.h
kbd.o : defs.h command.h
command.o : defs.h command.h
display.o : defs.h buffer.h
insert.o : defs.h buffer.h
search.o : defs.h buffer.h
files.o : defs.h buffer.h command.h
utils.o : defs.h

.PHONY : clean
clean :
-rm edit $(objects)

This is how we would write the makefile in actual practice. (The complications associ-
ated with ‘clean’ are described elsewhere. See Section 4.4 [Phony Targets], page 22, and
Section 5.4 [Errors in Commands], page 36.)

Because implicit rules are so convenient, they are important. You will see them used
frequently.

2.6 Another Style of Makefile

When the objects of a makefile are created only by implicit rules, an alternative style
of makefile is possible. In this style of makefile, you group entries by their dependencies
instead of by their targets. Here is what one looks like:
8 GNU make

objects = main.o kbd.o command.o display.o \

insert.o search.o files.o utils.o

edit : $(objects)
cc -o edit $(objects)

$(objects) : defs.h
kbd.o command.o files.o : command.h
display.o insert.o search.o files.o : buffer.h
Here ‘defs.h’ is given as a dependency of all the object files; ‘command.h’ and ‘buffer.h’
are dependencies of the specific object files listed for them.
Whether this is better is a matter of taste: it is more compact, but some people dislike
it because they find it clearer to put all the information about each target in one place.

2.7 Rules for Cleaning the Directory

Compiling a program is not the only thing you might want to write rules for. Makefiles
commonly tell how to do a few other things besides compiling a program: for example, how
to delete all the object files and executables so that the directory is ‘clean’.
Here is how we could write a make rule for cleaning our example editor:
clean:
rm edit $(objects)
In practice, we might want to write the rule in a somewhat more complicated manner
to handle unanticipated situations. We would do this:
.PHONY : clean
clean :
-rm edit $(objects)
This prevents make from getting confused by an actual file called ‘clean’ and causes it
to continue in spite of errors from rm. (See Section 4.4 [Phony Targets], page 22, and
Section 5.4 [Errors in Commands], page 36.)
A rule such as this should not be placed at the beginning of the makefile, because we do
not want it to run by default! Thus, in the example makefile, we want the rule for edit,
which recompiles the editor, to remain the default goal.
Since clean is not a dependency of edit, this rule will not run at all if we give the
command ‘make’ with no arguments. In order to make the rule run, we have to type ‘make
clean’. See Chapter 9 [How to Run make], page 73.
Chapter 3: Writing Makefiles 9

3 Writing Makefiles
The information that tells make how to recompile a system comes from reading a data
base called the makefile.

3.1 What Makefiles Contain

Makefiles contain five kinds of things: explicit rules, implicit rules, variable definitions,
directives, and comments. Rules, variables, and directives are described at length in later
chapters.
• An explicit rule says when and how to remake one or more files, called the rule’s targets.
It lists the other files that the targets depend on, and may also give commands to use
to create or update the targets. See Chapter 4 [Writing Rules], page 15.
• An implicit rule says when and how to remake a class of files based on their names. It
describes how a target may depend on a file with a name similar to the target and gives
commands to create or update such a target. See Chapter 10 [Using Implicit Rules],
page 83.
• A variable definition is a line that specifies a text string value for a variable that
can be substituted into the text later. The simple makefile example shows a variable
definition for objects as a list of all object files (see Section 2.4 [Variables Make
Makefiles Simpler], page 6).
• A directive is a command for make to do something special while reading the makefile.
These include:
• Reading another makefile (see Section 3.3 [Including Other Makefiles], page 10).
• Deciding (based on the values of variables) whether to use or ignore a part of the
makefile (see Chapter 7 [Conditional Parts of Makefiles], page 59).
• Defining a variable from a verbatim string containing multiple lines (see Section 6.8
[Defining Variables Verbatim], page 54).
• ‘#’ in a line of a makefile starts a comment. It and the rest of the line are ignored, except
that a trailing backslash not escaped by another backslash will continue the comment
across multiple lines. Comments may appear on any of the lines in the makefile, except
within a define directive, and perhaps within commands (where the shell decides what
is a comment). A line containing just a comment (with perhaps spaces before it) is
effectively blank, and is ignored.

3.2 What Name to Give Your Makefile

By default, when make looks for the makefile, it tries the following names, in order:
‘GNUmakefile’, ‘makefile’ and ‘Makefile’.
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
10 GNU make

specific to GNU make, and will not be understood by other versions of make. Other make
programs look for ‘makefile’ and ‘Makefile’, but not ‘GNUmakefile’.
If make finds none of these names, it does not use any makefile. Then you must specify
a goal with a command argument, and make will attempt to figure out how to remake it
using only its built-in implicit rules. See Chapter 10 [Using Implicit Rules], page 83.
If you want to use a nonstandard name for your makefile, you can specify the makefile
name with the ‘-f’ or ‘--file’ option. The arguments ‘-f name’ or ‘--file=name’ tell
make to read the file name as the makefile. If you use more than one ‘-f’ or ‘--file’ option,
you can specify several makefiles. All the makefiles are effectively concatenated in the order
specified. The default makefile names ‘GNUmakefile’, ‘makefile’ and ‘Makefile’ are not
checked automatically if you specify ‘-f’ or ‘--file’.

3.3 Including Other Makefiles

The include directive tells make to suspend reading the current makefile and read one
or more other makefiles before continuing. The directive is a line in the makefile that looks
like this:
include filenames. . .
filenames can contain shell file name patterns.
Extra spaces are allowed and ignored at the beginning of the line, but a tab is not
allowed. (If the line begins with a tab, it will be considered a command line.) Whitespace
is required between include and the file names, and between file names; extra whitespace
is ignored there and at the end of the directive. A comment starting with ‘#’ is allowed at
the end of the line. If the file names contain any variable or function references, they are
expanded. See Chapter 6 [How to Use Variables], page 45.
For example, if you have three ‘.mk’ files, ‘a.mk’, ‘b.mk’, and ‘c.mk’, and $(bar) expands
to bish bash, then the following expression
include foo *.mk $(bar)
is equivalent to
include foo a.mk b.mk c.mk bish bash
When make processes an include directive, it suspends reading of the containing makefile
and reads from each listed file in turn. When that is finished, make resumes reading the
makefile in which the directive appears.
One occasion for using include directives is when several programs, handled by indi-
vidual makefiles in various directories, need to use a common set of variable definitions (see
Section 6.5 [Setting Variables], page 51) or pattern rules (see Section 10.5 [Defining and
Redefining Pattern Rules], page 90).
Another such occasion is when you want to generate dependencies from source files
automatically; the dependencies can be put in a file that is included by the main makefile.
This practice is generally cleaner than that of somehow appending the dependencies to the
end of the main makefile as has been traditionally done with other versions of make. See
Section 4.12 [Automatic Dependencies], page 30.
If the specified name does not start with a slash, and the file is not found in the
current directory, several other directories are searched. First, any directories you have
Chapter 3: Writing Makefiles 11

specified with the ‘-I’ or ‘--include-dir’ option are searched (see Section 9.7 [Sum-
mary of Options], page 78). Then the following directories (if they exist) are searched,
in this order: ‘prefix/include’ (normally ‘/usr/local/include’1 ) ‘/usr/gnu/include’,
‘/usr/local/include’, ‘/usr/include’.
If an included makefile cannot be found in any of these directories, a warning message
is generated, but it is not an immediately fatal error; processing of the makefile containing
the include continues. Once it has finished reading makefiles, make will try to remake any
that are out of date or don’t exist. See Section 3.5 [How Makefiles Are Remade], page 11.
Only after it has tried to find a way to remake a makefile and failed, will make diagnose the
missing makefile as a fatal error.
If you want make to simply ignore a makefile which does not exist and cannot be remade,
with no error message, use the -include directive instead of include, like this:
-include filenames. . .
This is acts like include in every way except that there is no error (not even a warning) if
any of the filenames do not exist. For compatibility with some other make implementations,
sinclude is another name for -include.

3.4 The Variable MAKEFILES

If the environment variable MAKEFILES is defined, make considers its value as a list of
names (separated by whitespace) of additional makefiles to be read before the others. This
works much like the include directive: various directories are searched for those files (see
Section 3.3 [Including Other Makefiles], page 10). In addition, the default goal is never
taken from one of these makefiles and it is not an error if the files listed in MAKEFILES are
not found.
The main use of MAKEFILES is in communication between recursive invocations of make
(see Section 5.6 [Recursive Use of make], page 37). It usually is not desirable to set the
environment variable before a top-level invocation of make, because it is usually better not
to mess with a makefile from outside. However, if you are running make without a specific
makefile, a makefile in MAKEFILES can do useful things to help the built-in implicit rules
work better, such as defining search paths (see Section 4.3 [Directory Search], page 18).
Some users are tempted to set MAKEFILES in the environment automatically on login,
and program makefiles to expect this to be done. This is a very bad idea, because such
makefiles will fail to work if run by anyone else. It is much better to write explicit include
directives in the makefiles. See Section 3.3 [Including Other Makefiles], page 10.

3.5 How Makefiles Are Remade

Sometimes makefiles can be remade from other files, such as RCS or SCCS files. If
a makefile can be remade from other files, you probably want make to get an up-to-date
version of the makefile to read in.
1
GNU Make compiled for MS-DOS and MS-Windows behaves as if prefix has been defined
to be the root of the DJGPP tree hierarchy.
12 GNU make

To this end, after reading in all makefiles, make will consider each as a goal target and
attempt to update it. If a makefile has a rule which says how to update it (found either
in that very makefile or in another one) or if an implicit rule applies to it (see Chapter 10
[Using Implicit Rules], page 83), it will be updated if necessary. After all makefiles have
been checked, if any have actually been changed, make starts with a clean slate and reads
all the makefiles over again. (It will also attempt to update each of them over again, but
normally this will not change them again, since they are already up to date.)

If the makefiles specify a double-colon rule to remake a file with commands but no
dependencies, that file will always be remade (see Section 4.11 [Double-Colon], page 29).
In the case of makefiles, a makefile that has a double-colon rule with commands but no
dependencies will be remade every time make is run, and then again after make starts over
and reads the makefiles in again. This would cause an infinite loop: make would constantly
remake the makefile, and never do anything else. So, to avoid this, make will not attempt
to remake makefiles which are specified as double-colon targets but have no dependencies.

If you do not specify any makefiles to be read with ‘-f’ or ‘--file’ options, make will
try the default makefile names; see Section 3.2 [What Name to Give Your Makefile], page 9.
Unlike makefiles explicitly requested with ‘-f’ or ‘--file’ options, make is not certain that
these makefiles should exist. However, if a default makefile does not exist but can be created
by running make rules, you probably want the rules to be run so that the makefile can be
used.

Therefore, if none of the default makefiles exists, make will try to make each of them in
the same order in which they are searched for (see Section 3.2 [What Name to Give Your
Makefile], page 9) until it succeeds in making one, or it runs out of names to try. Note
that it is not an error if make cannot find or make any makefile; a makefile is not always
necessary.

When you use the ‘-t’ or ‘--touch’ option (see Section 9.3 [Instead of Executing the
Commands], page 75), you would not want to use an out-of-date makefile to decide which
targets to touch. So the ‘-t’ option has no effect on updating makefiles; they are really up-
dated even if ‘-t’ is specified. Likewise, ‘-q’ (or ‘--question’) and ‘-n’ (or ‘--just-print’)
do not prevent updating of makefiles, because an out-of-date makefile would result in the
wrong output for other targets. Thus, ‘make -f mfile -n foo’ will update ‘mfile’, read
it in, and then print the commands to update ‘foo’ and its dependencies without running
them. The commands printed for ‘foo’ will be those specified in the updated contents of
‘mfile’.

However, on occasion you might actually wish to prevent updating of even the makefiles.
You can do this by specifying the makefiles as goals in the command line as well as specifying
them as makefiles. When the makefile name is specified explicitly as a goal, the options ‘-t’
and so on do apply to them.

Thus, ‘make -f mfile -n mfile foo’ would read the makefile ‘mfile’, print the com-
mands needed to update it without actually running them, and then print the commands
needed to update ‘foo’ without running them. The commands for ‘foo’ will be those
specified by the existing contents of ‘mfile’.
Chapter 3: Writing Makefiles 13

3.6 Overriding Part of Another Makefile

Sometimes it is useful to have a makefile that is mostly just like another makefile. You
can often use the ‘include’ directive to include one in the other, and add more targets or
variable definitions. However, if the two makefiles give different commands for the same
target, make will not let you just do this. But there is another way.
In the containing makefile (the one that wants to include the other), you can use a
match-anything pattern rule to say that to remake any target that cannot be made from
the information in the containing makefile, make should look in another makefile. See
Section 10.5 [Pattern Rules], page 90, for more information on pattern rules.
For example, if you have a makefile called ‘Makefile’ that says how to make the target
‘foo’ (and other targets), you can write a makefile called ‘GNUmakefile’ that contains:
foo:
frobnicate > foo

%: force
@$(MAKE) -f Makefile $@
force: ;
If you say ‘make foo’, make will find ‘GNUmakefile’, read it, and see that to make ‘foo’,
it needs to run the command ‘frobnicate > foo’. If you say ‘make bar’, make will find no
way to make ‘bar’ in ‘GNUmakefile’, so it will use the commands from the pattern rule:
‘make -f Makefile bar’. If ‘Makefile’ provides a rule for updating ‘bar’, make will apply
the rule. And likewise for any other target that ‘GNUmakefile’ does not say how to make.
The way this works is that the pattern rule has a pattern of just ‘%’, so it matches any
target whatever. The rule specifies a dependency ‘force’, to guarantee that the commands
will be run even if the target file already exists. We give ‘force’ target empty commands
to prevent make from searching for an implicit rule to build it—otherwise it would apply
the same match-anything rule to ‘force’ itself and create a dependency loop!
14 GNU make
Chapter 4: Writing Rules 15

4 Writing Rules
A rule appears in the makefile and says when and how to remake certain files, called the
rule’s targets (most often only one per rule). It lists the other files that are the dependencies
of the target, and commands to use to create or update the target.
The order of rules is not significant, except for determining the default goal: the target
for make to consider, if you do not otherwise specify one. The default goal is the target of
the first rule in the first makefile. If the first rule has multiple targets, only the first target
is taken as the default. There are two exceptions: a target starting with a period is not
a default unless it contains one or more slashes, ‘/’, as well; and, a target that defines a
pattern rule has no effect on the default goal. (See Section 10.5 [Defining and Redefining
Pattern Rules], page 90.)
Therefore, we usually write the makefile so that the first rule is the one for compiling
the entire program or all the programs described by the makefile (often with a target called
‘all’). See Section 9.2 [Arguments to Specify the Goals], page 73.

4.1 Rule Syntax

In general, a rule looks like this:
targets : dependencies
command
...
or like this:
targets : dependencies ; command
command
...
The targets are file names, separated by spaces. Wildcard characters may be used (see
Section 4.2 [Using Wildcard Characters in File Names], page 16) and a name of the form
‘a(m)’ represents member m in archive file a (see Section 11.1 [Archive Members as Targets],
page 101). Usually there is only one target per rule, but occasionally there is a reason to
have more (see Section 4.8 [Multiple Targets in a Rule], page 26).
The command lines start with a tab character. The first command may appear on the
line after the dependencies, with a tab character, or may appear on the same line, with a
semicolon. Either way, the effect is the same. See Chapter 5 [Writing the Commands in
Rules], page 33.
Because dollar signs are used to start variable references, if you really want a dollar sign
in a rule you must write two of them, ‘$$’ (see Chapter 6 [How to Use Variables], page 45).
You may split a long line by inserting a backslash followed by a newline, but this is not
required, as make places no limit on the length of a line in a makefile.
A rule tells make two things: when the targets are out of date, and how to update them
when necessary.
The criterion for being out of date is specified in terms of the dependencies, which
consist of file names separated by spaces. (Wildcards and archive members (see Chapter 11
[Archives], page 101) are allowed here too.) A target is out of date if it does not exist
16 GNU make

or if it is older than any of the dependencies (by comparison of last-modification times).

The idea is that the contents of the target file are computed based on information in the
dependencies, so if any of the dependencies changes, the contents of the existing target file
are no longer necessarily valid.
How to update is specified by commands. These are lines to be executed by the shell
(normally ‘sh’), but with some extra features (see Chapter 5 [Writing the Commands in
Rules], page 33).

4.2 Using Wildcard Characters in File Names

A single file name can specify many files using wildcard characters. The wildcard char-
acters in make are ‘*’, ‘?’ and ‘[. . .]’, the same as in the Bourne shell. For example, ‘*.c’
specifies a list of all the files (in the working directory) whose names end in ‘.c’.
The character ‘~’ at the beginning of a file name also has special significance. If alone,
or followed by a slash, it represents your home directory. For example ‘~/bin’ expands to
‘/home/you/bin’. If the ‘~’ is followed by a word, the string represents the home directory of
the user named by that word. For example ‘~john/bin’ expands to ‘/home/john/bin’. On
systems which don’t have a home directory for each user (such as MS-DOS or MS-Windows),
this functionality can be simulated by setting the environment variable HOME.
Wildcard expansion happens automatically in targets, in dependencies, and in commands
(where the shell does the expansion). In other contexts, wildcard expansion happens only
if you request it explicitly with the wildcard function.
The special significance of a wildcard character can be turned off by preceding it with a
backslash. Thus, ‘foo\*bar’ would refer to a specific file whose name consists of ‘foo’, an
asterisk, and ‘bar’.

4.2.1 Wildcard Examples

Wildcards can be used in the commands of a rule, where they are expanded by the shell.
For example, here is a rule to delete all the object files:
clean:
rm -f *.o
Wildcards are also useful in the dependencies of a rule. With the following rule in the
makefile, ‘make print’ will print all the ‘.c’ files that have changed since the last time you
printed them:
print: *.c
lpr -p $?
touch print
This rule uses ‘print’ as an empty target file; see Section 4.6 [Empty Target Files to Record
Events], page 24. (The automatic variable ‘$?’ is used to print only those files that have
changed; see Section 10.5.3 [Automatic Variables], page 92.)
Wildcard expansion does not happen when you define a variable. Thus, if you write this:
objects = *.o
Chapter 4: Writing Rules 17

then the value of the variable objects is the actual string ‘*.o’. However, if you use the
value of objects in a target, dependency or command, wildcard expansion will take place
at that time. To set objects to the expansion, instead use:
objects := $(wildcard *.o)
See Section 4.2.3 [Wildcard Function], page 17.

4.2.2 Pitfalls of Using Wildcards

Now here is an example of a naive way of using wildcard expansion, that does not do
what you would intend. Suppose you would like to say that the executable file ‘foo’ is made
from all the object files in the directory, and you write this:
objects = *.o

foo : $(objects)
cc -o foo $(CFLAGS) $(objects)
The value of objects is the actual string ‘*.o’. Wildcard expansion happens in the rule for
‘foo’, so that each existing ‘.o’ file becomes a dependency of ‘foo’ and will be recompiled
if necessary.
But what if you delete all the ‘.o’ files? When a wildcard matches no files, it is left as
it is, so then ‘foo’ will depend on the oddly-named file ‘*.o’. Since no such file is likely to
exist, make will give you an error saying it cannot figure out how to make ‘*.o’. This is not
what you want!
Actually it is possible to obtain the desired result with wildcard expansion, but you need
more sophisticated techniques, including the wildcard function and string substitution.
These are described in the following section.
Microsoft operating systems (MS-DOS and MS-Windows) use backslashes to separate
directories in pathnames, like so:
c:\foo\bar\baz.c
This is equivalent to the Unix-style ‘c:/foo/bar/baz.c’ (the ‘c:’ part is the so-called
drive letter). When make runs on these systems, it supports backslashes as well as the Unix-
style forward slashes in pathnames. However, this support does not include the wildcard
expansion, where backslash is a quote character. Therefore, you must use Unix-style slashes
in these cases.

4.2.3 The Function wildcard

Wildcard expansion happens automatically in rules. But wildcard expansion does not
normally take place when a variable is set, or inside the arguments of a function. If you
want to do wildcard expansion in such places, you need to use the wildcard function, like
this:
$(wildcard pattern. . .)
This string, used anywhere in a makefile, is replaced by a space-separated list of names
of existing files that match one of the given file name patterns. If no existing file name
matches a pattern, then that pattern is omitted from the output of the wildcard function.
18 GNU make

Note that this is different from how unmatched wildcards behave in rules, where they are
used verbatim rather than ignored (see Section 4.2.2 [Wildcard Pitfall], page 17).
One use of the wildcard function is to get a list of all the C source files in a directory,
like this:
$(wildcard *.c)
We can change the list of C source files into a list of object files by replacing the ‘.c’
suffix with ‘.o’ in the result, like this:
$(patsubst %.c,%.o,$(wildcard *.c))
(Here we have used another function, patsubst. See Section 8.2 [Functions for String
Substitution and Analysis], page 64.)
Thus, a makefile to compile all C source files in the directory and then link them together
could be written as follows:
objects := $(patsubst %.c,%.o,$(wildcard *.c))

foo : $(objects)
cc -o foo $(objects)
(This takes advantage of the implicit rule for compiling C programs, so there is no need to
write explicit rules for compiling the files. See Section 6.2 [The Two Flavors of Variables],
page 46, for an explanation of ‘:=’, which is a variant of ‘=’.)

4.3 Searching Directories for Dependencies

For large systems, it is often desirable to put sources in a separate directory from the
binaries. The directory search features of make facilitate this by searching several directories
automatically to find a dependency. When you redistribute the files among directories, you
do not need to change the individual rules, just the search paths.

4.3.1 VPATH: Search Path for All Dependencies

The value of the make variable VPATH specifies a list of directories that make should
search. Most often, the directories are expected to contain dependency files that are not in
the current directory; however, VPATH specifies a search list that make applies for all files,
including files which are targets of rules.
Thus, if a file that is listed as a target or dependency does not exist in the current
directory, make searches the directories listed in VPATH for a file with that name. If a file is
found in one of them, that file may become the dependency (see below). Rules may then
specify the names of files in the dependency list as if they all existed in the current directory.
See Section 4.3.4 [Writing Shell Commands with Directory Search], page 21.
In the VPATH variable, directory names are separated by colons or blanks. The order in
which directories are listed is the order followed by make in its search. (On MS-DOS and
MS-Windows, semi-colons are used as separators of directory names in VPATH, since the
colon can be used in the pathname itself, after the drive letter.)
For example,
Chapter 4: Writing Rules 19

VPATH = src:../headers
specifies a path containing two directories, ‘src’ and ‘../headers’, which make searches in
that order.
With this value of VPATH, the following rule,
foo.o : foo.c
is interpreted as if it were written like this:
foo.o : src/foo.c
assuming the file ‘foo.c’ does not exist in the current directory but is found in the directory
‘src’.

4.3.2 The vpath Directive

Similar to the VPATH variable, but more selective, is the vpath directive (note lower case),
which allows you to specify a search path for a particular class of file names: those that
match a particular pattern. Thus you can supply certain search directories for one class of
file names and other directories (or none) for other file names.
There are three forms of the vpath directive:
vpath pattern directories
Specify the search path directories for file names that match pattern.
The search path, directories, is a list of directories to be searched, separated
by colons (semi-colons on MS-DOS and MS-Windows) or blanks, just like the
search path used in the VPATH variable.
vpath pattern
Clear out the search path associated with pattern.
vpath
Clear all search paths previously specified with vpath directives.
A vpath pattern is a string containing a ‘%’ character. The string must match the file
name of a dependency that is being searched for, the ‘%’ character matching any sequence
of zero or more characters (as in pattern rules; see Section 10.5 [Defining and Redefining
Pattern Rules], page 90). For example, %.h matches files that end in .h. (If there is no ‘%’,
the pattern must match the dependency exactly, which is not useful very often.)
‘%’ characters in a vpath directive’s pattern can be quoted with preceding backslashes
(‘\’). Backslashes that would otherwise quote ‘%’ characters can be quoted with more
backslashes. Backslashes that quote ‘%’ characters or other backslashes are removed from
the pattern before it is compared to file names. Backslashes that are not in danger of
quoting ‘%’ characters go unmolested.
When a dependency fails to exist in the current directory, if the pattern in a vpath
directive matches the name of the dependency file, then the directories in that directive are
searched just like (and before) the directories in the VPATH variable.
For example,
20 GNU make

vpath %.h ../headers

tells make to look for any dependency whose name ends in ‘.h’ in the directory ‘../headers’
if the file is not found in the current directory.
If several vpath patterns match the dependency file’s name, then make processes each
matching vpath directive one by one, searching all the directories mentioned in each di-
rective. make handles multiple vpath directives in the order in which they appear in the
makefile; multiple directives with the same pattern are independent of each other.
Thus,
vpath %.c foo
vpath % blish
vpath %.c bar
will look for a file ending in ‘.c’ in ‘foo’, then ‘blish’, then ‘bar’, while
vpath %.c foo:bar
vpath % blish
will look for a file ending in ‘.c’ in ‘foo’, then ‘bar’, then ‘blish’.

4.3.3 How Directory Searches are Performed

When a dependency is found through directory search, regardless of type (general or
selective), the pathname located may not be the one that make actually provides you in the
dependency list. Sometimes the path discovered through directory search is thrown away.
The algorithm make uses to decide whether to keep or abandon a path found via directory
search is as follows:
1. If a target file does not exist at the path specified in the makefile, directory search is
performed.
2. If the directory search is successful, that path is kept and this file is tentatively stored
as the target.
3. All dependencies of this target are examined using this same method.
4. After processing the dependencies, the target may or may not need to be rebuilt:
a. If the target does not need to be rebuilt, the path to the file found during directory
search is used for any dependency lists which contain this target. In short, if make
doesn’t need to rebuild the target then you use the path found via directory search.
b. If the target does need to be rebuilt (is out-of-date), the pathname found during
directory search is thrown away, and the target is rebuilt using the file name
specified in the makefile. In short, if make must rebuild, then the target is rebuilt
locally, not in the directory found via directory search.
This algorithm may seem complex, but in practice it is quite often exactly what you
want.
Other versions of make use a simpler algorithm: if the file does not exist, and it is found
via directory search, then that pathname is always used whether or not the target needs
to be built. Thus, if the target is rebuilt it is created at the pathname discovered during
directory search.
Chapter 4: Writing Rules 21

If, in fact, this is the behavior you want for some or all of your directories, you can use
the GPATH variable to indicate this to make.
GPATH has the same syntax and format as VPATH (that is, a space- or colon-delimited list
of pathnames). If an out-of-date target is found by directory search in a directory that also
appears in GPATH, then that pathname is not thrown away. The target is rebuilt using the
expanded path.

4.3.4 Writing Shell Commands with Directory Search

When a dependency is found in another directory through directory search, this cannot
change the commands of the rule; they will execute as written. Therefore, you must write
the commands with care so that they will look for the dependency in the directory where
make finds it.
This is done with the automatic variables such as ‘$^’ (see Section 10.5.3 [Automatic
Variables], page 92). For instance, the value of ‘$^’ is a list of all the dependencies of the
rule, including the names of the directories in which they were found, and the value of ‘$@’
is the target. Thus:
foo.o : foo.c
cc -c $(CFLAGS) $^ -o $@
(The variable CFLAGS exists so you can specify flags for C compilation by implicit rules; we
use it here for consistency so it will affect all C compilations uniformly; see Section 10.3
[Variables Used by Implicit Rules], page 87.)
Often the dependencies include header files as well, which you do not want to mention
in the commands. The automatic variable ‘$<’ is just the first dependency:
VPATH = src:../headers
foo.o : foo.c defs.h hack.h
cc -c $(CFLAGS) $< -o $@

4.3.5 Directory Search and Implicit Rules

The search through the directories specified in VPATH or with vpath also happens during
consideration of implicit rules (see Chapter 10 [Using Implicit Rules], page 83).
For example, when a file ‘foo.o’ has no explicit rule, make considers implicit rules, such
as the built-in rule to compile ‘foo.c’ if that file exists. If such a file is lacking in the current
directory, the appropriate directories are searched for it. If ‘foo.c’ exists (or is mentioned
in the makefile) in any of the directories, the implicit rule for C compilation is applied.
The commands of implicit rules normally use automatic variables as a matter of necessity;
consequently they will use the file names found by directory search with no extra effort.

4.3.6 Directory Search for Link Libraries

Directory search applies in a special way to libraries used with the linker. This special
feature comes into play when you write a dependency whose name is of the form ‘-lname’.
(You can tell something strange is going on here because the dependency is normally the
name of a file, and the file name of the library looks like ‘libname.a’, not like ‘-lname’.)
22 GNU make

When a dependency’s name has the form ‘-lname’, make handles it specially by searching
for the file ‘libname.a’ in the current directory, in directories specified by matching vpath
search paths and the VPATH search path, and then in the directories ‘/lib’, ‘/usr/lib’,
and ‘prefix/lib’ (normally ‘/usr/local/lib’, but MS-DOS/MS-Windows versions of make
behave as if prefix is defined to be the root of the DJGPP installation tree).
For example,
foo : foo.c -lcurses
cc $^ -o $@
would cause the command ‘cc foo.c /usr/lib/libcurses.a -o foo’ to be executed when
‘foo’ is older than ‘foo.c’ or than ‘/usr/lib/libcurses.a’.

4.4 Phony Targets

A phony target is one that is not really the name of a file. It is just a name for some
commands to be executed when you make an explicit request. There are two reasons to use
a phony target: to avoid a conflict with a file of the same name, and to improve performance.
If you write a rule whose commands will not create the target file, the commands will
be executed every time the target comes up for remaking. Here is an example:
clean:
rm *.o temp
Because the rm command does not create a file named ‘clean’, probably no such file will
ever exist. Therefore, the rm command will be executed every time you say ‘make clean’.
The phony target will cease to work if anything ever does create a file named ‘clean’ in
this directory. Since it has no dependencies, the file ‘clean’ would inevitably be considered
up to date, and its commands would not be executed. To avoid this problem, you can
explicitly declare the target to be phony, using the special target .PHONY (see Section 4.7
[Special Built-in Target Names], page 24) as follows:
.PHONY : clean
Once this is done, ‘make clean’ will run the commands regardless of whether there is a file
named ‘clean’.
Since it knows that phony targets do not name actual files that could be remade from
other files, make skips the implicit rule search for phony targets (see Chapter 10 [Implicit
Rules], page 83). This is why declaring a target phony is good for performance, even if you
are not worried about the actual file existing.
Thus, you first write the line that states that clean is a phony target, then you write
the rule, like this:
.PHONY: clean
clean:
rm *.o temp
A phony target should not be a dependency of a real target file; if it is, its commands
are run every time make goes to update that file. As long as a phony target is never a
dependency of a real target, the phony target commands will be executed only when the
phony target is a specified goal (see Section 9.2 [Arguments to Specify the Goals], page 73).
Chapter 4: Writing Rules 23

Phony targets can have dependencies. When one directory contains multiple programs,
it is most convenient to describe all of the programs in one makefile ‘./Makefile’. Since
the target remade by default will be the first one in the makefile, it is common to make this
a phony target named ‘all’ and give it, as dependencies, all the individual programs. For
example:
all : prog1 prog2 prog3
.PHONY : all

prog1 : prog1.o utils.o

cc -o prog1 prog1.o utils.o

prog2 : prog2.o
cc -o prog2 prog2.o

prog3 : prog3.o sort.o utils.o

cc -o prog3 prog3.o sort.o utils.o
Now you can say just ‘make’ to remake all three programs, or specify as arguments the ones
to remake (as in ‘make prog1 prog3’).
When one phony target is a dependency of another, it serves as a subroutine of the other.
For example, here ‘make cleanall’ will delete the object files, the difference files, and the
file ‘program’:
.PHONY: cleanall cleanobj cleandiff

cleanall : cleanobj cleandiff

rm program

cleanobj :
rm *.o

cleandiff :
rm *.diff

4.5 Rules without Commands or Dependencies

If a rule has no dependencies or commands, and the target of the rule is a nonexistent
file, then make imagines this target to have been updated whenever its rule is run. This
implies that all targets depending on this one will always have their commands run.
An example will illustrate this:
clean: FORCE
rm $(objects)
FORCE:
Here the target ‘FORCE’ satisfies the special conditions, so the target ‘clean’ that depends
on it is forced to run its commands. There is nothing special about the name ‘FORCE’, but
that is one name commonly used this way.
As you can see, using ‘FORCE’ this way has the same results as using ‘.PHONY: clean’.
24 GNU make

Using ‘.PHONY’ is more explicit and more efficient. However, other versions of make do
not support ‘.PHONY’; thus ‘FORCE’ appears in many makefiles. See Section 4.4 [Phony
Targets], page 22.

4.6 Empty Target Files to Record Events

The empty target is a variant of the phony target; it is used to hold commands for an
action that you request explicitly from time to time. Unlike a phony target, this target file
can really exist; but the file’s contents do not matter, and usually are empty.
The purpose of the empty target file is to record, with its last-modification time, when
the rule’s commands were last executed. It does so because one of the commands is a touch
command to update the target file.
The empty target file must have some dependencies. When you ask to remake the empty
target, the commands are executed if any dependency is more recent than the target; in
other words, if a dependency has changed since the last time you remade the target. Here
is an example:
print: foo.c bar.c
lpr -p $?
touch print
With this rule, ‘make print’ will execute the lpr command if either source file has changed
since the last ‘make print’. The automatic variable ‘$?’ is used to print only those files
that have changed (see Section 10.5.3 [Automatic Variables], page 92).

4.7 Special Built-in Target Names

Certain names have special meanings if they appear as targets.
.PHONY
The dependencies of the special target .PHONY are considered to be phony tar-
gets. When it is time to consider such a target, make will run its commands
unconditionally, regardless of whether a file with that name exists or what its
last-modification time is. See Section 4.4 [Phony Targets], page 22.
.SUFFIXES
The dependencies of the special target .SUFFIXES are the list of suffixes to be
used in checking for suffix rules. See Section 10.7 [Old-Fashioned Suffix Rules],
page 96.
.DEFAULT
The commands specified for .DEFAULT are used for any target for which no
rules are found (either explicit rules or implicit rules). See Section 10.6 [Last
Resort], page 96. If .DEFAULT commands are specified, every file mentioned as
a dependency, but not as a target in a rule, will have these commands executed
on its behalf. See Section 10.8 [Implicit Rule Search Algorithm], page 98.
.PRECIOUS
The targets which .PRECIOUS depends on are given the following special treat-
ment: if make is killed or interrupted during the execution of their commands,
Chapter 4: Writing Rules 25

the target is not deleted. See Section 5.5 [Interrupting or Killing make], page 37.
Also, if the target is an intermediate file, it will not be deleted after it is no
longer needed, as is normally done. See Section 10.4 [Chains of Implicit Rules],
page 89.
You can also list the target pattern of an implicit rule (such as ‘%.o’) as a
dependency file of the special target .PRECIOUS to preserve intermediate files
created by rules whose target patterns match that file’s name.
.INTERMEDIATE
The targets which .INTERMEDIATE depends on are treated as intermediate files.
See Section 10.4 [Chains of Implicit Rules], page 89. .INTERMEDIATE with no
dependencies marks all file targets mentioned in the makefile as intermediate.
.SECONDARY
The targets which .SECONDARY depends on are treated as intermediate files,
except that they are never automatically deleted. See Section 10.4 [Chains of
Implicit Rules], page 89.
.SECONDARY with no dependencies marks all file targets mentioned in the make-
file as secondary.
.IGNORE
If you specify dependencies for .IGNORE, then make will ignore errors in execu-
tion of the commands run for those particular files. The commands for .IGNORE
are not meaningful.
If mentioned as a target with no dependencies, .IGNORE says to ignore errors in
execution of commands for all files. This usage of ‘.IGNORE’ is supported only
for historical compatibility. Since this affects every command in the makefile,
it is not very useful; we recommend you use the more selective ways to ignore
errors in specific commands. See Section 5.4 [Errors in Commands], page 36.
.SILENT
If you specify dependencies for .SILENT, then make will not the print commands
to remake those particular files before executing them. The commands for
.SILENT are not meaningful.
If mentioned as a target with no dependencies, .SILENT says not to print any
commands before executing them. This usage of ‘.SILENT’ is supported only
for historical compatibility. We recommend you use the more selective ways to
silence specific commands. See Section 5.1 [Command Echoing], page 33. If
you want to silence all commands for a particular run of make, use the ‘-s’ or
‘--silent’ option (see Section 9.7 [Options Summary], page 78).
.EXPORT_ALL_VARIABLES
Simply by being mentioned as a target, this tells make to export all variables
to child processes by default. See Section 5.6.2 [Communicating Variables to a
Sub-make], page 38.
Any defined implicit rule suffix also counts as a special target if it appears as a target,
and so does the concatenation of two suffixes, such as ‘.c.o’. These targets are suffix rules,
26 GNU make

an obsolete way of defining implicit rules (but a way still widely used). In principle, any
target name could be special in this way if you break it in two and add both pieces to the
suffix list. In practice, suffixes normally begin with ‘.’, so these special target names also
begin with ‘.’. See Section 10.7 [Old-Fashioned Suffix Rules], page 96.

4.8 Multiple Targets in a Rule

A rule with multiple targets is equivalent to writing many rules, each with one target,
and all identical aside from that. The same commands apply to all the targets, but their
effects may vary because you can substitute the actual target name into the command using
‘$@’. The rule contributes the same dependencies to all the targets also.
This is useful in two cases.
• You want just dependencies, no commands. For example:
kbd.o command.o files.o: command.h
gives an additional dependency to each of the three object files mentioned.
• Similar commands work for all the targets. The commands do not need to be absolutely
identical, since the automatic variable ‘$@’ can be used to substitute the particular
target to be remade into the commands (see Section 10.5.3 [Automatic Variables],
page 92). For example:
bigoutput littleoutput : text.g
generate text.g -$(subst output,,$@) > $@
is equivalent to
bigoutput : text.g
generate text.g -big > bigoutput
littleoutput : text.g
generate text.g -little > littleoutput
Here we assume the hypothetical program generate makes two types of output, one if
given ‘-big’ and one if given ‘-little’. See Section 8.2 [Functions for String Substi-
tution and Analysis], page 64, for an explanation of the subst function.
Suppose you would like to vary the dependencies according to the target, much as the
variable ‘$@’ allows you to vary the commands. You cannot do this with multiple targets
in an ordinary rule, but you can do it with a static pattern rule. See Section 4.10 [Static
Pattern Rules], page 27.

4.9 Multiple Rules for One Target

One file can be the target of several rules. All the dependencies mentioned in all the
rules are merged into one list of dependencies for the target. If the target is older than any
dependency from any rule, the commands are executed.
There can only be one set of commands to be executed for a file. If more than one rule
gives commands for the same file, make uses the last set given and prints an error message.
(As a special case, if the file’s name begins with a dot, no error message is printed. This
odd behavior is only for compatibility with other implementations of make.) There is no
reason to write your makefiles this way; that is why make gives you an error message.
Chapter 4: Writing Rules 27

An extra rule with just dependencies can be used to give a few extra dependencies to
many files at once. For example, one usually has a variable named objects containing a
list of all the compiler output files in the system being made. An easy way to say that all
of them must be recompiled if ‘config.h’ changes is to write the following:
objects = foo.o bar.o
foo.o : defs.h
bar.o : defs.h test.h
$(objects) : config.h
This could be inserted or taken out without changing the rules that really specify how to
make the object files, making it a convenient form to use if you wish to add the additional
dependency intermittently.
Another wrinkle is that the additional dependencies could be specified with a variable
that you set with a command argument to make (see Section 9.5 [Overriding Variables],
page 77). For example,
extradeps=
$(objects) : $(extradeps)
means that the command ‘make extradeps=foo.h’ will consider ‘foo.h’ as a dependency
of each object file, but plain ‘make’ will not.
If none of the explicit rules for a target has commands, then make searches for an appli-
cable implicit rule to find some commands see Chapter 10 [Using Implicit Rules], page 83).

4.10 Static Pattern Rules

Static pattern rules are rules which specify multiple targets and construct the dependency
names for each target based on the target name. They are more general than ordinary rules
with multiple targets because the targets do not have to have identical dependencies. Their
dependencies must be analogous, but not necessarily identical.

4.10.1 Syntax of Static Pattern Rules

Here is the syntax of a static pattern rule:
targets . . .: target-pattern: dep-patterns . . .
commands
...
The targets list specifies the targets that the rule applies to. The targets can contain
wildcard characters, just like the targets of ordinary rules (see Section 4.2 [Using Wildcard
Characters in File Names], page 16).
The target-pattern and dep-patterns say how to compute the dependencies of each target.
Each target is matched against the target-pattern to extract a part of the target name, called
the stem. This stem is substituted into each of the dep-patterns to make the dependency
names (one from each dep-pattern).
Each pattern normally contains the character ‘%’ just once. When the target-pattern
matches a target, the ‘%’ can match any part of the target name; this part is called the
stem. The rest of the pattern must match exactly. For example, the target ‘foo.o’ matches
28 GNU make

the pattern ‘%.o’, with ‘foo’ as the stem. The targets ‘foo.c’ and ‘foo.out’ do not match
that pattern.
The dependency names for each target are made by substituting the stem for the ‘%’ in
each dependency pattern. For example, if one dependency pattern is ‘%.c’, then substitution
of the stem ‘foo’ gives the dependency name ‘foo.c’. It is legitimate to write a dependency
pattern that does not contain ‘%’; then this dependency is the same for all targets.
‘%’ characters in pattern rules can be quoted with preceding backslashes (‘\’). Back-
slashes that would otherwise quote ‘%’ characters can be quoted with more backslashes.
Backslashes that quote ‘%’ characters or other backslashes are removed from the pattern
before it is compared to file names or has a stem substituted into it. Backslashes that
are not in danger of quoting ‘%’ characters go unmolested. For example, the pattern
‘the\%weird\\%pattern\\’ has ‘the%weird\’ preceding the operative ‘%’ character, and
‘pattern\\’ following it. The final two backslashes are left alone because they cannot
affect any ‘%’ character.
Here is an example, which compiles each of ‘foo.o’ and ‘bar.o’ from the corresponding
‘.c’ file:
objects = foo.o bar.o

all: $(objects)

$(objects): %.o: %.c

$(CC) -c $(CFLAGS) $< -o $@
Here ‘$<’ is the automatic variable that holds the name of the dependency and ‘$@’ is
the automatic variable that holds the name of the target; see Section 10.5.3 [Automatic
Variables], page 92.
Each target specified must match the target pattern; a warning is issued for each target
that does not. If you have a list of files, only some of which will match the pattern, you can
use the filter function to remove nonmatching file names (see Section 8.2 [Functions for
String Substitution and Analysis], page 64):
files = foo.elc bar.o lose.o

$(filter %.o,$(files)): %.o: %.c

$(CC) -c $(CFLAGS) $< -o $@
$(filter %.elc,$(files)): %.elc: %.el
emacs -f batch-byte-compile $<
In this example the result of ‘$(filter %.o,$(files))’ is ‘bar.o lose.o’, and the first
static pattern rule causes each of these object files to be updated by compiling the corre-
sponding C source file. The result of ‘$(filter %.elc,$(files))’ is ‘foo.elc’, so that file
is made from ‘foo.el’.
Another example shows how to use $* in static pattern rules:
bigoutput littleoutput : %output : text.g
generate text.g -$* > $@
When the generate command is run, $* will expand to the stem, either ‘big’ or ‘little’.
Chapter 4: Writing Rules 29

4.10.2 Static Pattern Rules versus Implicit Rules

A static pattern rule has much in common with an implicit rule defined as a pattern rule
(see Section 10.5 [Defining and Redefining Pattern Rules], page 90). Both have a pattern
for the target and patterns for constructing the names of dependencies. The difference is
in how make decides when the rule applies.
An implicit rule can apply to any target that matches its pattern, but it does apply only
when the target has no commands otherwise specified, and only when the dependencies can
be found. If more than one implicit rule appears applicable, only one applies; the choice
depends on the order of rules.
By contrast, a static pattern rule applies to the precise list of targets that you specify
in the rule. It cannot apply to any other target and it invariably does apply to each of the
targets specified. If two conflicting rules apply, and both have commands, that’s an error.
The static pattern rule can be better than an implicit rule for these reasons:
• You may wish to override the usual implicit rule for a few files whose names cannot be
categorized syntactically but can be given in an explicit list.
• If you cannot be sure of the precise contents of the directories you are using, you may
not be sure which other irrelevant files might lead make to use the wrong implicit rule.
The choice might depend on the order in which the implicit rule search is done. With
static pattern rules, there is no uncertainty: each rule applies to precisely the targets
specified.

4.11 Double-Colon Rules

Double-colon rules are rules written with ‘::’ instead of ‘:’ after the target names. They
are handled differently from ordinary rules when the same target appears in more than one
rule.
When a target appears in multiple rules, all the rules must be the same type: all ordinary,
or all double-colon. If they are double-colon, each of them is independent of the others.
Each double-colon rule’s commands are executed if the target is older than any dependencies
of that rule. This can result in executing none, any, or all of the double-colon rules.
Double-colon rules with the same target are in fact completely separate from one another.
Each double-colon rule is processed individually, just as rules with different targets are
processed.
The double-colon rules for a target are executed in the order they appear in the makefile.
However, the cases where double-colon rules really make sense are those where the order of
executing the commands would not matter.
Double-colon rules are somewhat obscure and not often very useful; they provide a
mechanism for cases in which the method used to update a target differs depending on
which dependency files caused the update, and such cases are rare.
Each double-colon rule should specify commands; if it does not, an implicit rule will be
used if one applies. See Chapter 10 [Using Implicit Rules], page 83.
30 GNU make

4.12 Generating Dependencies Automatically

In the makefile for a program, many of the rules you need to write often say only that
some object file depends on some header file. For example, if ‘main.c’ uses ‘defs.h’ via an
#include, you would write:
main.o: defs.h
You need this rule so that make knows that it must remake ‘main.o’ whenever ‘defs.h’
changes. You can see that for a large program you would have to write dozens of such rules
in your makefile. And, you must always be very careful to update the makefile every time
you add or remove an #include.
To avoid this hassle, most modern C compilers can write these rules for you, by looking
at the #include lines in the source files. Usually this is done with the ‘-M’ option to the
compiler. For example, the command:
cc -M main.c
generates the output:
main.o : main.c defs.h
Thus you no longer have to write all those rules yourself. The compiler will do it for you.
Note that such a dependency constitutes mentioning ‘main.o’ in a makefile, so it can
never be considered an intermediate file by implicit rule search. This means that make won’t
ever remove the file after using it; see Section 10.4 [Chains of Implicit Rules], page 89.
With old make programs, it was traditional practice to use this compiler feature to
generate dependencies on demand with a command like ‘make depend’. That command
would create a file ‘depend’ containing all the automatically-generated dependencies; then
the makefile could use include to read them in (see Section 3.3 [Include], page 10).
In GNU make, the feature of remaking makefiles makes this practice obsolete—you need
never tell make explicitly to regenerate the dependencies, because it always regenerates any
makefile that is out of date. See Section 3.5 [Remaking Makefiles], page 11.
The practice we recommend for automatic dependency generation is to have one makefile
corresponding to each source file. For each source file ‘name.c’ there is a makefile ‘name.d’
which lists what files the object file ‘name.o’ depends on. That way only the source files
that have changed need to be rescanned to produce the new dependencies.
Here is the pattern rule to generate a file of dependencies (i.e., a makefile) called ‘name.d’
from a C source file called ‘name.c’:
%.d: %.c
$(SHELL) -ec ’$(CC) -M $(CPPFLAGS) $< \
| sed ’\’’s/\($*\)\.o[ :]*/\1.o $@ : /g’\’’ > $@; \
[ -s $@ ] || rm -f $@’
See Section 10.5 [Pattern Rules], page 90, for information on defining pattern rules. The ‘-e’
flag to the shell makes it exit immediately if the $(CC) command fails (exits with a nonzero
status). Normally the shell exits with the status of the last command in the pipeline (sed
in this case), so make would not notice a nonzero status from the compiler.
With the GNU C compiler, you may wish to use the ‘-MM’ flag instead of ‘-M’. This omits
dependencies on system header files. See section “Options Controlling the Preprocessor” in
Using GNU CC, for details.
Chapter 4: Writing Rules 31

The purpose of the sed command is to translate (for example):

main.o : main.c defs.h
into:
main.o main.d : main.c defs.h
This makes each ‘.d’ file depend on all the source and header files that the corresponding
‘.o’ file depends on. make then knows it must regenerate the dependencies whenever any
of the source or header files changes.
Once you’ve defined the rule to remake the ‘.d’ files, you then use the include directive
to read them all in. See Section 3.3 [Include], page 10. For example:
sources = foo.c bar.c

include $(sources:.c=.d)
(This example uses a substitution variable reference to translate the list of source files ‘foo.c
bar.c’ into a list of dependency makefiles, ‘foo.d bar.d’. See Section 6.3.1 [Substitution
Refs], page 48, for full information on substitution references.) Since the ‘.d’ files are
makefiles like any others, make will remake them as necessary with no further work from
you. See Section 3.5 [Remaking Makefiles], page 11.
32 GNU make
Chapter 5: Writing the Commands in Rules 33

5 Writing the Commands in Rules

The commands of a rule consist of shell command lines to be executed one by one. Each
command line must start with a tab, except that the first command line may be attached
to the target-and-dependencies line with a semicolon in between. Blank lines and lines of
just comments may appear among the command lines; they are ignored. (But beware, an
apparently “blank” line that begins with a tab is not blank! It is an empty command; see
Section 5.8 [Empty Commands], page 43.)
Users use many different shell programs, but commands in makefiles are always inter-
preted by ‘/bin/sh’ unless the makefile specifies otherwise. See Section 5.2 [Command
Execution], page 33.
The shell that is in use determines whether comments can be written on command lines,
and what syntax they use. When the shell is ‘/bin/sh’, a ‘#’ starts a comment that extends
to the end of the line. The ‘#’ does not have to be at the beginning of a line. Text on a line
before a ‘#’ is not part of the comment.

5.1 Command Echoing

Normally make prints each command line before it is executed. We call this echoing
because it gives the appearance that you are typing the commands yourself.
When a line starts with ‘@’, the echoing of that line is suppressed. The ‘@’ is discarded
before the command is passed to the shell. Typically you would use this for a command
whose only effect is to print something, such as an echo command to indicate progress
through the makefile:
@echo About to make distribution files
When make is given the flag ‘-n’ or ‘--just-print’, echoing is all that happens, no
execution. See Section 9.7 [Summary of Options], page 78. In this case and only this case,
even the commands starting with ‘@’ are printed. This flag is useful for finding out which
commands make thinks are necessary without actually doing them.
The ‘-s’ or ‘--silent’ flag to make prevents all echoing, as if all commands started
with ‘@’. A rule in the makefile for the special target .SILENT without dependencies has the
same effect (see Section 4.7 [Special Built-in Target Names], page 24). .SILENT is essentially
obsolete since ‘@’ is more flexible.

5.2 Command Execution

When it is time to execute commands to update a target, they are executed by making
a new subshell for each line. (In practice, make may take shortcuts that do not affect the
results.)
Please note: this implies that shell commands such as cd that set variables local to each
process will not affect the following command lines.1 If you want to use cd to affect the
next command, put the two on a single line with a semicolon between them. Then make
1
On MS-DOS, the value of current working directory is global, so changing it will affect
the following command lines on those systems.
34 GNU make

will consider them a single command and pass them, together, to a shell which will execute
them in sequence. For example:
foo : bar/lose
cd bar; gobble lose > ../foo
If you would like to split a single shell command into multiple lines of text, you must
use a backslash at the end of all but the last subline. Such a sequence of lines is combined
into a single line, by deleting the backslash-newline sequences, before passing it to the shell.
Thus, the following is equivalent to the preceding example:
foo : bar/lose
cd bar; \
gobble lose > ../foo
The program used as the shell is taken from the variable SHELL. By default, the program
‘/bin/sh’ is used.
On MS-DOS, if SHELL is not set, the value of the variable COMSPEC (which is always set)
is used instead.
The processing of lines that set the variable SHELL in Makefiles is different on MS-DOS.
The stock shell, ‘command.com’, is ridiculously limited in its functionality and many users of
make tend to install a replacement shell. Therefore, on MS-DOS, make examines the value
of SHELL, and changes its behavior based on whether it points to a Unix-style or DOS-style
shell. This allows reasonable functionality even if SHELL points to ‘command.com’.
If SHELL points to a Unix-style shell, make on MS-DOS additionally checks whether that
shell can indeed be found; if not, it ignores the line that sets SHELL. In MS-DOS, GNU
make searches for the shell in the following places:
1. In the precise place pointed to by the value of SHELL. For example, if the makefile
specifies ‘SHELL = /bin/sh’, make will look in the directory ‘/bin’ on the current drive.
2. In the current directory.
3. In each of the directories in the PATH variable, in order.
In every directory it examines, make will first look for the specific file (‘sh’ in the example
above). If this is not found, it will also look in that directory for that file with one of the
known extensions which identify executable files. For example ‘.exe’, ‘.com’, ‘.bat’, ‘.btm’,
‘.sh’, and some others.
If any of these attempts is successful, the value of SHELL will be set to the full pathname
of the shell as found. However, if none of these is found, the value of SHELL will not be
changed, and thus the line that sets it will be effectively ignored. This is so make will only
support features specific to a Unix-style shell if such a shell is actually installed on the
system where make runs.
Note that this extended search for the shell is limited to the cases where SHELL is set
from the Makefile; if it is set in the environment or command line, you are expected to set
it to the full pathname of the shell, exactly as things are on Unix.
The effect of the above DOS-specific processing is that a Makefile that says ‘SHELL =
/bin/sh’ (as many Unix makefiles do), will work on MS-DOS unaltered if you have e.g.
‘sh.exe’ installed in some directory along your PATH.
Chapter 5: Writing the Commands in Rules 35

Unlike most variables, the variable SHELL is never set from the environment. This is
because the SHELL environment variable is used to specify your personal choice of shell
program for interactive use. It would be very bad for personal choices like this to affect
the functioning of makefiles. See Section 6.9 [Variables from the Environment], page 55.
However, on MS-DOS and MS-Windows the value of SHELL in the environment is used,
since on those systems most users do not set this variable, and therefore it is most likely
set specifically to be used by make. On MS-DOS, if the setting of SHELL is not suitable
for make, you can set the variable MAKESHELL to the shell that make should use; this will
override the value of SHELL.

5.3 Parallel Execution

GNU make knows how to execute several commands at once. Normally, make will execute
only one command at a time, waiting for it to finish before executing the next. However,
the ‘-j’ or ‘--jobs’ option tells make to execute many commands simultaneously.
On MS-DOS, the ‘-j’ option has no effect, since that system doesn’t support multi-
processing.
If the ‘-j’ option is followed by an integer, this is the number of commands to execute
at once; this is called the number of job slots. If there is nothing looking like an integer
after the ‘-j’ option, there is no limit on the number of job slots. The default number of
job slots is one, which means serial execution (one thing at a time).
One unpleasant consequence of running several commands simultaneously is that output
from all of the commands comes when the commands send it, so messages from different
commands may be interspersed.
Another problem is that two processes cannot both take input from the same device; so
to make sure that only one command tries to take input from the terminal at once, make
will invalidate the standard input streams of all but one running command. This means
that attempting to read from standard input will usually be a fatal error (a ‘Broken pipe’
signal) for most child processes if there are several.
It is unpredictable which command will have a valid standard input stream (which will
come from the terminal, or wherever you redirect the standard input of make). The first
command run will always get it first, and the first command started after that one finishes
will get it next, and so on.
We will change how this aspect of make works if we find a better alternative. In the mean
time, you should not rely on any command using standard input at all if you are using the
parallel execution feature; but if you are not using this feature, then standard input works
normally in all commands.
If a command fails (is killed by a signal or exits with a nonzero status), and errors are not
ignored for that command (see Section 5.4 [Errors in Commands], page 36), the remaining
command lines to remake the same target will not be run. If a command fails and the ‘-k’
or ‘--keep-going’ option was not given (see Section 9.7 [Summary of Options], page 78),
make aborts execution. If make terminates for any reason (including a signal) with child
processes running, it waits for them to finish before actually exiting.
When the system is heavily loaded, you will probably want to run fewer jobs than when
it is lightly loaded. You can use the ‘-l’ option to tell make to limit the number of jobs to
36 GNU make

run at once, based on the load average. The ‘-l’ or ‘--max-load’ option is followed by a
floating-point number. For example,
-l 2.5
will not let make start more than one job if the load average is above 2.5. The ‘-l’ option
with no following number removes the load limit, if one was given with a previous ‘-l’
option.
More precisely, when make goes to start up a job, and it already has at least one job
running, it checks the current load average; if it is not lower than the limit given with ‘-l’,
make waits until the load average goes below that limit, or until all the other jobs finish.
By default, there is no load limit.

5.4 Errors in Commands

After each shell command returns, make looks at its exit status. If the command com-
pleted successfully, the next command line is executed in a new shell; after the last command
line is finished, the rule is finished.
If there is an error (the exit status is nonzero), make gives up on the current rule, and
perhaps on all rules.
Sometimes the failure of a certain command does not indicate a problem. For example,
you may use the mkdir command to ensure that a directory exists. If the directory already
exists, mkdir will report an error, but you probably want make to continue regardless.
To ignore errors in a command line, write a ‘-’ at the beginning of the line’s text (after
the initial tab). The ‘-’ is discarded before the command is passed to the shell for execution.
For example,
clean:
-rm -f *.o
This causes rm to continue even if it is unable to remove a file.
When you run make with the ‘-i’ or ‘--ignore-errors’ flag, errors are ignored in all
commands of all rules. A rule in the makefile for the special target .IGNORE has the same
effect, if there are no dependencies. These ways of ignoring errors are obsolete because ‘-’
is more flexible.
When errors are to be ignored, because of either a ‘-’ or the ‘-i’ flag, make treats an
error return just like success, except that it prints out a message that tells you the status
code the command exited with, and says that the error has been ignored.
When an error happens that make has not been told to ignore, it implies that the
current target cannot be correctly remade, and neither can any other that depends on it
either directly or indirectly. No further commands will be executed for these targets, since
their preconditions have not been achieved.
Normally make gives up immediately in this circumstance, returning a nonzero status.
However, if the ‘-k’ or ‘--keep-going’ flag is specified, make continues to consider the
other dependencies of the pending targets, remaking them if necessary, before it gives up
and returns nonzero status. For example, after an error in compiling one object file, ‘make
-k’ will continue compiling other object files even though it already knows that linking them
will be impossible. See Section 9.7 [Summary of Options], page 78.
Chapter 5: Writing the Commands in Rules 37

The usual behavior assumes that your purpose is to get the specified targets up to date;
once make learns that this is impossible, it might as well report the failure immediately.
The ‘-k’ option says that the real purpose is to test as many of the changes made in the
program as possible, perhaps to find several independent problems so that you can correct
them all before the next attempt to compile. This is why Emacs’ compile command passes
the ‘-k’ flag by default.
Usually when a command fails, if it has changed the target file at all, the file is corrupted
and cannot be used—or at least it is not completely updated. Yet the file’s timestamp says
that it is now up to date, so the next time make runs, it will not try to update that file.
The situation is just the same as when the command is killed by a signal; see Section 5.5
[Interrupts], page 37. So generally the right thing to do is to delete the target file if the
command fails after beginning to change the file. make will do this if .DELETE_ON_ERROR
appears as a target. This is almost always what you want make to do, but it is not historical
practice; so for compatibility, you must explicitly request it.

5.5 Interrupting or Killing make

If make gets a fatal signal while a command is executing, it may delete the target file
that the command was supposed to update. This is done if the target file’s last-modification
time has changed since make first checked it.
The purpose of deleting the target is to make sure that it is remade from scratch when
make is next run. Why is this? Suppose you type Ctrl-c while a compiler is running, and
it has begun to write an object file ‘foo.o’. The Ctrl-c kills the compiler, resulting in an
incomplete file whose last-modification time is newer than the source file ‘foo.c’. But make
also receives the Ctrl-c signal and deletes this incomplete file. If make did not do this, the
next invocation of make would think that ‘foo.o’ did not require updating—resulting in a
strange error message from the linker when it tries to link an object file half of which is
missing.
You can prevent the deletion of a target file in this way by making the special target
.PRECIOUS depend on it. Before remaking a target, make checks to see whether it appears on
the dependencies of .PRECIOUS, and thereby decides whether the target should be deleted
if a signal happens. Some reasons why you might do this are that the target is updated
in some atomic fashion, or exists only to record a modification-time (its contents do not
matter), or must exist at all times to prevent other sorts of trouble.

5.6 Recursive Use of make

Recursive use of make means using make as a command in a makefile. This technique
is useful when you want separate makefiles for various subsystems that compose a larger
system. For example, suppose you have a subdirectory ‘subdir’ which has its own makefile,
and you would like the containing directory’s makefile to run make on the subdirectory. You
can do it by writing this:
subsystem:
cd subdir && $(MAKE)
or, equivalently, this (see Section 9.7 [Summary of Options], page 78):
38 GNU make

subsystem:
$(MAKE) -C subdir
You can write recursive make commands just by copying this example, but there are
many things to know about how they work and why, and about how the sub-make relates
to the top-level make.
For your convenience, GNU make sets the variable CURDIR to the pathname of the current
working directory for you. If -C is in effect, it will contain the path of the new directory, not
the original. The value has the same precedence it would have if it were set in the makefile
(by default, an environment variable CURDIR will not override this value). Note that setting
this variable has no effect on the operation of make

5.6.1 How the MAKE Variable Works

Recursive make commands should always use the variable MAKE, not the explicit command
name ‘make’, as shown here:
subsystem:
cd subdir && $(MAKE)
The value of this variable is the file name with which make was invoked. If this file
name was ‘/bin/make’, then the command executed is ‘cd subdir && /bin/make’. If you
use a special version of make to run the top-level makefile, the same special version will be
executed for recursive invocations.
As a special feature, using the variable MAKE in the commands of a rule alters the effects
of the ‘-t’ (‘--touch’), ‘-n’ (‘--just-print’), or ‘-q’ (‘--question’) option. Using the
MAKE variable has the same effect as using a ‘+’ character at the beginning of the command
line. See Section 9.3 [Instead of Executing the Commands], page 75.
Consider the command ‘make -t’ in the above example. (The ‘-t’ option marks targets as
up to date without actually running any commands; see Section 9.3 [Instead of Execution],
page 75.) Following the usual definition of ‘-t’, a ‘make -t’ command in the example would
create a file named ‘subsystem’ and do nothing else. What you really want it to do is run
‘cd subdir && make -t’; but that would require executing the command, and ‘-t’ says not
to execute commands.
The special feature makes this do what you want: whenever a command line of a rule
contains the variable MAKE, the flags ‘-t’, ‘-n’ and ‘-q’ do not apply to that line. Command
lines containing MAKE are executed normally despite the presence of a flag that causes most
commands not to be run. The usual MAKEFLAGS mechanism passes the flags to the sub-make
(see Section 5.6.3 [Communicating Options to a Sub-make], page 40), so your request to
touch the files, or print the commands, is propagated to the subsystem.

5.6.2 Communicating Variables to a Sub-make

Variable values of the top-level make can be passed to the sub-make through the envi-
ronment by explicit request. These variables are defined in the sub-make as defaults, but
do not override what is specified in the makefile used by the sub-make makefile unless you
use the ‘-e’ switch (see Section 9.7 [Summary of Options], page 78).
Chapter 5: Writing the Commands in Rules 39

To pass down, or export, a variable, make adds the variable and its value to the environ-
ment for running each command. The sub-make, in turn, uses the environment to initialize
its table of variable values. See Section 6.9 [Variables from the Environment], page 55.
Except by explicit request, make exports a variable only if it is either defined in the
environment initially or set on the command line, and if its name consists only of let-
ters, numbers, and underscores. Some shells cannot cope with environment variable names
consisting of characters other than letters, numbers, and underscores.
The special variables SHELL and MAKEFLAGS are always exported (unless you unexport
them). MAKEFILES is exported if you set it to anything.
make automatically passes down variable values that were defined on the command line,
by putting them in the MAKEFLAGS variable. See the next section.
Variables are not normally passed down if they were created by default by make (see
Section 10.3 [Variables Used by Implicit Rules], page 87). The sub-make will define these
for itself.
If you want to export specific variables to a sub-make, use the export directive, like this:
export variable . . .
If you want to prevent a variable from being exported, use the unexport directive, like this:
unexport variable . . .
As a convenience, you can define a variable and export it at the same time by doing:
export variable = value
has the same result as:
variable = value
export variable
and
export variable := value
has the same result as:
variable := value
export variable
Likewise,
export variable += value
is just like:
variable += value
export variable
See Section 6.6 [Appending More Text to Variables], page 52.
You may notice that the export and unexport directives work in make in the same way
they work in the shell, sh.
If you want all variables to be exported by default, you can use export by itself:
export
This tells make that variables which are not explicitly mentioned in an export or unexport
directive should be exported. Any variable given in an unexport directive will still not be
exported. If you use export by itself to export variables by default, variables whose names
40 GNU make

contain characters other than alphanumerics and underscores will not be exported unless
specifically mentioned in an export directive.
The behavior elicited by an export directive by itself was the default in older versions of
GNU make. If your makefiles depend on this behavior and you want to be compatible with
old versions of make, you can write a rule for the special target .EXPORT_ALL_VARIABLES
instead of using the export directive. This will be ignored by old makes, while the export
directive will cause a syntax error.
Likewise, you can use unexport by itself to tell make not to export variables by default.
Since this is the default behavior, you would only need to do this if export had been used
by itself earlier (in an included makefile, perhaps). You cannot use export and unexport
by themselves to have variables exported for some commands and not for others. The last
export or unexport directive that appears by itself determines the behavior for the entire
run of make.
As a special feature, the variable MAKELEVEL is changed when it is passed down from
level to level. This variable’s value is a string which is the depth of the level as a decimal
number. The value is ‘0’ for the top-level make; ‘1’ for a sub-make, ‘2’ for a sub-sub-make,
and so on. The incrementation happens when make sets up the environment for a command.
The main use of MAKELEVEL is to test it in a conditional directive (see Chapter 7 [Con-
ditional Parts of Makefiles], page 59); this way you can write a makefile that behaves one
way if run recursively and another way if run directly by you.
You can use the variable MAKEFILES to cause all sub-make commands to use additional
makefiles. The value of MAKEFILES is a whitespace-separated list of file names. This variable,
if defined in the outer-level makefile, is passed down through the environment; then it serves
as a list of extra makefiles for the sub-make to read before the usual or specified ones. See
Section 3.4 [The Variable MAKEFILES], page 11.

5.6.3 Communicating Options to a Sub-make

Flags such as ‘-s’ and ‘-k’ are passed automatically to the sub-make through the variable
MAKEFLAGS. This variable is set up automatically by make to contain the flag letters that
make received. Thus, if you do ‘make -ks’ then MAKEFLAGS gets the value ‘ks’.
As a consequence, every sub-make gets a value for MAKEFLAGS in its environment. In
response, it takes the flags from that value and processes them as if they had been given as
arguments. See Section 9.7 [Summary of Options], page 78.
Likewise variables defined on the command line are passed to the sub-make through
MAKEFLAGS. Words in the value of MAKEFLAGS that contain ‘=’, make treats as variable
definitions just as if they appeared on the command line. See Section 9.5 [Overriding
Variables], page 77.
The options ‘-C’, ‘-f’, ‘-o’, and ‘-W’ are not put into MAKEFLAGS; these options are not
passed down.
The ‘-j’ option is a special case (see Section 5.3 [Parallel Execution], page 35). If you
set it to some numeric value, ‘-j 1’ is always put into MAKEFLAGS instead of the value you
specified. This is because if the ‘-j’ option were passed down to sub-makes, you would get
many more jobs running in parallel than you asked for. If you give ‘-j’ with no numeric
Chapter 5: Writing the Commands in Rules 41

argument, meaning to run as many jobs as possible in parallel, this is passed down, since
multiple infinities are no more than one.
If you do not want to pass the other flags down, you must change the value of MAKEFLAGS,
like this:
subsystem:
cd subdir && $(MAKE) MAKEFLAGS=
The command line variable definitions really appear in the variable MAKEOVERRIDES,
and MAKEFLAGS contains a reference to this variable. If you do want to pass flags down
normally, but don’t want to pass down the command line variable definitions, you can reset
MAKEOVERRIDES to empty, like this:
MAKEOVERRIDES =
This is not usually useful to do. However, some systems have a small fixed limit on the size
of the environment, and putting so much information in into the value of MAKEFLAGS can
exceed it. If you see the error message ‘Arg list too long’, this may be the problem. (For
strict compliance with POSIX.2, changing MAKEOVERRIDES does not affect MAKEFLAGS if the
special target ‘.POSIX’ appears in the makefile. You probably do not care about this.)
A similar variable MFLAGS exists also, for historical compatibility. It has the same
value as MAKEFLAGS except that it does not contain the command line variable defini-
tions, and it always begins with a hyphen unless it is empty (MAKEFLAGS begins with
a hyphen only when it begins with an option that has no single-letter version, such as
‘--warn-undefined-variables’). MFLAGS was traditionally used explicitly in the recursive
make command, like this:
subsystem:
cd subdir && $(MAKE) $(MFLAGS)
but now MAKEFLAGS makes this usage redundant. If you want your makefiles to be compat-
ible with old make programs, use this technique; it will work fine with more modern make
versions too.
The MAKEFLAGS variable can also be useful if you want to have certain options, such as
‘-k’ (see Section 9.7 [Summary of Options], page 78), set each time you run make. You
simply put a value for MAKEFLAGS in your environment. You can also set MAKEFLAGS in a
makefile, to specify additional flags that should also be in effect for that makefile. (Note
that you cannot use MFLAGS this way. That variable is set only for compatibility; make does
not interpret a value you set for it in any way.)
When make interprets the value of MAKEFLAGS (either from the environment or from a
makefile), it first prepends a hyphen if the value does not already begin with one. Then
it chops the value into words separated by blanks, and parses these words as if they were
options given on the command line (except that ‘-C’, ‘-f’, ‘-h’, ‘-o’, ‘-W’, and their long-
named versions are ignored; and there is no error for an invalid option).
If you do put MAKEFLAGS in your environment, you should be sure not to include any
options that will drastically affect the actions of make and undermine the purpose of make-
files and of make itself. For instance, the ‘-t’, ‘-n’, and ‘-q’ options, if put in one of these
variables, could have disastrous consequences and would certainly have at least surprising
and probably annoying effects.
42 GNU make

5.6.4 The ‘--print-directory’ Option

If you use several levels of recursive make invocations, the ‘-w’ or ‘--print-directory’
option can make the output a lot easier to understand by showing each directory as make
starts processing it and as make finishes processing it. For example, if ‘make -w’ is run in
the directory ‘/u/gnu/make’, make will print a line of the form:
make: Entering directory ‘/u/gnu/make’.
before doing anything else, and a line of the form:
make: Leaving directory ‘/u/gnu/make’.
when processing is completed.
Normally, you do not need to specify this option because ‘make’ does it for you: ‘-w’
is turned on automatically when you use the ‘-C’ option, and in sub-makes. make will
not automatically turn on ‘-w’ if you also use ‘-s’, which says to be silent, or if you use
‘--no-print-directory’ to explicitly disable it.

5.7 Defining Canned Command Sequences

When the same sequence of commands is useful in making various targets, you can define
it as a canned sequence with the define directive, and refer to the canned sequence from
the rules for those targets. The canned sequence is actually a variable, so the name must
not conflict with other variable names.
Here is an example of defining a canned sequence of commands:
define run-yacc
yacc $(firstword $^)
mv y.tab.c $@
endef
Here run-yacc is the name of the variable being defined; endef marks the end of the
definition; the lines in between are the commands. The define directive does not expand
variable references and function calls in the canned sequence; the ‘$’ characters, parentheses,
variable names, and so on, all become part of the value of the variable you are defining. See
Section 6.8 [Defining Variables Verbatim], page 54, for a complete explanation of define.
The first command in this example runs Yacc on the first dependency of whichever rule
uses the canned sequence. The output file from Yacc is always named ‘y.tab.c’. The
second command moves the output to the rule’s target file name.
To use the canned sequence, substitute the variable into the commands of a rule. You
can substitute it like any other variable (see Section 6.1 [Basics of Variable References],
page 45). Because variables defined by define are recursively expanded variables, all the
variable references you wrote inside the define are expanded now. For example:
foo.c : foo.y
$(run-yacc)
‘foo.y’ will be substituted for the variable ‘$^’ when it occurs in run-yacc’s value, and
‘foo.c’ for ‘$@’.
This is a realistic example, but this particular one is not needed in practice because
make has an implicit rule to figure out these commands based on the file names involved
(see Chapter 10 [Using Implicit Rules], page 83).
Chapter 5: Writing the Commands in Rules 43

In command execution, each line of a canned sequence is treated just as if the line
appeared on its own in the rule, preceded by a tab. In particular, make invokes a separate
subshell for each line. You can use the special prefix characters that affect command lines
(‘@’, ‘-’, and ‘+’) on each line of a canned sequence. See Chapter 5 [Writing the Commands
in Rules], page 33. For example, using this canned sequence:
define frobnicate
@echo "frobnicating target $@"
frob-step-1 $< -o $@-step-1
frob-step-2 $@-step-1 -o $@
endef
make will not echo the first line, the echo command. But it will echo the following two
command lines.
On the other hand, prefix characters on the command line that refers to a canned
sequence apply to every line in the sequence. So the rule:
frob.out: frob.in
@$(frobnicate)
does not echo any commands. (See Section 5.1 [Command Echoing], page 33, for a full
explanation of ‘@’.)

5.8 Using Empty Commands

It is sometimes useful to define commands which do nothing. This is done simply by
giving a command that consists of nothing but whitespace. For example:
target: ;
defines an empty command string for ‘target’. You could also use a line beginning with
a tab character to define an empty command string, but this would be confusing because
such a line looks empty.
You may be wondering why you would want to define a command string that does
nothing. The only reason this is useful is to prevent a target from getting implicit commands
(from implicit rules or the .DEFAULT special target; see Chapter 10 [Implicit Rules], page 83
and see Section 10.6 [Defining Last-Resort Default Rules], page 96).
You may be inclined to define empty command strings for targets that are not actual
files, but only exist so that their dependencies can be remade. However, this is not the best
way to do that, because the dependencies may not be remade properly if the target file
actually does exist. See Section 4.4 [Phony Targets], page 22, for a better way to do this.
44 GNU make
Chapter 6: How to Use Variables 45

6 How to Use Variables

A variable is a name defined in a makefile to represent a string of text, called the
variable’s value. These values are substituted by explicit request into targets, dependencies,
commands, and other parts of the makefile. (In some other versions of make, variables are
called macros.)
Variables and functions in all parts of a makefile are expanded when read, except for
the shell commands in rules, the right-hand sides of variable definitions using ‘=’, and the
bodies of variable definitions using the define directive.
Variables can represent lists of file names, options to pass to compilers, programs to run,
directories to look in for source files, directories to write output in, or anything else you can
imagine.
A variable name may be any sequence of characters not containing ‘:’, ‘#’, ‘=’, or leading
or trailing whitespace. However, variable names containing characters other than letters,
numbers, and underscores should be avoided, as they may be given special meanings in the
future, and with some shells they cannot be passed through the environment to a sub-make
(see Section 5.6.2 [Communicating Variables to a Sub-make], page 38).
Variable names are case-sensitive. The names ‘foo’, ‘FOO’, and ‘Foo’ all refer to different
variables.
It is traditional to use upper case letters in variable names, but we recommend using lower
case letters for variable names that serve internal purposes in the makefile, and reserving
upper case for parameters that control implicit rules or for parameters that the user should
override with command options (see Section 9.5 [Overriding Variables], page 77).
A few variables have names that are a single punctuation character or just a few char-
acters. These are the automatic variables, and they have particular specialized uses. See
Section 10.5.3 [Automatic Variables], page 92.

6.1 Basics of Variable References

To substitute a variable’s value, write a dollar sign followed by the name of the variable
in parentheses or braces: either ‘$(foo)’ or ‘${foo}’ is a valid reference to the variable foo.
This special significance of ‘$’ is why you must write ‘$$’ to have the effect of a single dollar
sign in a file name or command.
Variable references can be used in any context: targets, dependencies, commands, most
directives, and new variable values. Here is an example of a common case, where a variable
holds the names of all the object files in a program:
objects = program.o foo.o utils.o
program : $(objects)
cc -o program $(objects)

$(objects) : defs.h
Variable references work by strict textual substitution. Thus, the rule
foo = c
prog.o : prog.$(foo)
$(foo)$(foo) -$(foo) prog.$(foo)
46 GNU make

could be used to compile a C program ‘prog.c’. Since spaces before the variable value are
ignored in variable assignments, the value of foo is precisely ‘c’. (Don’t actually write your
makefiles this way!)
A dollar sign followed by a character other than a dollar sign, open-parenthesis or open-
brace treats that single character as the variable name. Thus, you could reference the
variable x with ‘$x’. However, this practice is strongly discouraged, except in the case of
the automatic variables (see Section 10.5.3 [Automatic Variables], page 92).

6.2 The Two Flavors of Variables

There are two ways that a variable in GNU make can have a value; we call them the two
flavors of variables. The two flavors are distinguished in how they are defined and in what
they do when expanded.
The first flavor of variable is a recursively expanded variable. Variables of this sort are
defined by lines using ‘=’ (see Section 6.5 [Setting Variables], page 51) or by the define
directive (see Section 6.8 [Defining Variables Verbatim], page 54). The value you specify is
installed verbatim; if it contains references to other variables, these references are expanded
whenever this variable is substituted (in the course of expanding some other string). When
this happens, it is called recursive expansion.
For example,
foo = $(bar)
bar = $(ugh)
ugh = Huh?

all:;echo $(foo)
will echo ‘Huh?’: ‘$(foo)’ expands to ‘$(bar)’ which expands to ‘$(ugh)’ which finally
expands to ‘Huh?’.
This flavor of variable is the only sort supported by other versions of make. It has its
advantages and its disadvantages. An advantage (most would say) is that:
CFLAGS = $(include_dirs) -O
include_dirs = -Ifoo -Ibar
will do what was intended: when ‘CFLAGS’ is expanded in a command, it will expand to
‘-Ifoo -Ibar -O’. A major disadvantage is that you cannot append something on the end
of a variable, as in
CFLAGS = $(CFLAGS) -O
because it will cause an infinite loop in the variable expansion. (Actually make detects the
infinite loop and reports an error.)
Another disadvantage is that any functions (see Chapter 8 [Functions for Transforming
Text], page 63) referenced in the definition will be executed every time the variable is
expanded. This makes make run slower; worse, it causes the wildcard and shell functions
to give unpredictable results because you cannot easily control when they are called, or
even how many times.
To avoid all the problems and inconveniences of recursively expanded variables, there is
another flavor: simply expanded variables.
Chapter 6: How to Use Variables 47

Simply expanded variables are defined by lines using ‘:=’ (see Section 6.5 [Setting Vari-
ables], page 51). The value of a simply expanded variable is scanned once and for all,
expanding any references to other variables and functions, when the variable is defined.
The actual value of the simply expanded variable is the result of expanding the text that
you write. It does not contain any references to other variables; it contains their values as
of the time this variable was defined. Therefore,
x := foo
y := $(x) bar
x := later
is equivalent to
y := foo bar
x := later
When a simply expanded variable is referenced, its value is substituted verbatim.
Here is a somewhat more complicated example, illustrating the use of ‘:=’ in conjunction
with the shell function. (See Section 8.6 [The shell Function], page 71.) This example
also shows use of the variable MAKELEVEL, which is changed when it is passed down from
level to level. (See Section 5.6.2 [Communicating Variables to a Sub-make], page 38, for
information about MAKELEVEL.)
ifeq (0,${MAKELEVEL})
cur-dir := $(shell pwd)
whoami := $(shell whoami)
host-type := $(shell arch)
MAKE := ${MAKE} host-type=${host-type} whoami=${whoami}
endif
An advantage of this use of ‘:=’ is that a typical ‘descend into a directory’ command then
looks like this:
${subdirs}:
${MAKE} cur-dir=${cur-dir}/$@ -C $@ all
Simply expanded variables generally make complicated makefile programming more pre-
dictable because they work like variables in most programming languages. They allow you
to redefine a variable using its own value (or its value processed in some way by one of
the expansion functions) and to use the expansion functions much more efficiently (see
Chapter 8 [Functions for Transforming Text], page 63).
You can also use them to introduce controlled leading whitespace into variable values.
Leading whitespace characters are discarded from your input before substitution of variable
references and function calls; this means you can include leading spaces in a variable value
by protecting them with variable references, like this:
nullstring :=
space := $(nullstring) # end of the line
Here the value of the variable space is precisely one space. The comment ‘# end of the line’
is included here just for clarity. Since trailing space characters are not stripped from vari-
able values, just a space at the end of the line would have the same effect (but be rather
hard to read). If you put whitespace at the end of a variable value, it is a good idea to put
a comment like that at the end of the line to make your intent clear. Conversely, if you do
48 GNU make

not want any whitespace characters at the end of your variable value, you must remember
not to put a random comment on the end of the line after some whitespace, such as this:
dir := /foo/bar # directory to put the frobs in
Here the value of the variable dir is ‘/foo/bar ’ (with four trailing spaces), which was
probably not the intention. (Imagine something like ‘$(dir)/file’ with this definition!)
There is another assignment operator for variables, ‘?=’. This is called a conditional
variable assignment operator, because it only has an effect if the variable is not yet defined.
This statement:
FOO ?= bar
is exactly equivalent to this (see Section 8.5 [The origin Function], page 70):
ifeq ($(origin FOO), undefined)
FOO = bar
endif
Note that a variable set to an empty value is still defined, so ‘?=’ will not set that
variable.

6.3 Advanced Features for Reference to Variables

This section describes some advanced features you can use to reference variables in more
flexible ways.

6.3.1 Substitution References

A substitution reference substitutes the value of a variable with alterations that you
specify. It has the form ‘$(var:a=b)’ (or ‘${var:a=b}’) and its meaning is to take the value
of the variable var, replace every a at the end of a word with b in that value, and substitute
the resulting string.
When we say “at the end of a word”, we mean that a must appear either followed by
whitespace or at the end of the value in order to be replaced; other occurrences of a in the
value are unaltered. For example:
foo := a.o b.o c.o
bar := $(foo:.o=.c)
sets ‘bar’ to ‘a.c b.c c.c’. See Section 6.5 [Setting Variables], page 51.
A substitution reference is actually an abbreviation for use of the patsubst expansion
function (see Section 8.2 [Functions for String Substitution and Analysis], page 64). We
provide substitution references as well as patsubst for compatibility with other implemen-
tations of make.
Another type of substitution reference lets you use the full power of the patsubst func-
tion. It has the same form ‘$(var:a=b)’ described above, except that now a must contain a
single ‘%’ character. This case is equivalent to ‘$(patsubst a,b,$(var))’. See Section 8.2
[Functions for String Substitution and Analysis], page 64, for a description of the patsubst
function.
Chapter 6: How to Use Variables 49

For example:

foo := a.o b.o c.o

bar := $(foo:%.o=%.c)
sets ‘bar’ to ‘a.c b.c c.c’.

6.3.2 Computed Variable Names

Computed variable names are a complicated concept needed only for sophisticated make-
file programming. For most purposes you need not consider them, except to know that
making a variable with a dollar sign in its name might have strange results. However, if you
are the type that wants to understand everything, or you are actually interested in what
they do, read on.
Variables may be referenced inside the name of a variable. This is called a computed
variable name or a nested variable reference. For example,
x = y
y = z
a := $($(x))
defines a as ‘z’: the ‘$(x)’ inside ‘$($(x))’ expands to ‘y’, so ‘$($(x))’ expands to ‘$(y)’
which in turn expands to ‘z’. Here the name of the variable to reference is not stated
explicitly; it is computed by expansion of ‘$(x)’. The reference ‘$(x)’ here is nested within
the outer variable reference.
The previous example shows two levels of nesting, but any number of levels is possible.
For example, here are three levels:
x = y
y = z
z = u
a := $($($(x)))
Here the innermost ‘$(x)’ expands to ‘y’, so ‘$($(x))’ expands to ‘$(y)’ which in turn
expands to ‘z’; now we have ‘$(z)’, which becomes ‘u’.
References to recursively-expanded variables within a variable name are reexpanded in
the usual fashion. For example:
x = $(y)
y = z
z = Hello
a := $($(x))
defines a as ‘Hello’: ‘$($(x))’ becomes ‘$($(y))’ which becomes ‘$(z)’ which becomes
‘Hello’.
Nested variable references can also contain modified references and function invocations
(see Chapter 8 [Functions for Transforming Text], page 63), just like any other reference.
For example, using the subst function (see Section 8.2 [Functions for String Substitution
and Analysis], page 64):
50 GNU make

x = variable1
variable2 := Hello
y = $(subst 1,2,$(x))
z = y
a := $($($(z)))
eventually defines a as ‘Hello’. It is doubtful that anyone would ever want to write a nested
reference as convoluted as this one, but it works: ‘$($($(z)))’ expands to ‘$($(y))’ which
becomes ‘$($(subst 1,2,$(x)))’. This gets the value ‘variable1’ from x and changes it
by substitution to ‘variable2’, so that the entire string becomes ‘$(variable2)’, a simple
variable reference whose value is ‘Hello’.
A computed variable name need not consist entirely of a single variable reference. It can
contain several variable references, as well as some invariant text. For example,
a_dirs := dira dirb
1_dirs := dir1 dir2
a_files := filea fileb
1_files := file1 file2
ifeq "$(use_a)" "yes"
a1 := a
else
a1 := 1
endif
ifeq "$(use_dirs)" "yes"
df := dirs
else
df := files
endif

dirs := $($(a1)_$(df))
will give dirs the same value as a_dirs, 1_dirs, a_files or 1_files depending on the
settings of use_a and use_dirs.
Computed variable names can also be used in substitution references:
a_objects := a.o b.o c.o
1_objects := 1.o 2.o 3.o

sources := $($(a1)_objects:.o=.c)
defines sources as either ‘a.c b.c c.c’ or ‘1.c 2.c 3.c’, depending on the value of a1.
The only restriction on this sort of use of nested variable references is that they cannot
specify part of the name of a function to be called. This is because the test for a recognized
function name is done before the expansion of nested references. For example,
ifdef do_sort
func := sort
else
func := strip
endif
bar := a d b g q c
Chapter 6: How to Use Variables 51

foo := $($(func) $(bar))

attempts to give ‘foo’ the value of the variable ‘sort a d b g q c’ or ‘strip a d b g q c’,
rather than giving ‘a d b g q c’ as the argument to either the sort or the strip function.
This restriction could be removed in the future if that change is shown to be a good idea.
You can also use computed variable names in the left-hand side of a variable assignment,
or in a define directive, as in:
dir = foo
$(dir)_sources := $(wildcard $(dir)/*.c)
define $(dir)_print
lpr $($(dir)_sources)
endef
This example defines the variables ‘dir’, ‘foo_sources’, and ‘foo_print’.
Note that nested variable references are quite different from recursively expanded vari-
ables (see Section 6.2 [The Two Flavors of Variables], page 46), though both are used
together in complex ways when doing makefile programming.

6.4 How Variables Get Their Values

Variables can get values in several different ways:
• You can specify an overriding value when you run make. See Section 9.5 [Overriding
Variables], page 77.
• You can specify a value in the makefile, either with an assignment (see Section 6.5
[Setting Variables], page 51) or with a verbatim definition (see Section 6.8 [Defining
Variables Verbatim], page 54).
• Variables in the environment become make variables. See Section 6.9 [Variables from
the Environment], page 55.
• Several automatic variables are given new values for each rule. Each of these has a
single conventional use. See Section 10.5.3 [Automatic Variables], page 92.
• Several variables have constant initial values. See Section 10.3 [Variables Used by
Implicit Rules], page 87.

6.5 Setting Variables

To set a variable from the makefile, write a line starting with the variable name followed
by ‘=’ or ‘:=’. Whatever follows the ‘=’ or ‘:=’ on the line becomes the value. For example,
objects = main.o foo.o bar.o utils.o
defines a variable named objects. Whitespace around the variable name and immediately
after the ‘=’ is ignored.
Variables defined with ‘=’ are recursively expanded variables. Variables defined with ‘:=’
are simply expanded variables; these definitions can contain variable references which will
be expanded before the definition is made. See Section 6.2 [The Two Flavors of Variables],
page 46.
52 GNU make

The variable name may contain function and variable references, which are expanded
when the line is read to find the actual variable name to use.
There is no limit on the length of the value of a variable except the amount of swapping
space on the computer. When a variable definition is long, it is a good idea to break it into
several lines by inserting backslash-newline at convenient places in the definition. This will
not affect the functioning of make, but it will make the makefile easier to read.
Most variable names are considered to have the empty string as a value if you have never
set them. Several variables have built-in initial values that are not empty, but you can set
them in the usual ways (see Section 10.3 [Variables Used by Implicit Rules], page 87).
Several special variables are set automatically to a new value for each rule; these are called
the automatic variables (see Section 10.5.3 [Automatic Variables], page 92).
If you’d like a variable to be set to a value only if it’s not already set, then you can
use the shorthand operator ‘?=’ instead of ‘=’. These two settings of the variable ‘FOO’ are
identical (see Section 8.5 [The origin Function], page 70):
FOO ?= bar
and
ifeq ($(origin FOO), undefined)
FOO = bar
endif

6.6 Appending More Text to Variables

Often it is useful to add more text to the value of a variable already defined. You do
this with a line containing ‘+=’, like this:
objects += another.o
This takes the value of the variable objects, and adds the text ‘another.o’ to it (preceded
by a single space). Thus:
objects = main.o foo.o bar.o utils.o
objects += another.o
sets objects to ‘main.o foo.o bar.o utils.o another.o’.
Using ‘+=’ is similar to:
objects = main.o foo.o bar.o utils.o
objects := $(objects) another.o
but differs in ways that become important when you use more complex values.
When the variable in question has not been defined before, ‘+=’ acts just like normal
‘=’: it defines a recursively-expanded variable. However, when there is a previous defini-
tion, exactly what ‘+=’ does depends on what flavor of variable you defined originally. See
Section 6.2 [The Two Flavors of Variables], page 46, for an explanation of the two flavors
of variables.
When you add to a variable’s value with ‘+=’, make acts essentially as if you had included
the extra text in the initial definition of the variable. If you defined it first with ‘:=’, making
it a simply-expanded variable, ‘+=’ adds to that simply-expanded definition, and expands
the new text before appending it to the old value just as ‘:=’ does (see Section 6.5 [Setting
Variables], page 51, for a full explanation of ‘:=’). In fact,
Chapter 6: How to Use Variables 53

variable := value
variable += more
is exactly equivalent to:
variable := value
variable := $(variable) more
On the other hand, when you use ‘+=’ with a variable that you defined first to be
recursively-expanded using plain ‘=’, make does something a bit different. Recall that when
you define a recursively-expanded variable, make does not expand the value you set for
variable and function references immediately. Instead it stores the text verbatim, and saves
these variable and function references to be expanded later, when you refer to the new
variable (see Section 6.2 [The Two Flavors of Variables], page 46). When you use ‘+=’ on
a recursively-expanded variable, it is this unexpanded text to which make appends the new
text you specify.
variable = value
variable += more
is roughly equivalent to:
temp = value
variable = $(temp) more
except that of course it never defines a variable called temp. The importance of this comes
when the variable’s old value contains variable references. Take this common example:
CFLAGS = $(includes) -O
...
CFLAGS += -pg # enable profiling
The first line defines the CFLAGS variable with a reference to another variable, includes.
(CFLAGS is used by the rules for C compilation; see Section 10.2 [Catalogue of Implicit
Rules], page 84.) Using ‘=’ for the definition makes CFLAGS a recursively-expanded variable,
meaning ‘$(includes) -O’ is not expanded when make processes the definition of CFLAGS.
Thus, includes need not be defined yet for its value to take effect. It only has to be defined
before any reference to CFLAGS. If we tried to append to the value of CFLAGS without using
‘+=’, we might do it like this:
CFLAGS := $(CFLAGS) -pg # enable profiling
This is pretty close, but not quite what we want. Using ‘:=’ redefines CFLAGS as a simply-
expanded variable; this means make expands the text ‘$(CFLAGS) -pg’ before setting the
variable. If includes is not yet defined, we get ‘ -O -pg’, and a later definition of includes
will have no effect. Conversely, by using ‘+=’ we set CFLAGS to the unexpanded value
‘$(includes) -O -pg’. Thus we preserve the reference to includes, so if that variable gets
defined at any later point, a reference like ‘$(CFLAGS)’ still uses its value.

6.7 The override Directive

If a variable has been set with a command argument (see Section 9.5 [Overriding Vari-
ables], page 77), then ordinary assignments in the makefile are ignored. If you want to set
the variable in the makefile even though it was set with a command argument, you can use
an override directive, which is a line that looks like this:
54 GNU make

override variable = value

or
override variable := value
To append more text to a variable defined on the command line, use:
override variable += more text
See Section 6.6 [Appending More Text to Variables], page 52.
The override directive was not invented for escalation in the war between makefiles
and command arguments. It was invented so you can alter and add to values that the user
specifies with command arguments.
For example, suppose you always want the ‘-g’ switch when you run the C compiler, but
you would like to allow the user to specify the other switches with a command argument
just as usual. You could use this override directive:
override CFLAGS += -g
You can also use override directives with define directives. This is done as you might
expect:
override define foo
bar
endef
See the next section for information about define.

6.8 Defining Variables Verbatim

Another way to set the value of a variable is to use the define directive. This directive
has an unusual syntax which allows newline characters to be included in the value, which
is convenient for defining canned sequences of commands (see Section 5.7 [Defining Canned
Command Sequences], page 42).
The define directive is followed on the same line by the name of the variable and nothing
more. The value to give the variable appears on the following lines. The end of the value
is marked by a line containing just the word endef. Aside from this difference in syntax,
define works just like ‘=’: it creates a recursively-expanded variable (see Section 6.2 [The
Two Flavors of Variables], page 46). The variable name may contain function and variable
references, which are expanded when the directive is read to find the actual variable name
to use.
define two-lines
echo foo
echo $(bar)
endef
The value in an ordinary assignment cannot contain a newline; but the newlines that
separate the lines of the value in a define become part of the variable’s value (except for
the final newline which precedes the endef and is not considered part of the value).
The previous example is functionally equivalent to this:
two-lines = echo foo; echo $(bar)
Chapter 6: How to Use Variables 55

since two commands separated by semicolon behave much like two separate shell commands.
However, note that using two separate lines means make will invoke the shell twice, running
an independent subshell for each line. See Section 5.2 [Command Execution], page 33.
If you want variable definitions made with define to take precedence over command-line
variable definitions, you can use the override directive together with define:
override define two-lines
foo
$(bar)
endef
See Section 6.7 [The override Directive], page 53.

6.9 Variables from the Environment

Variables in make can come from the environment in which make is run. Every environ-
ment variable that make sees when it starts up is transformed into a make variable with
the same name and value. But an explicit assignment in the makefile, or with a command
argument, overrides the environment. (If the ‘-e’ flag is specified, then values from the
environment override assignments in the makefile. See Section 9.7 [Summary of Options],
page 78. But this is not recommended practice.)
Thus, by setting the variable CFLAGS in your environment, you can cause all C compi-
lations in most makefiles to use the compiler switches you prefer. This is safe for variables
with standard or conventional meanings because you know that no makefile will use them
for other things. (But this is not totally reliable; some makefiles set CFLAGS explicitly and
therefore are not affected by the value in the environment.)
When make is invoked recursively, variables defined in the outer invocation can be passed
to inner invocations through the environment (see Section 5.6 [Recursive Use of make],
page 37). By default, only variables that came from the environment or the command
line are passed to recursive invocations. You can use the export directive to pass other
variables. See Section 5.6.2 [Communicating Variables to a Sub-make], page 38, for full
details.
Other use of variables from the environment is not recommended. It is not wise for
makefiles to depend for their functioning on environment variables set up outside their
control, since this would cause different users to get different results from the same makefile.
This is against the whole purpose of most makefiles.
Such problems would be especially likely with the variable SHELL, which is normally
present in the environment to specify the user’s choice of interactive shell. It would be very
undesirable for this choice to affect make. So make ignores the environment value of SHELL
(except on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, where SHELL is usually not set. See Section 5.2
[Special handling of SHELL on MS-DOS], page 33.)

6.10 Target-specific Variable Values

Variable values in make are usually global; that is, they are the same regardless of where
they are evaluated (unless they’re reset, of course). One exception to that is automatic
variables (see Section 10.5.3 [Automatic Variables], page 92).
56 GNU make

The other exception is target-specific variable values. This feature allows you to define
different values for the same variable, based on the target that make is currently building.
As with automatic variables, these values are only available within the context of a target’s
command script (and in other target-specific assignments).
Set a target-specific variable value like this:
target . . . : variable-assignment
or like this:
target . . . : override variable-assignment
Multiple target values create a target-specific variable value for each member of the
target list individually.
The variable-assignment can be any valid form of assignment; recursive (‘=’), static
(‘:=’), appending (‘+=’), or conditional (‘?=’). All variables that appear within the variable-
assignment are evaluated within the context of the target: thus, any previously-defined
target-specific variable values will be in effect. Note that this variable is actually distinct
from any “global” value: the two variables do not have to have the same flavor (recursive
vs. static).
Target-specific variables have the same priority as any other makefile variable. Variables
provided on the command-line (and in the environment if the ‘-e’ option is in force) will
take precedence. Specifying the override directive will allow the target-specific variable
value to be preferred.
There is one more special feature of target-specific variables: when you define a target-
specific variable, that variable value is also in effect for all dependencies of this target
(unless those dependencies override it with their own target-specific variable value). So, for
example, a statement like this:
prog : CFLAGS = -g
prog : prog.o foo.o bar.o
will set CFLAGS to ‘-g’ in the command script for ‘prog’, but it will also set CFLAGS to ‘-g’ in
the command scripts that create ‘prog.o’, ‘foo.o’, and ‘bar.o’, and any command scripts
which create their dependencies.

6.11 Pattern-specific Variable Values

In addition to target-specific variable values (see Section 6.10 [Target-specific Variable
Values], page 55), GNU make supports pattern-specific variable values. In this form, a
variable is defined for any target that matches the pattern specified. Variables defined in
this way are searched after any target-specific variables defined explicitly for that target,
and before target-specific variables defined for the parent target.
Set a pattern-specific variable value like this:
pattern . . . : variable-assignment
or like this:
pattern . . . : override variable-assignment
Chapter 6: How to Use Variables 57

where pattern is a %-pattern. As with target-specific variable values, multiple pattern

values create a pattern-specific variable value for each pattern individually. The variable-
assignment can be any valid form of assignment. Any command-line variable setting will
take precedence, unless override is specified.
For example:
%.o : CFLAGS = -O
will assign CFLAGS the value of ‘-O’ for all targets matching the pattern %.o.
58 GNU make
Chapter 7: Conditional Parts of Makefiles 59

7 Conditional Parts of Makefiles

A conditional causes part of a makefile to be obeyed or ignored depending on the values
of variables. Conditionals can compare the value of one variable to another, or the value
of a variable to a constant string. Conditionals control what make actually “sees” in the
makefile, so they cannot be used to control shell commands at the time of execution.

7.1 Example of a Conditional

The following example of a conditional tells make to use one set of libraries if the CC
variable is ‘gcc’, and a different set of libraries otherwise. It works by controlling which of
two command lines will be used as the command for a rule. The result is that ‘CC=gcc’ as
an argument to make changes not only which compiler is used but also which libraries are
linked.
libs_for_gcc = -lgnu
normal_libs =

foo: $(objects)
ifeq ($(CC),gcc)
$(CC) -o foo $(objects) $(libs_for_gcc)
else
$(CC) -o foo $(objects) $(normal_libs)
endif
This conditional uses three directives: one ifeq, one else and one endif.
The ifeq directive begins the conditional, and specifies the condition. It contains two
arguments, separated by a comma and surrounded by parentheses. Variable substitution
is performed on both arguments and then they are compared. The lines of the makefile
following the ifeq are obeyed if the two arguments match; otherwise they are ignored.
The else directive causes the following lines to be obeyed if the previous conditional
failed. In the example above, this means that the second alternative linking command
is used whenever the first alternative is not used. It is optional to have an else in a
conditional.
The endif directive ends the conditional. Every conditional must end with an endif.
Unconditional makefile text follows.
As this example illustrates, conditionals work at the textual level: the lines of the con-
ditional are treated as part of the makefile, or ignored, according to the condition. This is
why the larger syntactic units of the makefile, such as rules, may cross the beginning or the
end of the conditional.
When the variable CC has the value ‘gcc’, the above example has this effect:
foo: $(objects)
$(CC) -o foo $(objects) $(libs_for_gcc)
When the variable CC has any other value, the effect is this:
foo: $(objects)
$(CC) -o foo $(objects) $(normal_libs)
60 GNU make

Equivalent results can be obtained in another way by conditionalizing a variable assign-

ment and then using the variable unconditionally:
libs_for_gcc = -lgnu
normal_libs =

ifeq ($(CC),gcc)
libs=$(libs_for_gcc)
else
libs=$(normal_libs)
endif

foo: $(objects)
$(CC) -o foo $(objects) $(libs)

7.2 Syntax of Conditionals

The syntax of a simple conditional with no else is as follows:
conditional-directive
text-if-true
endif
The text-if-true may be any lines of text, to be considered as part of the makefile if the
condition is true. If the condition is false, no text is used instead.
The syntax of a complex conditional is as follows:
conditional-directive
text-if-true
else
text-if-false
endif
If the condition is true, text-if-true is used; otherwise, text-if-false is used instead. The
text-if-false can be any number of lines of text.
The syntax of the conditional-directive is the same whether the conditional is simple or
complex. There are four different directives that test different conditions. Here is a table
of them:
ifeq (arg1, arg2)
ifeq ’arg1’ ’arg2’
ifeq "arg1" "arg2"
ifeq "arg1" ’arg2’
ifeq ’arg1’ "arg2"
Expand all variable references in arg1 and arg2 and compare them. If they
are identical, the text-if-true is effective; otherwise, the text-if-false, if any, is
effective.
Often you want to test if a variable has a non-empty value. When the value
results from complex expansions of variables and functions, expansions you
would consider empty may actually contain whitespace characters and thus are
not seen as empty. However, you can use the strip function (see Section 8.2
Chapter 7: Conditional Parts of Makefiles 61

[Text Functions], page 64) to avoid interpreting whitespace as a non-empty

value. For example:
ifeq ($(strip $(foo)),)
text-if-empty
endif
will evaluate text-if-empty even if the expansion of $(foo) contains whitespace
characters.
ifneq (arg1, arg2)
ifneq ’arg1’ ’arg2’
ifneq "arg1" "arg2"
ifneq "arg1" ’arg2’
ifneq ’arg1’ "arg2"
Expand all variable references in arg1 and arg2 and compare them. If they
are different, the text-if-true is effective; otherwise, the text-if-false, if any, is
effective.
ifdef variable-name
If the variable variable-name has a non-empty value, the text-if-true is effective;
otherwise, the text-if-false, if any, is effective. Variables that have never been
defined have an empty value.
Note that ifdef only tests whether a variable has a value. It does not expand
the variable to see if that value is nonempty. Consequently, tests using ifdef
return true for all definitions except those like foo =. To test for an empty
value, use ifeq ($(foo),). For example,
bar =
foo = $(bar)
ifdef foo
frobozz = yes
else
frobozz = no
endif
sets ‘frobozz’ to ‘yes’, while:
foo =
ifdef foo
frobozz = yes
else
frobozz = no
endif
sets ‘frobozz’ to ‘no’.
ifndef variable-name
If the variable variable-name has an empty value, the text-if-true is effective;
otherwise, the text-if-false, if any, is effective.
Extra spaces are allowed and ignored at the beginning of the conditional directive line,
but a tab is not allowed. (If the line begins with a tab, it will be considered a command
for a rule.) Aside from this, extra spaces or tabs may be inserted with no effect anywhere
62 GNU make

except within the directive name or within an argument. A comment starting with ‘#’ may
appear at the end of the line.
The other two directives that play a part in a conditional are else and endif. Each of
these directives is written as one word, with no arguments. Extra spaces are allowed and
ignored at the beginning of the line, and spaces or tabs at the end. A comment starting
with ‘#’ may appear at the end of the line.
Conditionals affect which lines of the makefile make uses. If the condition is true, make
reads the lines of the text-if-true as part of the makefile; if the condition is false, make
ignores those lines completely. It follows that syntactic units of the makefile, such as rules,
may safely be split across the beginning or the end of the conditional.
make evaluates conditionals when it reads a makefile. Consequently, you cannot use
automatic variables in the tests of conditionals because they are not defined until commands
are run (see Section 10.5.3 [Automatic Variables], page 92).
To prevent intolerable confusion, it is not permitted to start a conditional in one makefile
and end it in another. However, you may write an include directive within a conditional,
provided you do not attempt to terminate the conditional inside the included file.

7.3 Conditionals that Test Flags

You can write a conditional that tests make command flags such as ‘-t’ by using the
variable MAKEFLAGS together with the findstring function (see Section 8.2 [Functions for
String Substitution and Analysis], page 64). This is useful when touch is not enough to
make a file appear up to date.
The findstring function determines whether one string appears as a substring of an-
other. If you want to test for the ‘-t’ flag, use ‘t’ as the first string and the value of
MAKEFLAGS as the other.
For example, here is how to arrange to use ‘ranlib -t’ to finish marking an archive file
up to date:
archive.a: . . .
ifneq (,$(findstring t,$(MAKEFLAGS)))
+touch archive.a
+ranlib -t archive.a
else
ranlib archive.a
endif
The ‘+’ prefix marks those command lines as “recursive” so that they will be executed
despite use of the ‘-t’ flag. See Section 5.6 [Recursive Use of make], page 37.
Chapter 8: Functions for Transforming Text 63

8 Functions for Transforming Text

Functions allow you to do text processing in the makefile to compute the files to operate
on or the commands to use. You use a function in a function call, where you give the name
of the function and some text (the arguments) for the function to operate on. The result
of the function’s processing is substituted into the makefile at the point of the call, just as
a variable might be substituted.

8.1 Function Call Syntax

A function call resembles a variable reference. It looks like this:
$(function arguments)
or like this:
${function arguments}
Here function is a function name; one of a short list of names that are part of make.
There is no provision for defining new functions.
The arguments are the arguments of the function. They are separated from the function
name by one or more spaces or tabs, and if there is more than one argument, then they are
separated by commas. Such whitespace and commas are not part of an argument’s value.
The delimiters which you use to surround the function call, whether parentheses or braces,
can appear in an argument only in matching pairs; the other kind of delimiters may appear
singly. If the arguments themselves contain other function calls or variable references, it is
wisest to use the same kind of delimiters for all the references; write ‘$(subst a,b,$(x))’,
not ‘$(subst a,b,${x})’. This is because it is clearer, and because only one type of delim-
iter is matched to find the end of the reference.
The text written for each argument is processed by substitution of variables and function
calls to produce the argument value, which is the text on which the function acts. The
substitution is done in the order in which the arguments appear.
Commas and unmatched parentheses or braces cannot appear in the text of an argument
as written; leading spaces cannot appear in the text of the first argument as written. These
characters can be put into the argument value by variable substitution. First define variables
comma and space whose values are isolated comma and space characters, then substitute
these variables where such characters are wanted, like this:
comma:= ,
empty:=
space:= $(empty) $(empty)
foo:= a b c
bar:= $(subst $(space),$(comma),$(foo))
# bar is now ‘a,b,c’.
Here the subst function replaces each space with a comma, through the value of foo, and
substitutes the result.
64 GNU make

8.2 Functions for String Substitution and Analysis

Here are some functions that operate on strings:
$(subst from,to,text)
Performs a textual replacement on the text text: each occurrence of from is
replaced by to. The result is substituted for the function call. For example,
$(subst ee,EE,feet on the street)
substitutes the string ‘fEEt on the strEEt’.
$(patsubst pattern,replacement,text)
Finds whitespace-separated words in text that match pattern and replaces them
with replacement. Here pattern may contain a ‘%’ which acts as a wildcard,
matching any number of any characters within a word. If replacement also
contains a ‘%’, the ‘%’ is replaced by the text that matched the ‘%’ in pattern.
‘%’ characters in patsubst function invocations can be quoted with preceding
backslashes (‘\’). Backslashes that would otherwise quote ‘%’ characters can be
quoted with more backslashes. Backslashes that quote ‘%’ characters or other
backslashes are removed from the pattern before it is compared file names or has
a stem substituted into it. Backslashes that are not in danger of quoting ‘%’ char-
acters go unmolested. For example, the pattern ‘the\%weird\\%pattern\\’ has
‘the%weird\’ preceding the operative ‘%’ character, and ‘pattern\\’ following
it. The final two backslashes are left alone because they cannot affect any ‘%’
character.
Whitespace between words is folded into single space characters; leading and
trailing whitespace is discarded.
For example,
$(patsubst %.c,%.o,x.c.c bar.c)
produces the value ‘x.c.o bar.o’.
Substitution references (see Section 6.3.1 [Substitution References], page 48)
are a simpler way to get the effect of the patsubst function:
$(var:pattern=replacement)
is equivalent to
$(patsubst pattern,replacement,$(var))
The second shorthand simplifies one of the most common uses of patsubst:
replacing the suffix at the end of file names.
$(var:suffix=replacement)
is equivalent to
$(patsubst %suffix,%replacement,$(var))
For example, you might have a list of object files:
objects = foo.o bar.o baz.o
To get the list of corresponding source files, you could simply write:
$(objects:.o=.c)
instead of using the general form:
Chapter 8: Functions for Transforming Text 65

$(patsubst %.o,%.c,$(objects))
$(strip string)
Removes leading and trailing whitespace from string and replaces each inter-
nal sequence of one or more whitespace characters with a single space. Thus,
‘$(strip a b c )’ results in ‘a b c’.
The function strip can be very useful when used in conjunction with condi-
tionals. When comparing something with the empty string ‘’ using ifeq or
ifneq, you usually want a string of just whitespace to match the empty string
(see Chapter 7 [Conditionals], page 59).
Thus, the following may fail to have the desired results:
.PHONY: all
ifneq "$(needs_made)" ""
all: $(needs_made)
else
all:;@echo ’Nothing to make!’
endif
Replacing the variable reference ‘$(needs_made)’ with the function call ‘$(strip $(needs_made
in the ifneq directive would make it more robust.
$(findstring find,in)
Searches in for an occurrence of find. If it occurs, the value is find; otherwise,
the value is empty. You can use this function in a conditional to test for the
presence of a specific substring in a given string. Thus, the two examples,
$(findstring a,a b c)
$(findstring a,b c)
produce the values ‘a’ and ‘’ (the empty string), respectively. See Section 7.3
[Testing Flags], page 62, for a practical application of findstring.
$(filter pattern. . .,text)
Removes all whitespace-separated words in text that do not match any of the
pattern words, returning only matching words. The patterns are written using
‘%’, just like the patterns used in the patsubst function above.
The filter function can be used to separate out different types of strings (such
as file names) in a variable. For example:
sources := foo.c bar.c baz.s ugh.h
foo: $(sources)
cc $(filter %.c %.s,$(sources)) -o foo
says that ‘foo’ depends of ‘foo.c’, ‘bar.c’, ‘baz.s’ and ‘ugh.h’ but only
‘foo.c’, ‘bar.c’ and ‘baz.s’ should be specified in the command to the com-
piler.
$(filter-out pattern. . .,text)
Removes all whitespace-separated words in text that do match the pattern
words, returning only the words that do not match. This is the exact opposite
of the filter function.
For example, given:
66 GNU make

objects=main1.o foo.o main2.o bar.o

mains=main1.o main2.o
the following generates a list which contains all the object files not in ‘mains’:
$(filter-out $(mains),$(objects))
$(sort list)
Sorts the words of list in lexical order, removing duplicate words. The output
is a list of words separated by single spaces. Thus,
$(sort foo bar lose)
returns the value ‘bar foo lose’.
Incidentally, since sort removes duplicate words, you can use it for this purpose
even if you don’t care about the sort order.
Here is a realistic example of the use of subst and patsubst. Suppose that a makefile
uses the VPATH variable to specify a list of directories that make should search for dependency
files (see Section 4.3.1 [VPATH Search Path for All Dependencies], page 18). This example
shows how to tell the C compiler to search for header files in the same list of directories.
The value of VPATH is a list of directories separated by colons, such as ‘src:../headers’.
First, the subst function is used to change the colons to spaces:
$(subst :, ,$(VPATH))
This produces ‘src ../headers’. Then patsubst is used to turn each directory name
into a ‘-I’ flag. These can be added to the value of the variable CFLAGS, which is passed
automatically to the C compiler, like this:
override CFLAGS += $(patsubst %,-I%,$(subst :, ,$(VPATH)))
The effect is to append the text ‘-Isrc -I../headers’ to the previously given value of
CFLAGS. The override directive is used so that the new value is assigned even if the
previous value of CFLAGS was specified with a command argument (see Section 6.7 [The
override Directive], page 53).

8.3 Functions for File Names

Several of the built-in expansion functions relate specifically to taking apart file names
or lists of file names.
Each of the following functions performs a specific transformation on a file name. The
argument of the function is regarded as a series of file names, separated by whitespace.
(Leading and trailing whitespace is ignored.) Each file name in the series is transformed in
the same way and the results are concatenated with single spaces between them.
$(dir names. . .)
Extracts the directory-part of each file name in names. The directory-part of
the file name is everything up through (and including) the last slash in it. If the
file name contains no slash, the directory part is the string ‘./’. For example,
$(dir src/foo.c hacks)
produces the result ‘src/ ./’.
Chapter 8: Functions for Transforming Text 67

$(notdir names. . .)
Extracts all but the directory-part of each file name in names. If the file name
contains no slash, it is left unchanged. Otherwise, everything through the last
slash is removed from it.
A file name that ends with a slash becomes an empty string. This is unfortunate,
because it means that the result does not always have the same number of
whitespace-separated file names as the argument had; but we do not see any
other valid alternative.
For example,
$(notdir src/foo.c hacks)
produces the result ‘foo.c hacks’.
$(suffix names. . .)
Extracts the suffix of each file name in names. If the file name contains a period,
the suffix is everything starting with the last period. Otherwise, the suffix is
the empty string. This frequently means that the result will be empty when
names is not, and if names contains multiple file names, the result may contain
fewer file names.
For example,
$(suffix src/foo.c src-1.0/bar.c hacks)
produces the result ‘.c .c’.
$(basename names. . .)
Extracts all but the suffix of each file name in names. If the file name contains
a period, the basename is everything starting up to (and not including) the last
period. Periods in the directory part are ignored. If there is no period, the
basename is the entire file name. For example,
$(basename src/foo.c src-1.0/bar hacks)
produces the result ‘src/foo src-1.0/bar hacks’.
$(addsuffix suffix,names. . .)
The argument names is regarded as a series of names, separated by whitespace;
suffix is used as a unit. The value of suffix is appended to the end of each
individual name and the resulting larger names are concatenated with single
spaces between them. For example,
$(addsuffix .c,foo bar)
produces the result ‘foo.c bar.c’.
$(addprefix prefix,names. . .)
The argument names is regarded as a series of names, separated by whitespace;
prefix is used as a unit. The value of prefix is prepended to the front of each
individual name and the resulting larger names are concatenated with single
spaces between them. For example,
$(addprefix src/,foo bar)
produces the result ‘src/foo src/bar’.
68 GNU make

$(join list1,list2)
Concatenates the two arguments word by word: the two first words (one from
each argument) concatenated form the first word of the result, the two second
words form the second word of the result, and so on. So the nth word of the
result comes from the nth word of each argument. If one argument has more
words that the other, the extra words are copied unchanged into the result.
For example, ‘$(join a b,.c .o)’ produces ‘a.c b.o’.
Whitespace between the words in the lists is not preserved; it is replaced with
a single space.
This function can merge the results of the dir and notdir functions, to produce
the original list of files which was given to those two functions.

$(word n,text)
Returns the nth word of text. The legitimate values of n start from 1. If n is
bigger than the number of words in text, the value is empty. For example,
$(word 2, foo bar baz)
returns ‘bar’.

$(wordlist s,e,text)
Returns the list of words in text starting with word s and ending with word e
(inclusive). The legitimate values of s and e start from 1. If s is bigger than
the number of words in text, the value is empty. If e is bigger than the number
of words in text, words up to the end of text are returned. If s is greater than
e, make swaps them for you. For example,
$(wordlist 2, 3, foo bar baz)
returns ‘bar baz’.

$(words text)
Returns the number of words in text. Thus, the last word of text is $(word $(words text),text)

$(firstword names. . .)
The argument names is regarded as a series of names, separated by whitespace.
The value is the first name in the series. The rest of the names are ignored.
For example,
$(firstword foo bar)
produces the result ‘foo’. Although $(firstword text) is the same as $(word
1,text), the firstword function is retained for its simplicity.

$(wildcard pattern)
The argument pattern is a file name pattern, typically containing wildcard
characters (as in shell file name patterns). The result of wildcard is a space-
separated list of the names of existing files that match the pattern. See Sec-
tion 4.2 [Using Wildcard Characters in File Names], page 16.
Chapter 8: Functions for Transforming Text 69

8.4 The foreach Function

The foreach function is very different from other functions. It causes one piece of text
to be used repeatedly, each time with a different substitution performed on it. It resembles
the for command in the shell sh and the foreach command in the C-shell csh.
The syntax of the foreach function is:
$(foreach var,list,text)
The first two arguments, var and list, are expanded before anything else is done; note that
the last argument, text, is not expanded at the same time. Then for each word of the
expanded value of list, the variable named by the expanded value of var is set to that word,
and text is expanded. Presumably text contains references to that variable, so its expansion
will be different each time.
The result is that text is expanded as many times as there are whitespace-separated
words in list. The multiple expansions of text are concatenated, with spaces between them,
to make the result of foreach.
This simple example sets the variable ‘files’ to the list of all files in the directories in
the list ‘dirs’:
dirs := a b c d
files := $(foreach dir,$(dirs),$(wildcard $(dir)/*))
Here text is ‘$(wildcard $(dir)/*)’. The first repetition finds the value ‘a’ for dir, so
it produces the same result as ‘$(wildcard a/*)’; the second repetition produces the result
of ‘$(wildcard b/*)’; and the third, that of ‘$(wildcard c/*)’.
This example has the same result (except for setting ‘dirs’) as the following example:
files := $(wildcard a/* b/* c/* d/*)
When text is complicated, you can improve readability by giving it a name, with an
additional variable:
find_files = $(wildcard $(dir)/*)
dirs := a b c d
files := $(foreach dir,$(dirs),$(find_files))
Here we use the variable find_files this way. We use plain ‘=’ to define a recursively-
expanding variable, so that its value contains an actual function call to be reexpanded under
the control of foreach; a simply-expanded variable would not do, since wildcard would be
called only once at the time of defining find_files.
The foreach function has no permanent effect on the variable var; its value and flavor
after the foreach function call are the same as they were beforehand. The other values
which are taken from list are in effect only temporarily, during the execution of foreach.
The variable var is a simply-expanded variable during the execution of foreach. If var was
undefined before the foreach function call, it is undefined after the call. See Section 6.2
[The Two Flavors of Variables], page 46.
You must take care when using complex variable expressions that result in variable
names because many strange things are valid variable names, but are probably not what
you intended. For example,
70 GNU make

files := $(foreach Esta escrito en espanol!,b c ch,$(find_files))

might be useful if the value of find_files references the variable whose name is ‘Esta
escrito en espanol!’ (es un nombre bastante largo, no?), but it is more likely to be a
mistake.

8.5 The origin Function

The origin function is unlike most other functions in that it does not operate on the
values of variables; it tells you something about a variable. Specifically, it tells you where
it came from.
The syntax of the origin function is:
$(origin variable)
Note that variable is the name of a variable to inquire about; not a reference to that
variable. Therefore you would not normally use a ‘$’ or parentheses when writing it. (You
can, however, use a variable reference in the name if you want the name not to be a
constant.)
The result of this function is a string telling you how the variable variable was defined:
‘undefined’
if variable was never defined.
‘default’
if variable has a default definition, as is usual with CC and so on. See Section 10.3
[Variables Used by Implicit Rules], page 87. Note that if you have redefined a
default variable, the origin function will return the origin of the later definition.
‘environment’
if variable was defined as an environment variable and the ‘-e’ option is not
turned on (see Section 9.7 [Summary of Options], page 78).
‘environment override’
if variable was defined as an environment variable and the ‘-e’ option is turned
on (see Section 9.7 [Summary of Options], page 78).
‘file’
if variable was defined in a makefile.
‘command line’
if variable was defined on the command line.
‘override’
if variable was defined with an override directive in a makefile (see Section 6.7
[The override Directive], page 53).
‘automatic’
if variable is an automatic variable defined for the execution of the commands
for each rule (see Section 10.5.3 [Automatic Variables], page 92).
Chapter 8: Functions for Transforming Text 71

This information is primarily useful (other than for your curiosity) to determine if you
want to believe the value of a variable. For example, suppose you have a makefile ‘foo’ that
includes another makefile ‘bar’. You want a variable bletch to be defined in ‘bar’ if you
run the command ‘make -f bar’, even if the environment contains a definition of bletch.
However, if ‘foo’ defined bletch before including ‘bar’, you do not want to override that
definition. This could be done by using an override directive in ‘foo’, giving that definition
precedence over the later definition in ‘bar’; unfortunately, the override directive would
also override any command line definitions. So, ‘bar’ could include:
ifdef bletch
ifeq "$(origin bletch)" "environment"
bletch = barf, gag, etc.
endif
endif
If bletch has been defined from the environment, this will redefine it.
If you want to override a previous definition of bletch if it came from the environment,
even under ‘-e’, you could instead write:
ifneq "$(findstring environment,$(origin bletch))" ""
bletch = barf, gag, etc.
endif
Here the redefinition takes place if ‘$(origin bletch)’ returns either ‘environment’ or
‘environment override’. See Section 8.2 [Functions for String Substitution and Analysis],
page 64.

8.6 The shell Function

The shell function is unlike any other function except the wildcard function (see
Section 4.2.3 [The Function wildcard], page 17) in that it communicates with the world
outside of make.
The shell function performs the same function that backquotes (‘‘’) perform in most
shells: it does command expansion. This means that it takes an argument that is a shell
command and returns the output of the command. The only processing make does on
the result, before substituting it into the surrounding text, is to convert each newline or
carriage-return / newline pair to a single space. It also removes the trailing (carriage-return
and) newline, if it’s the last thing in the result.
The commands run by calls to the shell function are run when the function calls are
expanded. In most cases, this is when the makefile is read in. The exception is that
function calls in the commands of the rules are expanded when the commands are run, and
this applies to shell function calls like all others.
Here are some examples of the use of the shell function:
contents := $(shell cat foo)
sets contents to the contents of the file ‘foo’, with a space (rather than a newline) sepa-
rating each line.
files := $(shell echo *.c)
sets files to the expansion of ‘*.c’. Unless make is using a very strange shell, this has the
same result as ‘$(wildcard *.c)’.
72 GNU make
Chapter 9: How to Run make 73

9 How to Run make

A makefile that says how to recompile a program can be used in more than one way.
The simplest use is to recompile every file that is out of date. Usually, makefiles are written
so that if you run make with no arguments, it does just that.
But you might want to update only some of the files; you might want to use a different
compiler or different compiler options; you might want just to find out which files are out
of date without changing them.
By giving arguments when you run make, you can do any of these things and many
others.
The exit status of make is always one of three values:
0 The exit status is zero if make is successful.
2 The exit status is two if make encounters any errors. It will print messages
describing the particular errors.
1 The exit status is one if you use the ‘-q’ flag and make determines that some
target is not already up to date. See Section 9.3 [Instead of Executing the
Commands], page 75.

9.1 Arguments to Specify the Makefile

The way to specify the name of the makefile is with the ‘-f’ or ‘--file’ option
(‘--makefile’ also works). For example, ‘-f altmake’ says to use the file ‘altmake’ as
the makefile.
If you use the ‘-f’ flag several times and follow each ‘-f’ with an argument, all the
specified files are used jointly as makefiles.
If you do not use the ‘-f’ or ‘--file’ flag, the default is to try ‘GNUmakefile’, ‘makefile’,
and ‘Makefile’, in that order, and use the first of these three which exists or can be made
(see Chapter 3 [Writing Makefiles], page 9).

9.2 Arguments to Specify the Goals

The goals are the targets that make should strive ultimately to update. Other targets
are updated as well if they appear as dependencies of goals, or dependencies of dependencies
of goals, etc.
By default, the goal is the first target in the makefile (not counting targets that start with
a period). Therefore, makefiles are usually written so that the first target is for compiling
the entire program or programs they describe. If the first rule in the makefile has several
targets, only the first target in the rule becomes the default goal, not the whole list.
You can specify a different goal or goals with arguments to make. Use the name of the
goal as an argument. If you specify several goals, make processes each of them in turn, in
the order you name them.
Any target in the makefile may be specified as a goal (unless it starts with ‘-’ or contains
an ‘=’, in which case it will be parsed as a switch or variable definition, respectively). Even
74 GNU make

targets not in the makefile may be specified, if make can find implicit rules that say how to
make them.
Make will set the special variable MAKECMDGOALS to the list of goals you specified on the
command line. If no goals were given on the command line, this variable is empty. Note
that this variable should be used only in special circumstances.
An example of appropriate use is to avoid including ‘.d’ files during clean rules (see
Section 4.12 [Automatic Dependencies], page 30), so make won’t create them only to imme-
diately remove them again:
sources = foo.c bar.c

ifneq ($(MAKECMDGOALS),clean)
include $(sources:.c=.d)
endif
One use of specifying a goal is if you want to compile only a part of the program, or only
one of several programs. Specify as a goal each file that you wish to remake. For example,
consider a directory containing several programs, with a makefile that starts like this:
.PHONY: all
all: size nm ld ar as
If you are working on the program size, you might want to say ‘make size’ so that only
the files of that program are recompiled.
Another use of specifying a goal is to make files that are not normally made. For
example, there may be a file of debugging output, or a version of the program that is
compiled specially for testing, which has a rule in the makefile but is not a dependency of
the default goal.
Another use of specifying a goal is to run the commands associated with a phony target
(see Section 4.4 [Phony Targets], page 22) or empty target (see Section 4.6 [Empty Target
Files to Record Events], page 24). Many makefiles contain a phony target named ‘clean’
which deletes everything except source files. Naturally, this is done only if you request it
explicitly with ‘make clean’. Following is a list of typical phony and empty target names.
See Section 14.5 [Standard Targets], page 117, for a detailed list of all the standard target
names which GNU software packages use.
‘all’ Make all the top-level targets the makefile knows about.
‘clean’ Delete all files that are normally created by running make.
‘mostlyclean’
Like ‘clean’, but may refrain from deleting a few files that people normally
don’t want to recompile. For example, the ‘mostlyclean’ target for GCC does
not delete ‘libgcc.a’, because recompiling it is rarely necessary and takes a lot
of time.
‘distclean’
‘realclean’
‘clobber’ Any of these targets might be defined to delete more files than ‘clean’ does. For
example, this would delete configuration files or links that you would normally
create as preparation for compilation, even if the makefile itself cannot create
these files.
Chapter 9: How to Run make 75

‘install’ Copy the executable file into a directory that users typically search for com-
mands; copy any auxiliary files that the executable uses into the directories
where it will look for them.
‘print’ Print listings of the source files that have changed.
‘tar’ Create a tar file of the source files.
‘shar’ Create a shell archive (shar file) of the source files.
‘dist’ Create a distribution file of the source files. This might be a tar file, or a shar
file, or a compressed version of one of the above, or even more than one of the
above.
‘TAGS’ Update a tags table for this program.
‘check’
‘test’ Perform self tests on the program this makefile builds.

9.3 Instead of Executing the Commands

The makefile tells make how to tell whether a target is up to date, and how to update
each target. But updating the targets is not always what you want. Certain options specify
other activities for make.
‘-n’
‘--just-print’
‘--dry-run’
‘--recon’
“No-op”. The activity is to print what commands would be used to make the
targets up to date, but not actually execute them.
‘-t’
‘--touch’
“Touch”. The activity is to mark the targets as up to date without actually
changing them. In other words, make pretends to compile the targets but does
not really change their contents.
‘-q’
‘--question’
“Question”. The activity is to find out silently whether the targets are up to
date already; but execute no commands in either case. In other words, neither
compilation nor output will occur.
‘-W file’
‘--what-if=file’
‘--assume-new=file’
‘--new-file=file’
“What if”. Each ‘-W’ flag is followed by a file name. The given files’ modification
times are recorded by make as being the present time, although the actual
modification times remain the same. You can use the ‘-W’ flag in conjunction
with the ‘-n’ flag to see what would happen if you were to modify specific files.
76 GNU make

With the ‘-n’ flag, make prints the commands that it would normally execute but does
not execute them.
With the ‘-t’ flag, make ignores the commands in the rules and uses (in effect) the
command touch for each target that needs to be remade. The touch command is also
printed, unless ‘-s’ or .SILENT is used. For speed, make does not actually invoke the
program touch. It does the work directly.
With the ‘-q’ flag, make prints nothing and executes no commands, but the exit status
code it returns is zero if and only if the targets to be considered are already up to date. If
the exit status is one, then some updating needs to be done. If make encounters an error,
the exit status is two, so you can distinguish an error from a target that is not up to date.
It is an error to use more than one of these three flags in the same invocation of make.
The ‘-n’, ‘-t’, and ‘-q’ options do not affect command lines that begin with ‘+’ characters
or contain the strings ‘$(MAKE)’ or ‘${MAKE}’. Note that only the line containing the ‘+’
character or the strings ‘$(MAKE)’ or ‘${MAKE}’ is run regardless of these options. Other
lines in the same rule are not run unless they too begin with ‘+’ or contain ‘$(MAKE)’ or
‘${MAKE}’ (See Section 5.6.1 [How the MAKE Variable Works], page 38.)
The ‘-W’ flag provides two features:
• If you also use the ‘-n’ or ‘-q’ flag, you can see what make would do if you were to
modify some files.
• Without the ‘-n’ or ‘-q’ flag, when make is actually executing commands, the ‘-W’ flag
can direct make to act as if some files had been modified, without actually modifying
the files.
Note that the options ‘-p’ and ‘-v’ allow you to obtain other information about make or
about the makefiles in use (see Section 9.7 [Summary of Options], page 78).

9.4 Avoiding Recompilation of Some Files

Sometimes you may have changed a source file but you do not want to recompile all the
files that depend on it. For example, suppose you add a macro or a declaration to a header
file that many other files depend on. Being conservative, make assumes that any change
in the header file requires recompilation of all dependent files, but you know that they do
not need to be recompiled and you would rather not waste the time waiting for them to
compile.
If you anticipate the problem before changing the header file, you can use the ‘-t’ flag.
This flag tells make not to run the commands in the rules, but rather to mark the target
up to date by changing its last-modification date. You would follow this procedure:
1. Use the command ‘make’ to recompile the source files that really need recompilation.
2. Make the changes in the header files.
3. Use the command ‘make -t’ to mark all the object files as up to date. The next time
you run make, the changes in the header files will not cause any recompilation.
If you have already changed the header file at a time when some files do need recompila-
tion, it is too late to do this. Instead, you can use the ‘-o file’ flag, which marks a specified
file as “old” (see Section 9.7 [Summary of Options], page 78). This means that the file itself
will not be remade, and nothing else will be remade on its account. Follow this procedure:
Chapter 9: How to Run make 77

1. Recompile the source files that need compilation for reasons independent of the par-
ticular header file, with ‘make -o headerfile’. If several header files are involved, use a
separate ‘-o’ option for each header file.
2. Touch all the object files with ‘make -t’.

9.5 Overriding Variables

An argument that contains ‘=’ specifies the value of a variable: ‘v=x’ sets the value of
the variable v to x. If you specify a value in this way, all ordinary assignments of the same
variable in the makefile are ignored; we say they have been overridden by the command line
argument.
The most common way to use this facility is to pass extra flags to compilers. For example,
in a properly written makefile, the variable CFLAGS is included in each command that runs
the C compiler, so a file ‘foo.c’ would be compiled something like this:
cc -c $(CFLAGS) foo.c
Thus, whatever value you set for CFLAGS affects each compilation that occurs. The
makefile probably specifies the usual value for CFLAGS, like this:
CFLAGS=-g
Each time you run make, you can override this value if you wish. For example, if
you say ‘make CFLAGS=’-g -O’’, each C compilation will be done with ‘cc -c -g -O’. (This
illustrates how you can use quoting in the shell to enclose spaces and other special characters
in the value of a variable when you override it.)
The variable CFLAGS is only one of many standard variables that exist just so that you
can change them this way. See Section 10.3 [Variables Used by Implicit Rules], page 87, for
a complete list.
You can also program the makefile to look at additional variables of your own, giving
the user the ability to control other aspects of how the makefile works by changing the
variables.
When you override a variable with a command argument, you can define either a
recursively-expanded variable or a simply-expanded variable. The examples shown above
make a recursively-expanded variable; to make a simply-expanded variable, write ‘:=’ in-
stead of ‘=’. But, unless you want to include a variable reference or function call in the
value that you specify, it makes no difference which kind of variable you create.
There is one way that the makefile can change a variable that you have overridden. This
is to use the override directive, which is a line that looks like this: ‘override variable =
value’ (see Section 6.7 [The override Directive], page 53).

9.6 Testing the Compilation of a Program

Normally, when an error happens in executing a shell command, make gives up immedi-
ately, returning a nonzero status. No further commands are executed for any target. The
error implies that the goal cannot be correctly remade, and make reports this as soon as it
knows.
78 GNU make

When you are compiling a program that you have just changed, this is not what you
want. Instead, you would rather that make try compiling every file that can be tried, to
show you as many compilation errors as possible.
On these occasions, you should use the ‘-k’ or ‘--keep-going’ flag. This tells make
to continue to consider the other dependencies of the pending targets, remaking them if
necessary, before it gives up and returns nonzero status. For example, after an error in
compiling one object file, ‘make -k’ will continue compiling other object files even though it
already knows that linking them will be impossible. In addition to continuing after failed
shell commands, ‘make -k’ will continue as much as possible after discovering that it does
not know how to make a target or dependency file. This will always cause an error message,
but without ‘-k’, it is a fatal error (see Section 9.7 [Summary of Options], page 78).
The usual behavior of make assumes that your purpose is to get the goals up to date;
once make learns that this is impossible, it might as well report the failure immediately.
The ‘-k’ flag says that the real purpose is to test as much as possible of the changes made
in the program, perhaps to find several independent problems so that you can correct them
all before the next attempt to compile. This is why Emacs’ M-x compile command passes
the ‘-k’ flag by default.

9.7 Summary of Options

Here is a table of all the options make understands:
‘-b’
‘-m’ These options are ignored for compatibility with other versions of make.
‘-C dir’
‘--directory=dir’
Change to directory dir before reading the makefiles. 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 (see Section 5.6 [Recursive Use of make], page 37).
‘-d’
‘--debug’
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.
‘-e’
‘--environment-overrides’
Give variables taken from the environment precedence over variables from make-
files. See Section 6.9 [Variables from the Environment], page 55.
‘-f file’
‘--file=file’
‘--makefile=file’
Read the file named file as a makefile. See Chapter 3 [Writing Makefiles], page 9.
Chapter 9: How to Run make 79

‘-h’
‘--help’
Remind you of the options that make understands and then exit.
‘-i’
‘--ignore-errors’
Ignore all errors in commands executed to remake files. See Section 5.4 [Errors
in Commands], page 36.
‘-I dir’
‘--include-dir=dir’
Specifies a directory dir to search for included makefiles. See Section 3.3 [In-
cluding Other Makefiles], page 10. If several ‘-I’ options are used to specify
several directories, the directories are searched in the order specified.
‘-j [jobs]’
‘--jobs=[jobs]’
Specifies the number of jobs (commands) to run simultaneously. With no argu-
ment, make runs as many jobs simultaneously as possible. If there is more than
one ‘-j’ option, the last one is effective. See Section 5.3 [Parallel Execution],
page 35, for more information on how commands are run. Note that this option
is ignored on MS-DOS.
‘-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. See Section 9.6 [Testing the Compilation
of a Program], page 77.
‘-l [load]’
‘--load-average[=load]’
‘--max-load[=load]’
Specifies that no new jobs (commands) should be started if there are other jobs
running and the load average is at least load (a floating-point number). With no
argument, removes a previous load limit. See Section 5.3 [Parallel Execution],
page 35.
‘-n’
‘--just-print’
‘--dry-run’
‘--recon’
Print the commands that would be executed, but do not execute them. See
Section 9.3 [Instead of Executing the Commands], page 75.
‘-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
80 GNU make

very old and its rules are ignored. See Section 9.4 [Avoiding Recompilation of
Some Files], page 76.
‘-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’
“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, one
if any remaking is required, or two if an error is encountered. See Section 9.3
[Instead of Executing the Commands], page 75.
‘-r’
‘--no-builtin-rules’
Eliminate use of the built-in implicit rules (see Chapter 10 [Using Implicit
Rules], page 83). You can still define your own by writing pattern rules (see
Section 10.5 [Defining and Redefining Pattern Rules], page 90). The ‘-r’ option
also clears out the default list of suffixes for suffix rules (see Section 10.7 [Old-
Fashioned Suffix Rules], page 96). But you can still define your own suffixes
with a rule for .SUFFIXES, and then define your own suffix rules. Note that
only rules are affected by the -r option; default variables remain in effect (see
Section 10.3 [Variables Used by Implicit Rules], page 87).
‘-s’
‘--silent’
‘--quiet’
Silent operation; do not print the commands as they are executed. See Sec-
tion 5.1 [Command Echoing], page 33.
‘-S’
‘--no-keep-going’
‘--stop’
Cancel the effect of the ‘-k’ option. This is never necessary except in a recursive
make where ‘-k’ might be inherited from the top-level make via MAKEFLAGS (see
Section 5.6 [Recursive Use of make], page 37) or if you set ‘-k’ in MAKEFLAGS in
your environment.
‘-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. See Section 9.3 [Instead of
Executing the Commands], page 75.
Chapter 9: How to Run make 81

‘-v’
‘--version’
Print the version of the make program plus a copyright, a list of authors, and a
notice that there is no warranty; then exit.
‘-w’
‘--print-directory’
Print a message containing the working directory both before and after execut-
ing the makefile. This may be useful for tracking down errors from complicated
nests of recursive make commands. See Section 5.6 [Recursive Use of make],
page 37. (In practice, you rarely need to specify this option since ‘make’ does
it for you; see Section 5.6.4 [The ‘--print-directory’ Option], page 42.)
‘--no-print-directory’
Disable printing of the working directory under -w. This option is useful when
-w is turned on automatically, but you do not want to see the extra messages.
See Section 5.6.4 [The ‘--print-directory’ Option], page 42.
‘-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. See Section 9.3 [Instead of Executing the Commands],
page 75.
‘--warn-undefined-variables’
Issue a warning message whenever make sees a reference to an undefined vari-
able. This can be helpful when you are trying to debug makefiles which use
variables in complex ways.
82 GNU make
Chapter 10: Using Implicit Rules 83

10 Using Implicit Rules

Certain standard ways of remaking target files are used very often. For example, one
customary way to make an object file is from a C source file using the C compiler, cc.
Implicit rules tell make how to use customary techniques so that you do not have to
specify them in detail when you want to use them. For example, there is an implicit rule
for C compilation. File names determine which implicit rules are run. For example, C
compilation typically takes a ‘.c’ file and makes a ‘.o’ file. So make applies the implicit
rule for C compilation when it sees this combination of file name endings.
A chain of implicit rules can apply in sequence; for example, make will remake a ‘.o’ file
from a ‘.y’ file by way of a ‘.c’ file. See Section 10.4 [Chains of Implicit Rules], page 89.
The built-in implicit rules use several variables in their commands so that, by changing
the values of the variables, you can change the way the implicit rule works. For example,
the variable CFLAGS controls the flags given to the C compiler by the implicit rule for C
compilation. See Section 10.3 [Variables Used by Implicit Rules], page 87.
You can define your own implicit rules by writing pattern rules. See Section 10.5 [Defining
and Redefining Pattern Rules], page 90.
Suffix rules are a more limited way to define implicit rules. Pattern rules are more general
and clearer, but suffix rules are retained for compatibility. See Section 10.7 [Old-Fashioned
Suffix Rules], page 96.

10.1 Using Implicit Rules

To allow make to find a customary method for updating a target file, all you have to do
is refrain from specifying commands yourself. Either write a rule with no command lines,
or don’t write a rule at all. Then make will figure out which implicit rule to use based on
which kind of source file exists or can be made.
For example, suppose the makefile looks like this:
foo : foo.o bar.o
cc -o foo foo.o bar.o $(CFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS)
Because you mention ‘foo.o’ but do not give a rule for it, make will automatically look for
an implicit rule that tells how to update it. This happens whether or not the file ‘foo.o’
currently exists.
If an implicit rule is found, it can supply both commands and one or more dependencies
(the source files). You would want to write a rule for ‘foo.o’ with no command lines if you
need to specify additional dependencies, such as header files, that the implicit rule cannot
supply.
Each implicit rule has a target pattern and dependency patterns. There may be many
implicit rules with the same target pattern. For example, numerous rules make ‘.o’ files:
one, from a ‘.c’ file with the C compiler; another, from a ‘.p’ file with the Pascal compiler;
and so on. The rule that actually applies is the one whose dependencies exist or can be
made. So, if you have a file ‘foo.c’, make will run the C compiler; otherwise, if you have a
file ‘foo.p’, make will run the Pascal compiler; and so on.
84 GNU make

Of course, when you write the makefile, you know which implicit rule you want make
to use, and you know it will choose that one because you know which possible dependency
files are supposed to exist. See Section 10.2 [Catalogue of Implicit Rules], page 84, for a
catalogue of all the predefined implicit rules.
Above, we said an implicit rule applies if the required dependencies “exist or can be
made”. A file “can be made” if it is mentioned explicitly in the makefile as a target or a
dependency, or if an implicit rule can be recursively found for how to make it. When an
implicit dependency is the result of another implicit rule, we say that chaining is occurring.
See Section 10.4 [Chains of Implicit Rules], page 89.
In general, make searches for an implicit rule for each target, and for each double-colon
rule, that has no commands. A file that is mentioned only as a dependency is considered a
target whose rule specifies nothing, so implicit rule search happens for it. See Section 10.8
[Implicit Rule Search Algorithm], page 98, for the details of how the search is done.
Note that explicit dependencies do not influence implicit rule search. For example,
consider this explicit rule:
foo.o: foo.p
The dependency on ‘foo.p’ does not necessarily mean that make will remake ‘foo.o’ ac-
cording to the implicit rule to make an object file, a ‘.o’ file, from a Pascal source file, a
‘.p’ file. For example, if ‘foo.c’ also exists, the implicit rule to make an object file from a C
source file is used instead, because it appears before the Pascal rule in the list of predefined
implicit rules (see Section 10.2 [Catalogue of Implicit Rules], page 84).
If you do not want an implicit rule to be used for a target that has no commands, you
can give that target empty commands by writing a semicolon (see Section 5.8 [Defining
Empty Commands], page 43).

10.2 Catalogue of Implicit Rules

Here is a catalogue of predefined implicit rules which are always available unless the
makefile explicitly overrides or cancels them. See Section 10.5.6 [Canceling Implicit
Rules], page 95, for information on canceling or overriding an implicit rule. The ‘-r’
or ‘--no-builtin-rules’ option cancels all predefined rules.
Not all of these rules will always be defined, even when the ‘-r’ option is not given.
Many of the predefined implicit rules are implemented in make as suffix rules, so which
ones will be defined depends on the suffix list (the list of dependencies of the special target
.SUFFIXES). The default suffix list is: .out, .a, .ln, .o, .c, .cc, .C, .p, .f, .F, .r,
.y, .l, .s, .S, .mod, .sym, .def, .h, .info, .dvi, .tex, .texinfo, .texi, .txinfo, .w,
.ch .web, .sh, .elc, .el. All of the implicit rules described below whose dependencies
have one of these suffixes are actually suffix rules. If you modify the suffix list, the only
predefined suffix rules in effect will be those named by one or two of the suffixes that are on
the list you specify; rules whose suffixes fail to be on the list are disabled. See Section 10.7
[Old-Fashioned Suffix Rules], page 96, for full details on suffix rules.
Compiling C programs
‘n.o’ is made automatically from ‘n.c’ with a command of the form ‘$(CC) -c
$(CPPFLAGS) $(CFLAGS)’.
Chapter 10: Using Implicit Rules 85

Compiling C++ programs

‘n.o’ is made automatically from ‘n.cc’ or ‘n.C’ with a command of the form
‘$(CXX) -c $(CPPFLAGS) $(CXXFLAGS)’. We encourage you to use the suffix
‘.cc’ for C++ source files instead of ‘.C’.
Compiling Pascal programs
‘n.o’ is made automatically from ‘n.p’ with the command ‘$(PC) -c $(PFLAGS)’.
Compiling Fortran and Ratfor programs
‘n.o’ is made automatically from ‘n.r’, ‘n.F’ or ‘n.f’ by running the Fortran
compiler. The precise command used is as follows:
‘.f’ ‘$(FC) -c $(FFLAGS)’.
‘.F’ ‘$(FC) -c $(FFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS)’.
‘.r’ ‘$(FC) -c $(FFLAGS) $(RFLAGS)’.
Preprocessing Fortran and Ratfor programs
‘n.f’ is made automatically from ‘n.r’ or ‘n.F’. This rule runs just the pre-
processor to convert a Ratfor or preprocessable Fortran program into a strict
Fortran program. The precise command used is as follows:
‘.F’ ‘$(FC) -F $(CPPFLAGS) $(FFLAGS)’.
‘.r’ ‘$(FC) -F $(FFLAGS) $(RFLAGS)’.
Compiling Modula-2 programs
‘n.sym’ is made from ‘n.def’ with a command of the form ‘$(M2C) $(M2FLAGS)
$(DEFFLAGS)’. ‘n.o’ is made from ‘n.mod’; the form is: ‘$(M2C) $(M2FLAGS) $(MODFLAGS)’.
Assembling and preprocessing assembler programs
‘n.o’ is made automatically from ‘n.s’ by running the assembler, as. The
precise command is ‘$(AS) $(ASFLAGS)’.
‘n.s’ is made automatically from ‘n.S’ by running the C preprocessor, cpp.
The precise command is ‘$(CPP) $(CPPFLAGS)’.
Linking a single object file
‘n’ is made automatically from ‘n.o’ by running the linker (usually called ld) via
the C compiler. The precise command used is ‘$(CC) $(LDFLAGS) n.o $(LOADLIBES)’.
This rule does the right thing for a simple program with only one source file. It
will also do the right thing if there are multiple object files (presumably coming
from various other source files), one of which has a name matching that of the
executable file. Thus,
x: y.o z.o
when ‘x.c’, ‘y.c’ and ‘z.c’ all exist will execute:
cc -c x.c -o x.o
cc -c y.c -o y.o
cc -c z.c -o z.o
cc x.o y.o z.o -o x
rm -f x.o
rm -f y.o
rm -f z.o
86 GNU make

In more complicated cases, such as when there is no object file whose name
derives from the executable file name, you must write an explicit command for
linking.
Each kind of file automatically made into ‘.o’ object files will be automatically
linked by using the compiler (‘$(CC)’, ‘$(FC)’ or ‘$(PC)’; the C compiler ‘$(CC)’
is used to assemble ‘.s’ files) without the ‘-c’ option. This could be done by
using the ‘.o’ object files as intermediates, but it is faster to do the compiling
and linking in one step, so that’s how it’s done.
Yacc for C programs
‘n.c’ is made automatically from ‘n.y’ by running Yacc with the command
‘$(YACC) $(YFLAGS)’.
Lex for C programs
‘n.c’ is made automatically from ‘n.l’ by by running Lex. The actual command
is ‘$(LEX) $(LFLAGS)’.
Lex for Ratfor programs
‘n.r’ is made automatically from ‘n.l’ by by running Lex. The actual command
is ‘$(LEX) $(LFLAGS)’.
The convention of using the same suffix ‘.l’ for all Lex files regardless of whether
they produce C code or Ratfor code makes it impossible for make to determine
automatically which of the two languages you are using in any particular case. If
make is called upon to remake an object file from a ‘.l’ file, it must guess which
compiler to use. It will guess the C compiler, because that is more common.
If you are using Ratfor, make sure make knows this by mentioning ‘n.r’ in the
makefile. Or, if you are using Ratfor exclusively, with no C files, remove ‘.c’
from the list of implicit rule suffixes with:
.SUFFIXES:
.SUFFIXES: .o .r .f .l . . .
Making Lint Libraries from C, Yacc, or Lex programs
‘n.ln’ is made from ‘n.c’ by running lint. The precise command is ‘$(LINT) $(LINTFLAGS) $(
The same command is used on the C code produced from ‘n.y’ or ‘n.l’.
TEX and Web
‘n.dvi’ is made from ‘n.tex’ with the command ‘$(TEX)’. ‘n.tex’ is made
from ‘n.web’ with ‘$(WEAVE)’, or from ‘n.w’ (and from ‘n.ch’ if it exists or can
be made) with ‘$(CWEAVE)’. ‘n.p’ is made from ‘n.web’ with ‘$(TANGLE)’ and
‘n.c’ is made from ‘n.w’ (and from ‘n.ch’ if it exists or can be made) with
‘$(CTANGLE)’.
Texinfo and Info
‘n.dvi’ is made from ‘n.texinfo’, ‘n.texi’, or ‘n.txinfo’, with the com-
mand ‘$(TEXI2DVI) $(TEXI2DVI_FLAGS)’. ‘n.info’ is made from ‘n.texinfo’,
‘n.texi’, or ‘n.txinfo’, with the command ‘$(MAKEINFO) $(MAKEINFO_FLAGS)’.
RCS Any file ‘n’ is extracted if necessary from an RCS file named either ‘n,v’ or
‘RCS/n,v’. The precise command used is ‘$(CO) $(COFLAGS)’. ‘n’ will not be
extracted from RCS if it already exists, even if the RCS file is newer. The
Chapter 10: Using Implicit Rules 87

rules for RCS are terminal (see Section 10.5.5 [Match-Anything Pattern Rules],
page 94), so RCS files cannot be generated from another source; they must
actually exist.
SCCS Any file ‘n’ is extracted if necessary from an SCCS file named either ‘s.n’
or ‘SCCS/s.n’. The precise command used is ‘$(GET) $(GFLAGS)’. The rules
for SCCS are terminal (see Section 10.5.5 [Match-Anything Pattern Rules],
page 94), so SCCS files cannot be generated from another source; they must
actually exist.
For the benefit of SCCS, a file ‘n’ is copied from ‘n.sh’ and made executable
(by everyone). This is for shell scripts that are checked into SCCS. Since RCS
preserves the execution permission of a file, you do not need to use this feature
with RCS.
We recommend that you avoid using of SCCS. RCS is widely held to be superior,
and is also free. By choosing free software in place of comparable (or inferior)
proprietary software, you support the free software movement.
Usually, you want to change only the variables listed in the table above, which are
documented in the following section.
However, the commands in built-in implicit rules actually use variables such as COMPILE.c,
LINK.p, and PREPROCESS.S, whose values contain the commands listed above.
make follows the convention that the rule to compile a ‘.x’ source file uses the variable
COMPILE.x. Similarly, the rule to produce an executable from a ‘.x’ file uses LINK.x; and
the rule to preprocess a ‘.x’ file uses PREPROCESS.x.
Every rule that produces an object file uses the variable OUTPUT_OPTION. make defines
this variable either to contain ‘-o $@’, or to be empty, depending on a compile-time option.
You need the ‘-o’ option to ensure that the output goes into the right file when the source
file is in a different directory, as when using VPATH (see Section 4.3 [Directory Search],
page 18). However, compilers on some systems do not accept a ‘-o’ switch for object files.
If you use such a system, and use VPATH, some compilations will put their output in the
wrong place. A possible workaround for this problem is to give OUTPUT_OPTION the value
‘; mv $*.o $@’.

10.3 Variables Used by Implicit Rules

The commands in built-in implicit rules make liberal use of certain predefined variables.
You can alter these variables in the makefile, with arguments to make, or in the environment
to alter how the implicit rules work without redefining the rules themselves.
For example, the command used to compile a C source file actually says ‘$(CC) -c
$(CFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS)’. The default values of the variables used are ‘cc’ and nothing,
resulting in the command ‘cc -c’. By redefining ‘CC’ to ‘ncc’, you could cause ‘ncc’ to be
used for all C compilations performed by the implicit rule. By redefining ‘CFLAGS’ to be ‘-g’,
you could pass the ‘-g’ option to each compilation. All implicit rules that do C compilation
use ‘$(CC)’ to get the program name for the compiler and all include ‘$(CFLAGS)’ among
the arguments given to the compiler.
88 GNU make

The variables used in implicit rules fall into two classes: those that are names of programs
(like CC) and those that contain arguments for the programs (like CFLAGS). (The “name of
a program” may also contain some command arguments, but it must start with an actual
executable program name.) If a variable value contains more than one argument, separate
them with spaces.
Here is a table of variables used as names of programs in built-in rules:
AR Archive-maintaining program; default ‘ar’.
AS Program for doing assembly; default ‘as’.
CC Program for compiling C programs; default ‘cc’.
CXX Program for compiling C++ programs; default ‘g++’.
CO Program for extracting a file from RCS; default ‘co’.
CPP Program for running the C preprocessor, with results to standard output; de-
fault ‘$(CC) -E’.
FC Program for compiling or preprocessing Fortran and Ratfor programs; default
‘f77’.
GET Program for extracting a file from SCCS; default ‘get’.
LEX Program to use to turn Lex grammars into C programs or Ratfor programs;
default ‘lex’.
PC Program for compiling Pascal programs; default ‘pc’.
YACC Program to use to turn Yacc grammars into C programs; default ‘yacc’.
YACCR Program to use to turn Yacc grammars into Ratfor programs; default ‘yacc
-r’.
MAKEINFO Program to convert a Texinfo source file into an Info file; default ‘makeinfo’.
TEX Program to make TEX dvi files from TEX source; default ‘tex’.
TEXI2DVI Program to make TEX dvi files from Texinfo source; default ‘texi2dvi’.
WEAVE Program to translate Web into TEX; default ‘weave’.
CWEAVE Program to translate C Web into TEX; default ‘cweave’.
TANGLE Program to translate Web into Pascal; default ‘tangle’.
CTANGLE Program to translate C Web into C; default ‘ctangle’.
RM Command to remove a file; default ‘rm -f’.
Here is a table of variables whose values are additional arguments for the programs
above. The default values for all of these is the empty string, unless otherwise noted.
ARFLAGS Flags to give the archive-maintaining program; default ‘rv’.
ASFLAGS Extra flags to give to the assembler (when explicitly invoked on a ‘.s’ or ‘.S’
file).
CFLAGS Extra flags to give to the C compiler.
Chapter 10: Using Implicit Rules 89

CXXFLAGS Extra flags to give to the C++ compiler.

COFLAGS Extra flags to give to the RCS co program.
CPPFLAGS Extra flags to give to the C preprocessor and programs that use it (the C and
Fortran compilers).
FFLAGS Extra flags to give to the Fortran compiler.
GFLAGS Extra flags to give to the SCCS get program.
LDFLAGS Extra flags to give to compilers when they are supposed to invoke the linker,
‘ld’.
LFLAGS Extra flags to give to Lex.
PFLAGS Extra flags to give to the Pascal compiler.
RFLAGS Extra flags to give to the Fortran compiler for Ratfor programs.
YFLAGS Extra flags to give to Yacc.

10.4 Chains of Implicit Rules

Sometimes a file can be made by a sequence of implicit rules. For example, a file ‘n.o’
could be made from ‘n.y’ by running first Yacc and then cc. Such a sequence is called a
chain.
If the file ‘n.c’ exists, or is mentioned in the makefile, no special searching is required:
make finds that the object file can be made by C compilation from ‘n.c’; later on, when
considering how to make ‘n.c’, the rule for running Yacc is used. Ultimately both ‘n.c’
and ‘n.o’ are updated.
However, even if ‘n.c’ does not exist and is not mentioned, make knows how to envision
it as the missing link between ‘n.o’ and ‘n.y’! In this case, ‘n.c’ is called an intermediate
file. Once make has decided to use the intermediate file, it is entered in the data base as if
it had been mentioned in the makefile, along with the implicit rule that says how to create
it.
Intermediate files are remade using their rules just like all other files. But intermediate
files are treated differently in two ways.
The first difference is what happens if the intermediate file does not exist. If an ordinary
file b does not exist, and make considers a target that depends on b, it invariably creates b
and then updates the target from b. But if b is an intermediate file, then make can leave well
enough alone. It won’t bother updating b, or the ultimate target, unless some dependency
of b is newer than that target or there is some other reason to update that target.
The second difference is that if make does create b in order to update something else,
it deletes b later on after it is no longer needed. Therefore, an intermediate file which did
not exist before make also does not exist after make. make reports the deletion to you by
printing a ‘rm -f’ command showing which file it is deleting.
Ordinarily, a file cannot be intermediate if it is mentioned in the makefile as a target
or dependency. However, you can explicitly mark a file as intermediate by listing it as
90 GNU make

a dependency of the special target .INTERMEDIATE. This takes effect even if the file is
mentioned explicitly in some other way.
You can prevent automatic deletion of an intermediate file by marking it as a secondary
file. To do this, list it as a dependency of the special target .SECONDARY. When a file
is secondary, make will not create the file merely because it does not already exist, but
make does not automatically delete the file. Marking a file as secondary also marks it as
intermediate.
You can list the target pattern of an implicit rule (such as ‘%.o’) as a dependency of the
special target .PRECIOUS to preserve intermediate files made by implicit rules whose target
patterns match that file’s name; see Section 5.5 [Interrupts], page 37.
A chain can involve more than two implicit rules. For example, it is possible to make a
file ‘foo’ from ‘RCS/foo.y,v’ by running RCS, Yacc and cc. Then both ‘foo.y’ and ‘foo.c’
are intermediate files that are deleted at the end.
No single implicit rule can appear more than once in a chain. This means that make will
not even consider such a ridiculous thing as making ‘foo’ from ‘foo.o.o’ by running the
linker twice. This constraint has the added benefit of preventing any infinite loop in the
search for an implicit rule chain.
There are some special implicit rules to optimize certain cases that would otherwise
be handled by rule chains. For example, making ‘foo’ from ‘foo.c’ could be handled by
compiling and linking with separate chained rules, using ‘foo.o’ as an intermediate file. But
what actually happens is that a special rule for this case does the compilation and linking
with a single cc command. The optimized rule is used in preference to the step-by-step
chain because it comes earlier in the ordering of rules.

10.5 Defining and Redefining Pattern Rules

You define an implicit rule by writing a pattern rule. A pattern rule looks like an ordinary
rule, except that its target contains the character ‘%’ (exactly one of them). The target is
considered a pattern for matching file names; the ‘%’ can match any nonempty substring,
while other characters match only themselves. The dependencies likewise use ‘%’ to show
how their names relate to the target name.
Thus, a pattern rule ‘%.o : %.c’ says how to make any file ‘stem.o’ from another file
‘stem.c’.
Note that expansion using ‘%’ in pattern rules occurs after any variable or function ex-
pansions, which take place when the makefile is read. See Chapter 6 [How to Use Variables],
page 45, and Chapter 8 [Functions for Transforming Text], page 63.

10.5.1 Introduction to Pattern Rules

A pattern rule contains the character ‘%’ (exactly one of them) in the target; otherwise,
it looks exactly like an ordinary rule. The target is a pattern for matching file names; the
‘%’ matches any nonempty substring, while other characters match only themselves.
For example, ‘%.c’ as a pattern matches any file name that ends in ‘.c’. ‘s.%.c’ as
a pattern matches any file name that starts with ‘s.’, ends in ‘.c’ and is at least five
Chapter 10: Using Implicit Rules 91

characters long. (There must be at least one character to match the ‘%’.) The substring
that the ‘%’ matches is called the stem.
‘%’ in a dependency of a pattern rule stands for the same stem that was matched by the
‘%’ in the target. In order for the pattern rule to apply, its target pattern must match the
file name under consideration, and its dependency patterns must name files that exist or
can be made. These files become dependencies of the target.
Thus, a rule of the form
%.o : %.c ; command. . .
specifies how to make a file ‘n.o’, with another file ‘n.c’ as its dependency, provided that
‘n.c’ exists or can be made.
There may also be dependencies that do not use ‘%’; such a dependency attaches to every
file made by this pattern rule. These unvarying dependencies are useful occasionally.
A pattern rule need not have any dependencies that contain ‘%’, or in fact any depen-
dencies at all. Such a rule is effectively a general wildcard. It provides a way to make any
file that matches the target pattern. See Section 10.6 [Last Resort], page 96.
Pattern rules may have more than one target. Unlike normal rules, this does not act
as many different rules with the same dependencies and commands. If a pattern rule has
multiple targets, make knows that the rule’s commands are responsible for making all of the
targets. The commands are executed only once to make all the targets. When searching
for a pattern rule to match a target, the target patterns of a rule other than the one
that matches the target in need of a rule are incidental: make worries only about giving
commands and dependencies to the file presently in question. However, when this file’s
commands are run, the other targets are marked as having been updated themselves.
The order in which pattern rules appear in the makefile is important since this is the
order in which they are considered. Of equally applicable rules, only the first one found is
used. The rules you write take precedence over those that are built in. Note however, that
a rule whose dependencies actually exist or are mentioned always takes priority over a rule
with dependencies that must be made by chaining other implicit rules.

10.5.2 Pattern Rule Examples

Here are some examples of pattern rules actually predefined in make. First, the rule that
compiles ‘.c’ files into ‘.o’ files:
%.o : %.c
$(CC) -c $(CFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) $< -o $@
defines a rule that can make any file ‘x.o’ from ‘x.c’. The command uses the automatic
variables ‘$@’ and ‘$<’ to substitute the names of the target file and the source file in each
case where the rule applies (see Section 10.5.3 [Automatic Variables], page 92).
Here is a second built-in rule:
% :: RCS/%,v
$(CO) $(COFLAGS) $<
defines a rule that can make any file ‘x’ whatsoever from a corresponding file ‘x,v’ in the
subdirectory ‘RCS’. Since the target is ‘%’, this rule will apply to any file whatever, provided
the appropriate dependency file exists. The double colon makes the rule terminal, which
92 GNU make

means that its dependency may not be an intermediate file (see Section 10.5.5 [Match-
Anything Pattern Rules], page 94).
This pattern rule has two targets:
%.tab.c %.tab.h: %.y
bison -d $<
This tells make that the command ‘bison -d x.y’ will make both ‘x.tab.c’ and ‘x.tab.h’.
If the file ‘foo’ depends on the files ‘parse.tab.o’ and ‘scan.o’ and the file ‘scan.o’
depends on the file ‘parse.tab.h’, when ‘parse.y’ is changed, the command ‘bison -d
parse.y’ will be executed only once, and the dependencies of both ‘parse.tab.o’ and
‘scan.o’ will be satisfied. (Presumably the file ‘parse.tab.o’ will be recompiled from
‘parse.tab.c’ and the file ‘scan.o’ from ‘scan.c’, while ‘foo’ is linked from ‘parse.tab.o’,
‘scan.o’, and its other dependencies, and it will execute happily ever after.)

10.5.3 Automatic Variables

Suppose you are writing a pattern rule to compile a ‘.c’ file into a ‘.o’ file: how do
you write the ‘cc’ command so that it operates on the right source file name? You cannot
write the name in the command, because the name is different each time the implicit rule
is applied.
What you do is use a special feature of make, the automatic variables. These variables
have values computed afresh for each rule that is executed, based on the target and depen-
dencies of the rule. In this example, you would use ‘$@’ for the object file name and ‘$<’
for the source file name.
Here is a table of automatic variables:
$@ The file name of the target of the rule. If the target is an archive member, then
‘$@’ is the name of the archive file. In a pattern rule that has multiple targets
(see Section 10.5.1 [Introduction to Pattern Rules], page 90), ‘$@’ is the name
of whichever target caused the rule’s commands to be run.
$% The target member name, when the target is an archive member. See Chap-
ter 11 [Archives], page 101. For example, if the target is ‘foo.a(bar.o)’ then
‘$%’ is ‘bar.o’ and ‘$@’ is ‘foo.a’. ‘$%’ is empty when the target is not an
archive member.
$< The name of the first dependency. If the target got its commands from an
implicit rule, this will be the first dependency added by the implicit rule (see
Chapter 10 [Implicit Rules], page 83).
$? The names of all the dependencies that are newer than the target, with spaces
between them. For dependencies which are archive members, only the member
named is used (see Chapter 11 [Archives], page 101).
$^ The names of all the dependencies, with spaces between them. For dependencies
which are archive members, only the member named is used (see Chapter 11
[Archives], page 101). A target has only one dependency on each other file it
depends on, no matter how many times each file is listed as a dependency. So
if you list a dependency more than once for a target, the value of $^ contains
just one copy of the name.
Chapter 10: Using Implicit Rules 93

$+ This is like ‘$^’, but dependencies listed more than once are duplicated in the
order they were listed in the makefile. This is primarily useful for use in linking
commands where it is meaningful to repeat library file names in a particular
order.
$* The stem with which an implicit rule matches (see Section 10.5.4 [How Patterns
Match], page 94). If the target is ‘dir/a.foo.b’ and the target pattern is
‘a.%.b’ then the stem is ‘dir/foo’. The stem is useful for constructing names
of related files.
In a static pattern rule, the stem is part of the file name that matched the ‘%’
in the target pattern.
In an explicit rule, there is no stem; so ‘$*’ cannot be determined in that way.
Instead, if the target name ends with a recognized suffix (see Section 10.7 [Old-
Fashioned Suffix Rules], page 96), ‘$*’ is set to the target name minus the
suffix. For example, if the target name is ‘foo.c’, then ‘$*’ is set to ‘foo’, since
‘.c’ is a suffix. GNU make does this bizarre thing only for compatibility with
other implementations of make. You should generally avoid using ‘$*’ except in
implicit rules or static pattern rules.
If the target name in an explicit rule does not end with a recognized suffix, ‘$*’
is set to the empty string for that rule.
‘$?’ is useful even in explicit rules when you wish to operate on only the dependencies
that have changed. For example, suppose that an archive named ‘lib’ is supposed to contain
copies of several object files. This rule copies just the changed object files into the archive:
lib: foo.o bar.o lose.o win.o
ar r lib $?
Of the variables listed above, four have values that are single file names, and two have
values that are lists of file names. These six have variants that get just the file’s directory
name or just the file name within the directory. The variant variables’ names are formed
by appending ‘D’ or ‘F’, respectively. These variants are semi-obsolete in GNU make since
the functions dir and notdir can be used to get a similar effect (see Section 8.3 [Functions
for File Names], page 66). Note, however, that the ‘F’ variants all omit the trailing slash
which always appears in the output of the dir function. Here is a table of the variants:

‘$(@D)’ The directory part of the file name of the target, with the trailing slash removed.
If the value of ‘$@’ is ‘dir/foo.o’ then ‘$(@D)’ is ‘dir’. This value is ‘.’ if ‘$@’
does not contain a slash.
‘$(@F)’ The file-within-directory part of the file name of the target. If the value of ‘$@’
is ‘dir/foo.o’ then ‘$(@F)’ is ‘foo.o’. ‘$(@F)’ is equivalent to ‘$(notdir $@)’.
‘$(*D)’
‘$(*F)’ The directory part and the file-within-directory part of the stem; ‘dir’ and
‘foo’ in this example.
‘$(%D)’
‘$(%F)’ The directory part and the file-within-directory part of the target archive mem-
ber name. This makes sense only for archive member targets of the form
94 GNU make

‘archive(member)’ and is useful only when member may contain a directory

name. (See Section 11.1 [Archive Members as Targets], page 101.)
‘$(<D)’
‘$(<F)’ The directory part and the file-within-directory part of the first dependency.
‘$(^D)’
‘$(^F)’ Lists of the directory parts and the file-within-directory parts of all dependen-
cies.
‘$(?D)’
‘$(?F)’ Lists of the directory parts and the file-within-directory parts of all dependencies
that are newer than the target.
Note that we use a special stylistic convention when we talk about these automatic
variables; we write “the value of ‘$<’”, rather than “the variable <” as we would write
for ordinary variables such as objects and CFLAGS. We think this convention looks more
natural in this special case. Please do not assume it has a deep significance; ‘$<’ refers to
the variable named < just as ‘$(CFLAGS)’ refers to the variable named CFLAGS. You could
just as well use ‘$(<)’ in place of ‘$<’.

10.5.4 How Patterns Match

A target pattern is composed of a ‘%’ between a prefix and a suffix, either or both of
which may be empty. The pattern matches a file name only if the file name starts with the
prefix and ends with the suffix, without overlap. The text between the prefix and the suffix
is called the stem. Thus, when the pattern ‘%.o’ matches the file name ‘test.o’, the stem
is ‘test’. The pattern rule dependencies are turned into actual file names by substituting
the stem for the character ‘%’. Thus, if in the same example one of the dependencies is
written as ‘%.c’, it expands to ‘test.c’.
When the target pattern does not contain a slash (and it usually does not), directory
names in the file names are removed from the file name before it is compared with the
target prefix and suffix. After the comparison of the file name to the target pattern, the
directory names, along with the slash that ends them, are added on to the dependency
file names generated from the pattern rule’s dependency patterns and the file name. The
directories are ignored only for the purpose of finding an implicit rule to use, not in the
application of that rule. Thus, ‘e%t’ matches the file name ‘src/eat’, with ‘src/a’ as the
stem. When dependencies are turned into file names, the directories from the stem are
added at the front, while the rest of the stem is substituted for the ‘%’. The stem ‘src/a’
with a dependency pattern ‘c%r’ gives the file name ‘src/car’.

10.5.5 Match-Anything Pattern Rules

When a pattern rule’s target is just ‘%’, it matches any file name whatever. We call these
rules match-anything rules. They are very useful, but it can take a lot of time for make to
think about them, because it must consider every such rule for each file name listed either
as a target or as a dependency.
Suppose the makefile mentions ‘foo.c’. For this target, make would have to consider
making it by linking an object file ‘foo.c.o’, or by C compilation-and-linking in one step
Chapter 10: Using Implicit Rules 95

from ‘foo.c.c’, or by Pascal compilation-and-linking from ‘foo.c.p’, and many other pos-
sibilities.
We know these possibilities are ridiculous since ‘foo.c’ is a C source file, not an exe-
cutable. If make did consider these possibilities, it would ultimately reject them, because
files such as ‘foo.c.o’ and ‘foo.c.p’ would not exist. But these possibilities are so numer-
ous that make would run very slowly if it had to consider them.
To gain speed, we have put various constraints on the way make considers match-anything
rules. There are two different constraints that can be applied, and each time you define a
match-anything rule you must choose one or the other for that rule.
One choice is to mark the match-anything rule as terminal by defining it with a double
colon. When a rule is terminal, it does not apply unless its dependencies actually exist.
Dependencies that could be made with other implicit rules are not good enough. In other
words, no further chaining is allowed beyond a terminal rule.
For example, the built-in implicit rules for extracting sources from RCS and SCCS files
are terminal; as a result, if the file ‘foo.c,v’ does not exist, make will not even consider
trying to make it as an intermediate file from ‘foo.c,v.o’ or from ‘RCS/SCCS/s.foo.c,v’.
RCS and SCCS files are generally ultimate source files, which should not be remade from
any other files; therefore, make can save time by not looking for ways to remake them.
If you do not mark the match-anything rule as terminal, then it is nonterminal. A
nonterminal match-anything rule cannot apply to a file name that indicates a specific type
of data. A file name indicates a specific type of data if some non-match-anything implicit
rule target matches it.
For example, the file name ‘foo.c’ matches the target for the pattern rule ‘%.c : %.y’
(the rule to run Yacc). Regardless of whether this rule is actually applicable (which hap-
pens only if there is a file ‘foo.y’), the fact that its target matches is enough to prevent
consideration of any nonterminal match-anything rules for the file ‘foo.c’. Thus, make will
not even consider trying to make ‘foo.c’ as an executable file from ‘foo.c.o’, ‘foo.c.c’,
‘foo.c.p’, etc.
The motivation for this constraint is that nonterminal match-anything rules are used for
making files containing specific types of data (such as executable files) and a file name with
a recognized suffix indicates some other specific type of data (such as a C source file).
Special built-in dummy pattern rules are provided solely to recognize certain file names so
that nonterminal match-anything rules will not be considered. These dummy rules have no
dependencies and no commands, and they are ignored for all other purposes. For example,
the built-in implicit rule
%.p :
exists to make sure that Pascal source files such as ‘foo.p’ match a specific target pattern
and thereby prevent time from being wasted looking for ‘foo.p.o’ or ‘foo.p.c’.
Dummy pattern rules such as the one for ‘%.p’ are made for every suffix listed as valid
for use in suffix rules (see Section 10.7 [Old-Fashioned Suffix Rules], page 96).

10.5.6 Canceling Implicit Rules

You can override a built-in implicit rule (or one you have defined yourself) by defining
a new pattern rule with the same target and dependencies, but different commands. When
96 GNU make

the new rule is defined, the built-in one is replaced. The new rule’s position in the sequence
of implicit rules is determined by where you write the new rule.
You can cancel a built-in implicit rule by defining a pattern rule with the same target
and dependencies, but no commands. For example, the following would cancel the rule that
runs the assembler:
%.o : %.s

10.6 Defining Last-Resort Default Rules

You can define a last-resort implicit rule by writing a terminal match-anything pattern
rule with no dependencies (see Section 10.5.5 [Match-Anything Rules], page 94). This is
just like any other pattern rule; the only thing special about it is that it will match any
target. So such a rule’s commands are used for all targets and dependencies that have no
commands of their own and for which no other implicit rule applies.
For example, when testing a makefile, you might not care if the source files contain real
data, only that they exist. Then you might do this:
%::
touch $@
to cause all the source files needed (as dependencies) to be created automatically.
You can instead define commands to be used for targets for which there are no rules at
all, even ones which don’t specify commands. You do this by writing a rule for the target
.DEFAULT. Such a rule’s commands are used for all dependencies which do not appear as
targets in any explicit rule, and for which no implicit rule applies. Naturally, there is no
.DEFAULT rule unless you write one.
If you use .DEFAULT with no commands or dependencies:
.DEFAULT:
the commands previously stored for .DEFAULT are cleared. Then make acts as if you had
never defined .DEFAULT at all.
If you do not want a target to get the commands from a match-anything pattern rule or
.DEFAULT, but you also do not want any commands to be run for the target, you can give
it empty commands (see Section 5.8 [Defining Empty Commands], page 43).
You can use a last-resort rule to override part of another makefile. See Section 3.6
[Overriding Part of Another Makefile], page 13.

10.7 Old-Fashioned Suffix Rules

Suffix rules are the old-fashioned way of defining implicit rules for make. Suffix rules
are obsolete because pattern rules are more general and clearer. They are supported in
GNU make for compatibility with old makefiles. They come in two kinds: double-suffix and
single-suffix.
A double-suffix rule is defined by a pair of suffixes: the target suffix and the source
suffix. It matches any file whose name ends with the target suffix. The corresponding
implicit dependency is made by replacing the target suffix with the source suffix in the file
Chapter 10: Using Implicit Rules 97

name. A two-suffix rule whose target and source suffixes are ‘.o’ and ‘.c’ is equivalent to
the pattern rule ‘%.o : %.c’.
A single-suffix rule is defined by a single suffix, which is the source suffix. It matches
any file name, and the corresponding implicit dependency name is made by appending the
source suffix. A single-suffix rule whose source suffix is ‘.c’ is equivalent to the pattern rule
‘% : %.c’.
Suffix rule definitions are recognized by comparing each rule’s target against a defined
list of known suffixes. When make sees a rule whose target is a known suffix, this rule is
considered a single-suffix rule. When make sees a rule whose target is two known suffixes
concatenated, this rule is taken as a double-suffix rule.
For example, ‘.c’ and ‘.o’ are both on the default list of known suffixes. Therefore,
if you define a rule whose target is ‘.c.o’, make takes it to be a double-suffix rule with
source suffix ‘.c’ and target suffix ‘.o’. Here is the old-fashioned way to define the rule for
compiling a C source file:
.c.o:
$(CC) -c $(CFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) -o $@ $<
Suffix rules cannot have any dependencies of their own. If they have any, they are treated
as normal files with funny names, not as suffix rules. Thus, the rule:
.c.o: foo.h
$(CC) -c $(CFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) -o $@ $<
tells how to make the file ‘.c.o’ from the dependency file ‘foo.h’, and is not at all like the
pattern rule:
%.o: %.c foo.h
$(CC) -c $(CFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) -o $@ $<
which tells how to make ‘.o’ files from ‘.c’ files, and makes all ‘.o’ files using this pattern
rule also depend on ‘foo.h’.
Suffix rules with no commands are also meaningless. They do not remove previous
rules as do pattern rules with no commands (see Section 10.5.6 [Canceling Implicit Rules],
page 95). They simply enter the suffix or pair of suffixes concatenated as a target in the
data base.
The known suffixes are simply the names of the dependencies of the special target
.SUFFIXES. You can add your own suffixes by writing a rule for .SUFFIXES that adds
more dependencies, as in:
.SUFFIXES: .hack .win
which adds ‘.hack’ and ‘.win’ to the end of the list of suffixes.
If you wish to eliminate the default known suffixes instead of just adding to them, write
a rule for .SUFFIXES with no dependencies. By special dispensation, this eliminates all
existing dependencies of .SUFFIXES. You can then write another rule to add the suffixes
you want. For example,
.SUFFIXES: # Delete the default suffixes
.SUFFIXES: .c .o .h # Define our suffix list
The ‘-r’ or ‘--no-builtin-rules’ flag causes the default list of suffixes to be empty.
98 GNU make

The variable SUFFIXES is defined to the default list of suffixes before make reads any
makefiles. You can change the list of suffixes with a rule for the special target .SUFFIXES,
but that does not alter this variable.

10.8 Implicit Rule Search Algorithm

Here is the procedure make uses for searching for an implicit rule for a target t. This
procedure is followed for each double-colon rule with no commands, for each target of
ordinary rules none of which have commands, and for each dependency that is not the
target of any rule. It is also followed recursively for dependencies that come from implicit
rules, in the search for a chain of rules.
Suffix rules are not mentioned in this algorithm because suffix rules are converted to
equivalent pattern rules once the makefiles have been read in.
For an archive member target of the form ‘archive(member)’, the following algorithm is
run twice, first using the entire target name t, and second using ‘(member)’ as the target
t if the first run found no rule.
1. Split t into a directory part, called d, and the rest, called n. For example, if t is
‘src/foo.o’, then d is ‘src/’ and n is ‘foo.o’.
2. Make a list of all the pattern rules one of whose targets matches t or n. If the target
pattern contains a slash, it is matched against t; otherwise, against n.
3. If any rule in that list is not a match-anything rule, then remove all nonterminal match-
anything rules from the list.
4. Remove from the list all rules with no commands.
5. For each pattern rule in the list:
a. Find the stem s, which is the nonempty part of t or n matched by the ‘%’ in the
target pattern.
b. Compute the dependency names by substituting s for ‘%’; if the target pattern
does not contain a slash, append d to the front of each dependency name.
c. Test whether all the dependencies exist or ought to exist. (If a file name is men-
tioned in the makefile as a target or as an explicit dependency, then we say it
ought to exist.)
If all dependencies exist or ought to exist, or there are no dependencies, then this
rule applies.
6. If no pattern rule has been found so far, try harder. For each pattern rule in the list:
a. If the rule is terminal, ignore it and go on to the next rule.
b. Compute the dependency names as before.
c. Test whether all the dependencies exist or ought to exist.
d. For each dependency that does not exist, follow this algorithm recursively to see
if the dependency can be made by an implicit rule.
e. If all dependencies exist, ought to exist, or can be made by implicit rules, then
this rule applies.
7. If no implicit rule applies, the rule for .DEFAULT, if any, applies. In that case, give t
the same commands that .DEFAULT has. Otherwise, there are no commands for t.
Chapter 10: Using Implicit Rules 99

Once a rule that applies has been found, for each target pattern of the rule other than
the one that matched t or n, the ‘%’ in the pattern is replaced with s and the resultant file
name is stored until the commands to remake the target file t are executed. After these
commands are executed, each of these stored file names are entered into the data base and
marked as having been updated and having the same update status as the file t.
When the commands of a pattern rule are executed for t, the automatic variables are set
corresponding to the target and dependencies. See Section 10.5.3 [Automatic Variables],
page 92.
100 GNU make
Chapter 11: Using make to Update Archive Files 101

11 Using make to Update Archive Files

Archive files are files containing named subfiles called members; they are maintained
with the program ar and their main use is as subroutine libraries for linking.

11.1 Archive Members as Targets

An individual member of an archive file can be used as a target or dependency in make.
You specify the member named member in archive file archive as follows:
archive(member)
This construct is available only in targets and dependencies, not in commands! Most
programs that you might use in commands do not support this syntax and cannot act
directly on archive members. Only ar and other programs specifically designed to operate
on archives can do so. Therefore, valid commands to update an archive member target
probably must use ar. For example, this rule says to create a member ‘hack.o’ in archive
‘foolib’ by copying the file ‘hack.o’:
foolib(hack.o) : hack.o
ar cr foolib hack.o
In fact, nearly all archive member targets are updated in just this way and there is an
implicit rule to do it for you. Note: The ‘c’ flag to ar is required if the archive file does not
already exist.
To specify several members in the same archive, you can write all the member names
together between the parentheses. For example:
foolib(hack.o kludge.o)
is equivalent to:
foolib(hack.o) foolib(kludge.o)
You can also use shell-style wildcards in an archive member reference. See Section 4.2
[Using Wildcard Characters in File Names], page 16. For example, ‘foolib(*.o)’ ex-
pands to all existing members of the ‘foolib’ archive whose names end in ‘.o’; perhaps
‘foolib(hack.o) foolib(kludge.o)’.

11.2 Implicit Rule for Archive Member Targets

Recall that a target that looks like ‘a(m)’ stands for the member named m in the archive
file a.
When make looks for an implicit rule for such a target, as a special feature it considers
implicit rules that match ‘(m)’, as well as those that match the actual target ‘a(m)’.
This causes one special rule whose target is ‘(%)’ to match. This rule updates the target
‘a(m)’ by copying the file m into the archive. For example, it will update the archive
member target ‘foo.a(bar.o)’ by copying the file ‘bar.o’ into the archive ‘foo.a’ as a
member named ‘bar.o’.
When this rule is chained with others, the result is very powerful. Thus, ‘make
"foo.a(bar.o)"’ (the quotes are needed to protect the ‘(’ and ‘)’ from being interpreted
specially by the shell) in the presence of a file ‘bar.c’ is enough to cause the following
commands to be run, even without a makefile:
102 GNU make

cc -c bar.c -o bar.o
ar r foo.a bar.o
rm -f bar.o
Here make has envisioned the file ‘bar.o’ as an intermediate file. See Section 10.4 [Chains
of Implicit Rules], page 89.
Implicit rules such as this one are written using the automatic variable ‘$%’. See Sec-
tion 10.5.3 [Automatic Variables], page 92.
An archive member name in an archive cannot contain a directory name, but it may
be useful in a makefile to pretend that it does. If you write an archive member target
‘foo.a(dir/file.o)’, make will perform automatic updating with this command:
ar r foo.a dir/file.o
which has the effect of copying the file ‘dir/file.o’ into a member named ‘file.o’. In
connection with such usage, the automatic variables %D and %F may be useful.

11.2.1 Updating Archive Symbol Directories

An archive file that is used as a library usually contains a special member named
‘__.SYMDEF’ that contains a directory of the external symbol names defined by all the
other members. After you update any other members, you need to update ‘__.SYMDEF’ so
that it will summarize the other members properly. This is done by running the ranlib
program:
ranlib archivefile
Normally you would put this command in the rule for the archive file, and make all the
members of the archive file dependencies of that rule. For example,
libfoo.a: libfoo.a(x.o) libfoo.a(y.o) . . .
ranlib libfoo.a
The effect of this is to update archive members ‘x.o’, ‘y.o’, etc., and then update the symbol
directory member ‘__.SYMDEF’ by running ranlib. The rules for updating the members are
not shown here; most likely you can omit them and use the implicit rule which copies files
into the archive, as described in the preceding section.
This is not necessary when using the GNU ar program, which updates the ‘__.SYMDEF’
member automatically.

11.3 Dangers When Using Archives

It is important to be careful when using parallel execution (the -j switch; see Section 5.3
[Parallel Execution], page 35) and archives. If multiple ar commands run at the same time
on the same archive file, they will not know about each other and can corrupt the file.
Possibly a future version of make will provide a mechanism to circumvent this problem
by serializing all commands that operate on the same archive file. But for the time being,
you must either write your makefiles to avoid this problem in some other way, or not use
-j.
Chapter 11: Using make to Update Archive Files 103

11.4 Suffix Rules for Archive Files

You can write a special kind of suffix rule for dealing with archive files. See Section 10.7
[Suffix Rules], page 96, for a full explanation of suffix rules. Archive suffix rules are obsolete
in GNU make, because pattern rules for archives are a more general mechanism (see Sec-
tion 11.2 [Archive Update], page 101). But they are retained for compatibility with other
makes.
To write a suffix rule for archives, you simply write a suffix rule using the target suffix
‘.a’ (the usual suffix for archive files). For example, here is the old-fashioned suffix rule to
update a library archive from C source files:
.c.a:
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) -c $< -o $*.o
$(AR) r $@ $*.o
$(RM) $*.o
This works just as if you had written the pattern rule:
(%.o): %.c
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) -c $< -o $*.o
$(AR) r $@ $*.o
$(RM) $*.o
In fact, this is just what make does when it sees a suffix rule with ‘.a’ as the target
suffix. Any double-suffix rule ‘.x.a’ is converted to a pattern rule with the target pattern
‘(%.o)’ and a dependency pattern of ‘%.x’.
Since you might want to use ‘.a’ as the suffix for some other kind of file, make also
converts archive suffix rules to pattern rules in the normal way (see Section 10.7 [Suffix
Rules], page 96). Thus a double-suffix rule ‘.x.a’ produces two pattern rules: ‘(%.o): %.x’
and ‘%.a: %.x’.
104 GNU make
Chapter 12: Features of GNU make 105

12 Features of GNU make

Here is a summary of the features of GNU make, for comparison with and credit to other
versions of make. We consider the features of make in 4.2 BSD systems as a baseline. If you
are concerned with writing portable makefiles, you should use only the features of make not
listed here or in Chapter 13 [Missing], page 109.
Many features come from the version of make in System V.
• The VPATH variable and its special meaning. See Section 4.3 [Searching Directories for
Dependencies], page 18. This feature exists in System V make, but is undocumented.
It is documented in 4.3 BSD make (which says it mimics System V’s VPATH feature).
• Included makefiles. See Section 3.3 [Including Other Makefiles], page 10. Allowing
multiple files to be included with a single directive is a GNU extension.
• Variables are read from and communicated via the environment. See Section 6.9 [Vari-
ables from the Environment], page 55.
• Options passed through the variable MAKEFLAGS to recursive invocations of make. See
Section 5.6.3 [Communicating Options to a Sub-make], page 40.
• The automatic variable $% is set to the member name in an archive reference. See
Section 10.5.3 [Automatic Variables], page 92.
• The automatic variables $@, $*, $<, $%, and $? have corresponding forms like $(@F)
and $(@D). We have generalized this to $^ as an obvious extension. See Section 10.5.3
[Automatic Variables], page 92.
• Substitution variable references. See Section 6.1 [Basics of Variable References],
page 45.
• The command-line options ‘-b’ and ‘-m’, accepted and ignored. In System V make,
these options actually do something.
• Execution of recursive commands to run make via the variable MAKE even if ‘-n’, ‘-q’
or ‘-t’ is specified. See Section 5.6 [Recursive Use of make], page 37.
• Support for suffix ‘.a’ in suffix rules. See Section 11.4 [Archive Suffix Rules], page 103.
This feature is obsolete in GNU make, because the general feature of rule chaining (see
Section 10.4 [Chains of Implicit Rules], page 89) allows one pattern rule for installing
members in an archive (see Section 11.2 [Archive Update], page 101) to be sufficient.
• The arrangement of lines and backslash-newline combinations in commands is retained
when the commands are printed, so they appear as they do in the makefile, except for
the stripping of initial whitespace.
The following features were inspired by various other versions of make. In some cases it
is unclear exactly which versions inspired which others.
• Pattern rules using ‘%’. This has been implemented in several versions of make. We’re
not sure who invented it first, but it’s been spread around a bit. See Section 10.5
[Defining and Redefining Pattern Rules], page 90.
• Rule chaining and implicit intermediate files. This was implemented by Stu Feldman
in his version of make for AT&T Eighth Edition Research Unix, and later by Andrew
Hume of AT&T Bell Labs in his mk program (where he terms it “transitive closure”).
106 GNU make

We do not really know if we got this from either of them or thought it up ourselves at
the same time. See Section 10.4 [Chains of Implicit Rules], page 89.
• The automatic variable $^ containing a list of all dependencies of the current target.
We did not invent this, but we have no idea who did. See Section 10.5.3 [Automatic
Variables], page 92. The automatic variable $+ is a simple extension of $^.
• The “what if” flag (‘-W’ in GNU make) was (as far as we know) invented by Andrew
Hume in mk. See Section 9.3 [Instead of Executing the Commands], page 75.
• The concept of doing several things at once (parallelism) exists in many incarnations
of make and similar programs, though not in the System V or BSD implementations.
See Section 5.2 [Command Execution], page 33.
• Modified variable references using pattern substitution come from SunOS 4. See Sec-
tion 6.1 [Basics of Variable References], page 45. This functionality was provided in
GNU make by the patsubst function before the alternate syntax was implemented for
compatibility with SunOS 4. It is not altogether clear who inspired whom, since GNU
make had patsubst before SunOS 4 was released.
• The special significance of ‘+’ characters preceding command lines (see Section 9.3
[Instead of Executing the Commands], page 75) is mandated by IEEE Standard 1003.2-
1992 (POSIX.2).
• The ‘+=’ syntax to append to the value of a variable comes from SunOS 4 make. See
Section 6.6 [Appending More Text to Variables], page 52.
• The syntax ‘archive(mem1 mem2. . .)’ to list multiple members in a single archive file
comes from SunOS 4 make. See Section 11.1 [Archive Members], page 101.
• The -include directive to include makefiles with no error for a nonexistent file comes
from SunOS 4 make. (But note that SunOS 4 make does not allow multiple makefiles
to be specified in one -include directive.) The same feature appears with the name
sinclude in SGI make and perhaps others.
The remaining features are inventions new in GNU make:
• Use the ‘-v’ or ‘--version’ option to print version and copyright information.
• Use the ‘-h’ or ‘--help’ option to summarize the options to make.
• Simply-expanded variables. See Section 6.2 [The Two Flavors of Variables], page 46.
• Pass command-line variable assignments automatically through the variable MAKE to
recursive make invocations. See Section 5.6 [Recursive Use of make], page 37.
• Use the ‘-C’ or ‘--directory’ command option to change directory. See Section 9.7
[Summary of Options], page 78.
• Make verbatim variable definitions with define. See Section 6.8 [Defining Variables
Verbatim], page 54.
• Declare phony targets with the special target .PHONY.
Andrew Hume of AT&T Bell Labs implemented a similar feature with a different syntax
in his mk program. This seems to be a case of parallel discovery. See Section 4.4 [Phony
Targets], page 22.
• Manipulate text by calling functions. See Chapter 8 [Functions for Transforming Text],
page 63.
Chapter 12: Features of GNU make 107

• Use the ‘-o’ or ‘--old-file’ option to pretend a file’s modification-time is old. See
Section 9.4 [Avoiding Recompilation of Some Files], page 76.
• Conditional execution.
This feature has been implemented numerous times in various versions of make; it seems
a natural extension derived from the features of the C preprocessor and similar macro
languages and is not a revolutionary concept. See Chapter 7 [Conditional Parts of
Makefiles], page 59.
• Specify a search path for included makefiles. See Section 3.3 [Including Other Make-
files], page 10.
• Specify extra makefiles to read with an environment variable. See Section 3.4 [The
Variable MAKEFILES], page 11.
• Strip leading sequences of ‘./’ from file names, so that ‘./file’ and ‘file’ are considered
to be the same file.
• Use a special search method for library dependencies written in the form ‘-lname’.
See Section 4.3.6 [Directory Search for Link Libraries], page 21.
• Allow suffixes for suffix rules (see Section 10.7 [Old-Fashioned Suffix Rules], page 96)
to contain any characters. In other versions of make, they must begin with ‘.’ and not
contain any ‘/’ characters.
• Keep track of the current level of make recursion using the variable MAKELEVEL. See
Section 5.6 [Recursive Use of make], page 37.
• Provide any goals given on the command line in the variable MAKECMDGOALS. See
Section 9.2 [Arguments to Specify the Goals], page 73.
• Specify static pattern rules. See Section 4.10 [Static Pattern Rules], page 27.
• Provide selective vpath search. See Section 4.3 [Searching Directories for Dependen-
cies], page 18.
• Provide computed variable references. See Section 6.1 [Basics of Variable References],
page 45.
• Update makefiles. See Section 3.5 [How Makefiles Are Remade], page 11. System V
make has a very, very limited form of this functionality in that it will check out SCCS
files for makefiles.
• Various new built-in implicit rules. See Section 10.2 [Catalogue of Implicit Rules],
page 84.
• The built-in variable ‘MAKE_VERSION’ gives the version number of make.
108 GNU make
Chapter 13: Incompatibilities and Missing Features 109

13 Incompatibilities and Missing Features

The make programs in various other systems support a few features that are not imple-
mented in GNU make. The POSIX.2 standard (IEEE Standard 1003.2-1992) which specifies
make does not require any of these features.
• A target of the form ‘file((entry))’ stands for a member of archive file file. The
member is chosen, not by name, but by being an object file which defines the linker
symbol entry.
This feature was not put into GNU make because of the nonmodularity of putting knowl-
edge into make of the internal format of archive file symbol tables. See Section 11.2.1
[Updating Archive Symbol Directories], page 102.
• Suffixes (used in suffix rules) that end with the character ‘~’ have a special meaning to
System V make; they refer to the SCCS file that corresponds to the file one would get
without the ‘~’. For example, the suffix rule ‘.c~.o’ would make the file ‘n.o’ from the
SCCS file ‘s.n.c’. For complete coverage, a whole series of such suffix rules is required.
See Section 10.7 [Old-Fashioned Suffix Rules], page 96.
In GNU make, this entire series of cases is handled by two pattern rules for extraction
from SCCS, in combination with the general feature of rule chaining. See Section 10.4
[Chains of Implicit Rules], page 89.
• In System V make, the string ‘$$@’ has the strange meaning that, in the dependencies of
a rule with multiple targets, it stands for the particular target that is being processed.
This is not defined in GNU make because ‘$$’ should always stand for an ordinary ‘$’.
It is possible to get this functionality through the use of static pattern rules (see Sec-
tion 4.10 [Static Pattern Rules], page 27). The System V make rule:
$(targets): $$@.o lib.a
can be replaced with the GNU make static pattern rule:
$(targets): %: %.o lib.a
• In System V and 4.3 BSD make, files found by VPATH search (see Section 4.3 [Searching
Directories for Dependencies], page 18) have their names changed inside command
strings. We feel it is much cleaner to always use automatic variables and thus make
this feature obsolete.
• In some Unix makes, the automatic variable $* appearing in the dependencies of a rule
has the amazingly strange “feature” of expanding to the full name of the target of that
rule. We cannot imagine what went on in the minds of Unix make developers to do
this; it is utterly inconsistent with the normal definition of $*.
• In some Unix makes, implicit rule search (see Chapter 10 [Using Implicit Rules], page 83)
is apparently done for all targets, not just those without commands. This means you
can do:
foo.o:
cc -c foo.c
and Unix make will intuit that ‘foo.o’ depends on ‘foo.c’.
We feel that such usage is broken. The dependency properties of make are well-defined
(for GNU make, at least), and doing such a thing simply does not fit the model.
110 GNU make

• GNU make does not include any built-in implicit rules for compiling or preprocessing
EFL programs. If we hear of anyone who is using EFL, we will gladly add them.
• It appears that in SVR4 make, a suffix rule can be specified with no commands, and it
is treated as if it had empty commands (see Section 5.8 [Empty Commands], page 43).
For example:
.c.a:
will override the built-in ‘.c.a’ suffix rule.
We feel that it is cleaner for a rule without commands to always simply add to the
dependency list for the target. The above example can be easily rewritten to get the
desired behavior in GNU make:
.c.a: ;
• Some versions of make invoke the shell with the ‘-e’ flag, except under ‘-k’ (see Sec-
tion 9.6 [Testing the Compilation of a Program], page 77). The ‘-e’ flag tells the shell
to exit as soon as any program it runs returns a nonzero status. We feel it is cleaner
to write each shell command line to stand on its own and not require this special
treatment.
Chapter 14: Makefile Conventions 111

14 Makefile Conventions
This chapter describes conventions for writing the Makefiles for GNU programs.

14.1 General Conventions for Makefiles

Every Makefile should contain this line:
SHELL = /bin/sh
to avoid trouble on systems where the SHELL variable might be inherited from the environ-
ment. (This is never a problem with GNU make.)
Different make programs have incompatible suffix lists and implicit rules, and this some-
times creates confusion or misbehavior. So it is a good idea to set the suffix list explicitly
using only the suffixes you need in the particular Makefile, like this:
.SUFFIXES:
.SUFFIXES: .c .o
The first line clears out the suffix list, the second introduces all suffixes which may be
subject to implicit rules in this Makefile.
Don’t assume that ‘.’ is in the path for command execution. When you need to run
programs that are a part of your package during the make, please make sure that it uses
‘./’ if the program is built as part of the make or ‘$(srcdir)/’ if the file is an unchanging
part of the source code. Without one of these prefixes, the current search path is used.
The distinction between ‘./’ (the build directory) and ‘$(srcdir)/’ (the source direc-
tory) is important because users can build in a separate directory using the ‘--srcdir’
option to ‘configure’. A rule of the form:
foo.1 : foo.man sedscript
sed -e sedscript foo.man > foo.1
will fail when the build directory is not the source directory, because ‘foo.man’ and
‘sedscript’ are in the the source directory.
When using GNU make, relying on ‘VPATH’ to find the source file will work in the case
where there is a single dependency file, since the make automatic variable ‘$<’ will represent
the source file wherever it is. (Many versions of make set ‘$<’ only in implicit rules.) A
Makefile target like
foo.o : bar.c
$(CC) -I. -I$(srcdir) $(CFLAGS) -c bar.c -o foo.o
should instead be written as
foo.o : bar.c
$(CC) -I. -I$(srcdir) $(CFLAGS) -c $< -o $@
in order to allow ‘VPATH’ to work correctly. When the target has multiple dependencies,
using an explicit ‘$(srcdir)’ is the easiest way to make the rule work well. For example,
the target above for ‘foo.1’ is best written as:
foo.1 : foo.man sedscript
sed -e $(srcdir)/sedscript $(srcdir)/foo.man > $@
112 GNU make

GNU distributions usually contain some files which are not source files—for example, Info
files, and the output from Autoconf, Automake, Bison or Flex. Since these files normally
appear in the source directory, they should always appear in the source directory, not in
the build directory. So Makefile rules to update them should put the updated files in the
source directory.
However, if a file does not appear in the distribution, then the Makefile should not put
it in the source directory, because building a program in ordinary circumstances should not
modify the source directory in any way.
Try to make the build and installation targets, at least (and all their subtargets) work
correctly with a parallel make.

14.2 Utilities in Makefiles

Write the Makefile commands (and any shell scripts, such as configure) to run in sh,
not in csh. Don’t use any special features of ksh or bash.
The configure script and the Makefile rules for building and installation should not use
any utilities directly except these:
cat cmp cp diff echo egrep expr false grep install-info
ln ls mkdir mv pwd rm rmdir sed sleep sort tar test touch true
The compression program gzip can be used in the dist rule.
Stick to the generally supported options for these programs. For example, don’t use
‘mkdir -p’, convenient as it may be, because most systems don’t support it.
It is a good idea to avoid creating symbolic links in makefiles, since a few systems don’t
support them.
The Makefile rules for building and installation can also use compilers and related pro-
grams, but should do so via make variables so that the user can substitute alternatives.
Here are some of the programs we mean:
ar bison cc flex install ld ldconfig lex
make makeinfo ranlib texi2dvi yacc
Use the following make variables to run those programs:
$(AR) $(BISON) $(CC) $(FLEX) $(INSTALL) $(LD) $(LDCONFIG) $(LEX)
$(MAKE) $(MAKEINFO) $(RANLIB) $(TEXI2DVI) $(YACC)
When you use ranlib or ldconfig, you should make sure nothing bad happens if the
system does not have the program in question. Arrange to ignore an error from that
command, and print a message before the command to tell the user that failure of this
command does not mean a problem. (The Autoconf ‘AC_PROG_RANLIB’ macro can help
with this.)
If you use symbolic links, you should implement a fallback for systems that don’t have
symbolic links.
Additional utilities that can be used via Make variables are:
chgrp chmod chown mknod
It is ok to use other utilities in Makefile portions (or scripts) intended only for particular
systems where you know those utilities exist.
Chapter 14: Makefile Conventions 113

14.3 Variables for Specifying Commands

Makefiles should provide variables for overriding certain commands, options, and so on.
In particular, you should run most utility programs via variables. Thus, if you use Bison,
have a variable named BISON whose default value is set with ‘BISON = bison’, and refer to
it with $(BISON) whenever you need to use Bison.
File management utilities such as ln, rm, mv, and so on, need not be referred to through
variables in this way, since users don’t need to replace them with other programs.
Each program-name variable should come with an options variable that is used to supply
options to the program. Append ‘FLAGS’ to the program-name variable name to get the
options variable name—for example, BISONFLAGS. (The names CFLAGS for the C compiler,
YFLAGS for yacc, and LFLAGS for lex, are exceptions to this rule, but we keep them because
they are standard.) Use CPPFLAGS in any compilation command that runs the preprocessor,
and use LDFLAGS in any compilation command that does linking as well as in any direct use
of ld.
If there are C compiler options that must be used for proper compilation of certain files,
do not include them in CFLAGS. Users expect to be able to specify CFLAGS freely themselves.
Instead, arrange to pass the necessary options to the C compiler independently of CFLAGS,
by writing them explicitly in the compilation commands or by defining an implicit rule, like
this:
CFLAGS = -g
ALL_CFLAGS = -I. $(CFLAGS)
.c.o:
$(CC) -c $(CPPFLAGS) $(ALL_CFLAGS) $<
Do include the ‘-g’ option in CFLAGS, because that is not required for proper compilation.
You can consider it a default that is only recommended. If the package is set up so that it
is compiled with GCC by default, then you might as well include ‘-O’ in the default value
of CFLAGS as well.
Put CFLAGS last in the compilation command, after other variables containing compiler
options, so the user can use CFLAGS to override the others.
CFLAGS should be used in every invocation of the C compiler, both those which do
compilation and those which do linking.
Every Makefile should define the variable INSTALL, which is the basic command for
installing a file into the system.
Every Makefile should also define the variables INSTALL_PROGRAM and INSTALL_DATA.
(The default for each of these should be $(INSTALL).) Then it should use those variables
as the commands for actual installation, for executables and nonexecutables respectively.
Use these variables as follows:
$(INSTALL_PROGRAM) foo $(bindir)/foo
$(INSTALL_DATA) libfoo.a $(libdir)/libfoo.a
Always use a file name, not a directory name, as the second argument of the installation
commands. Use a separate command for each file to be installed.
114 GNU make

14.4 Variables for Installation Directories

Installation directories should always be named by variables, so it is easy to install in
a nonstandard place. The standard names for these variables are described below. They
are based on a standard filesystem layout; variants of it are used in SVR4, 4.4BSD, Linux,
Ultrix v4, and other modern operating systems.
These two variables set the root for the installation. All the other installation directories
should be subdirectories of one of these two, and nothing should be directly installed into
these two directories.
‘prefix’ A prefix used in constructing the default values of the variables listed below.
The default value of prefix should be ‘/usr/local’. When building the com-
plete GNU system, the prefix will be empty and ‘/usr’ will be a symbolic link
to ‘/’. (If you are using Autoconf, write it as ‘@prefix@’.)
‘exec_prefix’
A prefix used in constructing the default values of some of the variables listed
below. The default value of exec_prefix should be $(prefix). (If you are
using Autoconf, write it as ‘@exec_prefix@’.)
Generally, $(exec_prefix) is used for directories that contain machine-specific
files (such as executables and subroutine libraries), while $(prefix) is used
directly for other directories.
Executable programs are installed in one of the following directories.
‘bindir’ The directory for installing executable programs that users can run. This should
normally be ‘/usr/local/bin’, but write it as ‘$(exec_prefix)/bin’. (If you
are using Autoconf, write it as ‘@bindir@’.)
‘sbindir’ The directory for installing executable programs that can be run from the shell,
but are only generally useful to system administrators. This should normally be
‘/usr/local/sbin’, but write it as ‘$(exec_prefix)/sbin’. (If you are using
Autoconf, write it as ‘@sbindir@’.)
‘libexecdir’
The directory for installing executable programs to be run by other programs
rather than by users. This directory should normally be ‘/usr/local/libexec’,
but write it as ‘$(exec_prefix)/libexec’. (If you are using Autoconf, write
it as ‘@libexecdir@’.)
Data files used by the program during its execution are divided into categories in two
ways.
• Some files are normally modified by programs; others are never normally modified
(though users may edit some of these).
• Some files are architecture-independent and can be shared by all machines at a site;
some are architecture-dependent and can be shared only by machines of the same kind
and operating system; others may never be shared between two machines.
This makes for six different possibilities. However, we want to discourage the use of
architecture-dependent files, aside from object files and libraries. It is much cleaner to
make other data files architecture-independent, and it is generally not hard.
Chapter 14: Makefile Conventions 115

Therefore, here are the variables Makefiles should use to specify directories:
‘datadir’ The directory for installing read-only architecture independent data files. This
should normally be ‘/usr/local/share’, but write it as ‘$(prefix)/share’.
(If you are using Autoconf, write it as ‘@datadir@’.) As a special exception,
see ‘$(infodir)’ and ‘$(includedir)’ below.
‘sysconfdir’
The directory for installing read-only data files that pertain to a single machine–
that is to say, files for configuring a host. Mailer and network configuration
files, ‘/etc/passwd’, and so forth belong here. All the files in this direc-
tory should be ordinary ASCII text files. This directory should normally be
‘/usr/local/etc’, but write it as ‘$(prefix)/etc’. (If you are using Autoconf,
write it as ‘@sysconfdir@’.)
Do not install executables here in this directory (they probably belong in
‘$(libexecdir)’ or ‘$(sbindir)’). Also do not install files that are modified in
the normal course of their use (programs whose purpose is to change the configu-
ration of the system excluded). Those probably belong in ‘$(localstatedir)’.
‘sharedstatedir’
The directory for installing architecture-independent data files which the pro-
grams modify while they run. This should normally be ‘/usr/local/com’,
but write it as ‘$(prefix)/com’. (If you are using Autoconf, write it as
‘@sharedstatedir@’.)
‘localstatedir’
The directory for installing data files which the programs modify while they run,
and that pertain to one specific machine. Users should never need to modify
files in this directory to configure the package’s operation; put such configura-
tion information in separate files that go in ‘$(datadir)’ or ‘$(sysconfdir)’.
‘$(localstatedir)’ should normally be ‘/usr/local/var’, but write it as
‘$(prefix)/var’. (If you are using Autoconf, write it as ‘@localstatedir@’.)
‘libdir’ The directory for object files and libraries of object code. Do not install
executables here, they probably ought to go in ‘$(libexecdir)’ instead.
The value of libdir should normally be ‘/usr/local/lib’, but write it as
‘$(exec_prefix)/lib’. (If you are using Autoconf, write it as ‘@libdir@’.)
‘infodir’ The directory for installing the Info files for this package. By default, it should
be ‘/usr/local/info’, but it should be written as ‘$(prefix)/info’. (If you
are using Autoconf, write it as ‘@infodir@’.)
‘lispdir’ The directory for installing any Emacs Lisp files in this package. By default, it
should be ‘/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp’, but it should be written as
‘$(prefix)/share/emacs/site-lisp’.
If you are using Autoconf, write the default as ‘@lispdir@’. In order to make
‘@lispdir@’ work, you need the following lines in your ‘configure.in’ file:
lispdir=’${datadir}/emacs/site-lisp’
AC_SUBST(lispdir)
116 GNU make

‘includedir’
The directory for installing header files to be included by user programs
with the C ‘#include’ preprocessor directive. This should normally be
‘/usr/local/include’, but write it as ‘$(prefix)/include’. (If you are
using Autoconf, write it as ‘@includedir@’.)
Most compilers other than GCC do not look for header files in directory
‘/usr/local/include’. So installing the header files this way is only useful
with GCC. Sometimes this is not a problem because some libraries are only
really intended to work with GCC. But some libraries are intended to work
with other compilers. They should install their header files in two places, one
specified by includedir and one specified by oldincludedir.
‘oldincludedir’
The directory for installing ‘#include’ header files for use with compilers other
than GCC. This should normally be ‘/usr/include’. (If you are using Auto-
conf, you can write it as ‘@oldincludedir@’.)
The Makefile commands should check whether the value of oldincludedir is
empty. If it is, they should not try to use it; they should cancel the second
installation of the header files.
A package should not replace an existing header in this directory unless the
header came from the same package. Thus, if your Foo package provides a
header file ‘foo.h’, then it should install the header file in the oldincludedir
directory if either (1) there is no ‘foo.h’ there or (2) the ‘foo.h’ that exists
came from the Foo package.
To tell whether ‘foo.h’ came from the Foo package, put a magic string in the
file—part of a comment—and grep for that string.
Unix-style man pages are installed in one of the following:
‘mandir’ The top-level directory for installing the man pages (if any) for this package. It
will normally be ‘/usr/local/man’, but you should write it as ‘$(prefix)/man’.
(If you are using Autoconf, write it as ‘@mandir@’.)
‘man1dir’ The directory for installing section 1 man pages. Write it as ‘$(mandir)/man1’.
‘man2dir’ The directory for installing section 2 man pages. Write it as ‘$(mandir)/man2’
‘. . .’
Don’t make the primary documentation for any GNU software be a man page.
Write a manual in Texinfo instead. Man pages are just for the sake of people
running GNU software on Unix, which is a secondary application only.
‘manext’ The file name extension for the installed man page. This should contain a
period followed by the appropriate digit; it should normally be ‘.1’.
‘man1ext’ The file name extension for installed section 1 man pages.
‘man2ext’ The file name extension for installed section 2 man pages.
‘. . .’ Use these names instead of ‘manext’ if the package needs to install man pages
in more than one section of the manual.
Chapter 14: Makefile Conventions 117

And finally, you should set the following variable:

‘srcdir’ The directory for the sources being compiled. The value of this variable is
normally inserted by the configure shell script. (If you are using Autconf, use
‘srcdir = @srcdir@’.)
For example:
# Common prefix for installation directories.
# NOTE: This directory must exist when you start the install.
prefix = /usr/local
exec_prefix = $(prefix)
# Where to put the executable for the command ‘gcc’.
bindir = $(exec_prefix)/bin
# Where to put the directories used by the compiler.
libexecdir = $(exec_prefix)/libexec
# Where to put the Info files.
infodir = $(prefix)/info
If your program installs a large number of files into one of the standard user-specified
directories, it might be useful to group them into a subdirectory particular to that program.
If you do this, you should write the install rule to create these subdirectories.
Do not expect the user to include the subdirectory name in the value of any of the
variables listed above. The idea of having a uniform set of variable names for installation
directories is to enable the user to specify the exact same values for several different GNU
packages. In order for this to be useful, all the packages must be designed so that they will
work sensibly when the user does so.

14.5 Standard Targets for Users

All GNU programs should have the following targets in their Makefiles:
‘all’ Compile the entire program. This should be the default target. This target need
not rebuild any documentation files; Info files should normally be included in
the distribution, and DVI files should be made only when explicitly asked for.
By default, the Make rules should compile and link with ‘-g’, so that executable
programs have debugging symbols. Users who don’t mind being helpless can
strip the executables later if they wish.
‘install’ Compile the program and copy the executables, libraries, and so on to the file
names where they should reside for actual use. If there is a simple test to verify
that a program is properly installed, this target should run that test.
Do not strip executables when installing them. Devil-may-care users can use
the install-strip target to do that.
If possible, write the install target rule so that it does not modify anything in
the directory where the program was built, provided ‘make all’ has just been
done. This is convenient for building the program under one user name and
installing it under another.
The commands should create all the directories in which files are to be installed,
if they don’t already exist. This includes the directories specified as the values
118 GNU make

of the variables prefix and exec_prefix, as well as all subdirectories that are
needed. One way to do this is by means of an installdirs target as described
below.
Use ‘-’ before any command for installing a man page, so that make will ignore
any errors. This is in case there are systems that don’t have the Unix man page
documentation system installed.
The way to install Info files is to copy them into ‘$(infodir)’ with $(INSTALL_
DATA) (see Section 14.3 [Command Variables], page 113), and then run the
install-info program if it is present. install-info is a program that edits
the Info ‘dir’ file to add or update the menu entry for the given Info file; it is
part of the Texinfo package. Here is a sample rule to install an Info file:
$(infodir)/foo.info: foo.info
$(POST_INSTALL)
# There may be a newer info file in . than in srcdir.
-if test -f foo.info; then d=.; \
else d=$(srcdir); fi; \
$(INSTALL_DATA) $$d/foo.info $@; \
# Run install-info only if it exists.
# Use ‘if’ instead of just prepending ‘-’ to the
# line so we notice real errors from install-info.
# We use ‘$(SHELL) -c’ because some shells do not
# fail gracefully when there is an unknown command.
if $(SHELL) -c ’install-info --version’ \
>/dev/null 2>&1; then \
install-info --dir-file=$(infodir)/dir \
$(infodir)/foo.info; \
else true; fi
When writing the install target, you must classify all the commands into
three categories: normal ones, pre-installation commands and post-installation
commands. See Section 14.6 [Install Command Categories], page 121.
‘uninstall’
Delete all the installed files—the copies that the ‘install’ target creates.
This rule should not modify the directories where compilation is done, only the
directories where files are installed.
The uninstallation commands are divided into three categories, just like the in-
stallation commands. See Section 14.6 [Install Command Categories], page 121.
‘install-strip’
Like install, but strip the executable files while installing them. In many
cases, the definition of this target can be very simple:
install-strip:
$(MAKE) INSTALL_PROGRAM=’$(INSTALL_PROGRAM) -s’ \
install
Normally we do not recommend stripping an executable unless you are sure the
program has no bugs. However, it can be reasonable to install a stripped exe-
Chapter 14: Makefile Conventions 119

cutable for actual execution while saving the unstripped executable elsewhere
in case there is a bug.
‘clean’
Delete all files from the current directory that are normally created by build-
ing the program. Don’t delete the files that record the configuration. Also
preserve files that could be made by building, but normally aren’t because the
distribution comes with them.
Delete ‘.dvi’ files here if they are not part of the distribution.
‘distclean’
Delete all files from the current directory that are created by configuring or
building the program. If you have unpacked the source and built the program
without creating any other files, ‘make distclean’ should leave only the files
that were in the distribution.
‘mostlyclean’
Like ‘clean’, but may refrain from deleting a few files that people normally
don’t want to recompile. For example, the ‘mostlyclean’ target for GCC does
not delete ‘libgcc.a’, because recompiling it is rarely necessary and takes a lot
of time.
‘maintainer-clean’
Delete almost everything from the current directory that can be reconstructed
with this Makefile. This typically includes everything deleted by distclean,
plus more: C source files produced by Bison, tags tables, Info files, and so on.
The reason we say “almost everything” is that running the command ‘make
maintainer-clean’ should not delete ‘configure’ even if ‘configure’ can be
remade using a rule in the Makefile. More generally, ‘make maintainer-clean’
should not delete anything that needs to exist in order to run ‘configure’ and
then begin to build the program. This is the only exception; maintainer-clean
should delete everything else that can be rebuilt.
The ‘maintainer-clean’ target is intended to be used by a maintainer of the
package, not by ordinary users. You may need special tools to reconstruct
some of the files that ‘make maintainer-clean’ deletes. Since these files are
normally included in the distribution, we don’t take care to make them easy to
reconstruct. If you find you need to unpack the full distribution again, don’t
blame us.
To help make users aware of this, the commands for the special maintainer-
clean target should start with these two:
@echo ’This command is intended for maintainers to use; it’
@echo ’deletes files that may need special tools to rebuild.’
‘TAGS’ Update a tags table for this program.
‘info’ Generate any Info files needed. The best way to write the rules is as follows:
info: foo.info
120 GNU make

foo.info: foo.texi chap1.texi chap2.texi

$(MAKEINFO) $(srcdir)/foo.texi
You must define the variable MAKEINFO in the Makefile. It should run the
makeinfo program, which is part of the Texinfo distribution.
Normally a GNU distribution comes with Info files, and that means the Info
files are present in the source directory. Therefore, the Make rule for an info
file should update it in the source directory. When users build the package,
ordinarily Make will not update the Info files because they will already be up
to date.
‘dvi’ Generate DVI files for all Texinfo documentation. For example:
dvi: foo.dvi

foo.dvi: foo.texi chap1.texi chap2.texi

$(TEXI2DVI) $(srcdir)/foo.texi
You must define the variable TEXI2DVI in the Makefile. It should run the
program texi2dvi, which is part of the Texinfo distribution.1 Alternatively,
write just the dependencies, and allow GNU make to provide the command.
‘dist’ Create a distribution tar file for this program. The tar file should be set up so
that the file names in the tar file start with a subdirectory name which is the
name of the package it is a distribution for. This name can include the version
number.
For example, the distribution tar file of GCC version 1.40 unpacks into a sub-
directory named ‘gcc-1.40’.
The easiest way to do this is to create a subdirectory appropriately named, use
ln or cp to install the proper files in it, and then tar that subdirectory.
Compress the tar file file with gzip. For example, the actual distribution file
for GCC version 1.40 is called ‘gcc-1.40.tar.gz’.
The dist target should explicitly depend on all non-source files that are in the
distribution, to make sure they are up to date in the distribution. See section
“Making Releases” in GNU Coding Standards.
‘check’ Perform self-tests (if any). The user must build the program before running
the tests, but need not install the program; you should write the self-tests so
that they work when the program is built but not installed.
The following targets are suggested as conventional names, for programs in which they
are useful.
installcheck
Perform installation tests (if any). The user must build and install the program
before running the tests. You should not assume that ‘$(bindir)’ is in the
search path.
1
texi2dvi uses TEX to do the real work of formatting. TEX is not distributed with
Texinfo.
Chapter 14: Makefile Conventions 121

installdirs
It’s useful to add a target named ‘installdirs’ to create the directories
where files are installed, and their parent directories. There is a script called
‘mkinstalldirs’ which is convenient for this; you can find it in the Texinfo
package. You can use a rule like this:
# Make sure all installation directories (e.g. $(bindir))
# actually exist by making them if necessary.
installdirs: mkinstalldirs
$(srcdir)/mkinstalldirs $(bindir) $(datadir) \
$(libdir) $(infodir) \
$(mandir)
This rule should not modify the directories where compilation is done. It should
do nothing but create installation directories.

14.6 Install Command Categories

When writing the install target, you must classify all the commands into three cate-
gories: normal ones, pre-installation commands and post-installation commands.
Normal commands move files into their proper places, and set their modes. They may
not alter any files except the ones that come entirely from the package they belong to.
Pre-installation and post-installation commands may alter other files; in particular, they
can edit global configuration files or data bases.
Pre-installation commands are typically executed before the normal commands, and
post-installation commands are typically run after the normal commands.
The most common use for a post-installation command is to run install-info. This
cannot be done with a normal command, since it alters a file (the Info directory) which
does not come entirely and solely from the package being installed. It is a post-installation
command because it needs to be done after the normal command which installs the package’s
Info files.
Most programs don’t need any pre-installation commands, but we have the feature just
in case it is needed.
To classify the commands in the install rule into these three categories, insert category
lines among them. A category line specifies the category for the commands that follow.
A category line consists of a tab and a reference to a special Make variable, plus an
optional comment at the end. There are three variables you can use, one for each category;
the variable name specifies the category. Category lines are no-ops in ordinary execution
because these three Make variables are normally undefined (and you should not define them
in the makefile).
Here are the three possible category lines, each with a comment that explains what it
means:
$(PRE_INSTALL) # Pre-install commands follow.
$(POST_INSTALL) # Post-install commands follow.
$(NORMAL_INSTALL) # Normal commands follow.
122 GNU make

If you don’t use a category line at the beginning of the install rule, all the commands
are classified as normal until the first category line. If you don’t use any category lines, all
the commands are classified as normal.
These are the category lines for uninstall:
$(PRE_UNINSTALL) # Pre-uninstall commands follow.
$(POST_UNINSTALL) # Post-uninstall commands follow.
$(NORMAL_UNINSTALL) # Normal commands follow.
Typically, a pre-uninstall command would be used for deleting entries from the Info
directory.
If the install or uninstall target has any dependencies which act as subroutines of
installation, then you should start each dependency’s commands with a category line, and
start the main target’s commands with a category line also. This way, you can ensure
that each command is placed in the right category regardless of which of the dependencies
actually run.
Pre-installation and post-installation commands should not run any programs except for
these:
[ basename bash cat chgrp chmod chown cmp cp dd diff echo
egrep expand expr false fgrep find getopt grep gunzip gzip
hostname install install-info kill ldconfig ln ls md5sum
mkdir mkfifo mknod mv printenv pwd rm rmdir sed sort tee
test touch true uname xargs yes
The reason for distinguishing the commands in this way is for the sake of making binary
packages. Typically a binary package contains all the executables and other files that need
to be installed, and has its own method of installing them—so it does not need to run the
normal installation commands. But installing the binary package does need to execute the
pre-installation and post-installation commands.
Programs to build binary packages work by extracting the pre-installation and post-
installation commands. Here is one way of extracting the pre-installation commands:
make -n install -o all \
PRE_INSTALL=pre-install \
POST_INSTALL=post-install \
NORMAL_INSTALL=normal-install \
| gawk -f pre-install.awk
where the file ‘pre-install.awk’ could contain this:
$0 ~ /^\t[ \t]*(normal_install|post_install)[ \t]*$/ {on = 0}
on {print $0}
$0 ~ /^\t[ \t]*pre_install[ \t]*$/ {on = 1}
The resulting file of pre-installation commands is executed as a shell script as part of
installing the binary package.
Appendix A: Quick Reference 123

Appendix A Quick Reference

This appendix summarizes the directives, text manipulation functions, and special vari-
ables which GNU make understands. See Section 4.7 [Special Targets], page 24, Section 10.2
[Catalogue of Implicit Rules], page 84, and Section 9.7 [Summary of Options], page 78, for
other summaries.
Here is a summary of the directives GNU make recognizes:
define variable
endef
Define a multi-line, recursively-expanded variable.
See Section 5.7 [Sequences], page 42.
ifdef variable
ifndef variable
ifeq (a,b)
ifeq "a" "b"
ifeq ’a’ ’b’
ifneq (a,b)
ifneq "a" "b"
ifneq ’a’ ’b’
else
endif
Conditionally evaluate part of the makefile.
See Chapter 7 [Conditionals], page 59.
include file
Include another makefile.
See Section 3.3 [Including Other Makefiles], page 10.
override variable = value
override variable := value
override variable += value
override define variable
endef
Define a variable, overriding any previous definition, even one from the com-
mand line.
See Section 6.7 [The override Directive], page 53.
export
Tell make to export all variables to child processes by default.
See Section 5.6.2 [Communicating Variables to a Sub-make], page 38.
export variable
export variable = value
export variable := value
export variable += value
unexport variable
Tell make whether or not to export a particular variable to child processes.
See Section 5.6.2 [Communicating Variables to a Sub-make], page 38.
124 GNU make

vpath pattern path

Specify a search path for files matching a ‘%’ pattern.
See Section 4.3.2 [The vpath Directive], page 19.
vpath pattern
Remove all search paths previously specified for pattern.
vpath Remove all search paths previously specified in any vpath directive.
Here is a summary of the text manipulation functions (see Chapter 8 [Functions],
page 63):
$(subst from,to,text)
Replace from with to in text.
See Section 8.2 [Functions for String Substitution and Analysis], page 64.
$(patsubst pattern,replacement,text)
Replace words matching pattern with replacement in text.
See Section 8.2 [Functions for String Substitution and Analysis], page 64.
$(strip string)
Remove excess whitespace characters from string.
See Section 8.2 [Functions for String Substitution and Analysis], page 64.
$(findstring find,text)
Locate find in text.
See Section 8.2 [Functions for String Substitution and Analysis], page 64.
$(filter pattern. . .,text)
Select words in text that match one of the pattern words.
See Section 8.2 [Functions for String Substitution and Analysis], page 64.
$(filter-out pattern. . .,text)
Select words in text that do not match any of the pattern words.
See Section 8.2 [Functions for String Substitution and Analysis], page 64.
$(sort list)
Sort the words in list lexicographically, removing duplicates.
See Section 8.2 [Functions for String Substitution and Analysis], page 64.
$(dir names. . .)
Extract the directory part of each file name.
See Section 8.3 [Functions for File Names], page 66.
$(notdir names. . .)
Extract the non-directory part of each file name.
See Section 8.3 [Functions for File Names], page 66.
$(suffix names. . .)
Extract the suffix (the last ‘.’ and following characters) of each file name.
See Section 8.3 [Functions for File Names], page 66.
$(basename names. . .)
Extract the base name (name without suffix) of each file name.
See Section 8.3 [Functions for File Names], page 66.
Appendix A: Quick Reference 125

$(addsuffix suffix,names. . .)
Append suffix to each word in names.
See Section 8.3 [Functions for File Names], page 66.
$(addprefix prefix,names. . .)
Prepend prefix to each word in names.
See Section 8.3 [Functions for File Names], page 66.
$(join list1,list2)
Join two parallel lists of words.
See Section 8.3 [Functions for File Names], page 66.
$(word n,text)
Extract the nth word (one-origin) of text.
See Section 8.3 [Functions for File Names], page 66.
$(words text)
Count the number of words in text.
See Section 8.3 [Functions for File Names], page 66.
$(firstword names. . .)
Extract the first word of names.
See Section 8.3 [Functions for File Names], page 66.
$(wildcard pattern. . .)
Find file names matching a shell file name pattern (not a ‘%’ pattern).
See Section 4.2.3 [The Function wildcard], page 17.
$(shell command)
Execute a shell command and return its output.
See Section 8.6 [The shell Function], page 71.
$(origin variable)
Return a string describing how the make variable variable was defined.
See Section 8.5 [The origin Function], page 70.
$(foreach var,words,text)
Evaluate text with var bound to each word in words, and concatenate the
results.
See Section 8.4 [The foreach Function], page 69.
Here is a summary of the automatic variables. See Section 10.5.3 [Automatic Variables],
page 92, for full information.
$@ The file name of the target.
$% The target member name, when the target is an archive member.
$< The name of the first dependency.
$? The names of all the dependencies that are newer than the target, with spaces
between them. For dependencies which are archive members, only the member
named is used (see Chapter 11 [Archives], page 101).
126 GNU make

$^
$+ The names of all the dependencies, with spaces between them. For dependencies
which are archive members, only the member named is used (see Chapter 11
[Archives], page 101). The value of $^ omits duplicate dependencies, while $+
retains them and preserves their order.
$* The stem with which an implicit rule matches (see Section 10.5.4 [How Patterns
Match], page 94).
$(@D)
$(@F) The directory part and the file-within-directory part of $@.
$(*D)
$(*F) The directory part and the file-within-directory part of $*.
$(%D)
$(%F) The directory part and the file-within-directory part of $%.
$(<D)
$(<F) The directory part and the file-within-directory part of $<.
$(^D)
$(^F) The directory part and the file-within-directory part of $^.
$(+D)
$(+F) The directory part and the file-within-directory part of $+.
$(?D)
$(?F) The directory part and the file-within-directory part of $?.
These variables are used specially by GNU make:
MAKEFILES
Makefiles to be read on every invocation of make.
See Section 3.4 [The Variable MAKEFILES], page 11.
VPATH
Directory search path for files not found in the current directory.
See Section 4.3.1 [VPATH Search Path for All Dependencies], page 18.
SHELL
The name of the system default command interpreter, usually ‘/bin/sh’. You
can set SHELL in the makefile to change the shell used to run commands. See
Section 5.2 [Command Execution], page 33.
MAKESHELL
On MS-DOS only, the name of the command interpreter that is to be used by
make. This value takes precedence over the value of SHELL. See Section 5.2
[MAKESHELL variable], page 33.
MAKE
The name with which make was invoked. Using this variable in commands has
special meaning. See Section 5.6.1 [How the MAKE Variable Works], page 38.
Appendix A: Quick Reference 127

MAKELEVEL
The number of levels of recursion (sub-makes).
See Section 5.6.2 [Variables/Recursion], page 38.
MAKEFLAGS
The flags given to make. You can set this in the environment or a makefile to
set flags.
See Section 5.6.3 [Communicating Options to a Sub-make], page 40.
MAKECMDGOALS
The targets given to make on the command line. Setting this variable has no
effect on the operation of make.
See Section 9.2 [Arguments to Specify the Goals], page 73.
CURDIR
Set to the pathname of the current working directory (after all -C options are
processed, if any). Setting this variable has no effect on the operation of make.
See Section 5.6 [Recursive Use of make], page 37.
SUFFIXES
The default list of suffixes before make reads any makefiles.
128 GNU make
Appendix B: Errors Generated by Make 129

Appendix B Errors Generated by Make

Here is a list of the most common errors you might see generated by make, and some
information about what they mean and how to fix them.
Sometimes make errors are not fatal, especially in the presence of a - prefix on a command
script line, or the -k command line option. Errors that are fatal are prefixed with the string
***.
Error messages are all either prefixed with the name of the program (usually ‘make’),
or, if the error is found in a makefile, the name of the file and linenumber containing the
problem.
In the table below, these common prefixes are left off.
‘[foo] Error NN ’
‘[foo] signal description’
These errors are not really make errors at all. They mean that a program that
make invoked as part of a command script returned a non-0 error code (‘Error
NN ’), which make interprets as failure, or it exited in some other abnormal
fashion (with a signal of some type).
If no *** is attached to the message, then the subprocess failed but the rule
in the makefile was prefixed with the - special character, so make ignored the
error.
‘missing separator. Stop.’
This is make’s generic “Huh?” error message. It means that make was com-
pletely unsuccessful at parsing this line of your makefile. It basically means
“syntax error”.
One of the most common reasons for this message is that you (or perhaps
your oh-so-helpful editor, as is the case with many MS-Windows editors) have
attempted to indent your command scripts with spaces instead of a TAB char-
acter. Remember that every line in the command script must begin with a TAB
character. Eight spaces do not count.
‘commands commence before first target. Stop.’
‘missing rule before commands. Stop.’
This means the first thing in the makefile seems to be part of a command script:
it begins with a TAB character and doesn’t appear to be a legal make command
(such as a variable assignment). Command scripts must always be associated
with a target.
The second form is generated if the line has a semicolon as the first non-
whitespace character; make interprets this to mean you left out the "target:
dependency" section of a rule.
‘No rule to make target ‘xxx’.’
‘No rule to make target ‘xxx’, needed by ‘yyy’.’
This means that make decided it needed to build a target, but then couldn’t find
any instructions in the makefile on how to do that, either explicit or implicit
(including in the default rules database).
130 GNU make

If you want that file to be built, you will need to add a rule to your makefile
describing how that target can be built. Other possible sources of this problem
are typos in the makefile (if that filename is wrong) or a corrupted source tree
(if that file is not supposed to be built, but rather only a dependency).
‘No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.’
‘No targets. Stop.’
The former means that you didn’t provide any targets to be built on the com-
mand line, and make couldn’t find any makefiles to read in. The latter means
that some makefile was found, but it didn’t contain any default target and
none was given on the command line. GNU make has nothing to do in these
situations.
‘Makefile ‘xxx’ was not found.’
‘Included makefile ‘xxx’ was not found.’
A makefile specified on the command line (first form) or included (second form)
was not found.
‘warning: overriding commands for target ‘xxx’’
‘warning: ignoring old commands for target ‘xxx’’
GNU make allows commands to be specified only once per target (except for
double-colon rules). If you give commands for a target which already has been
defined to have commands, this warning is issued and the second set of com-
mands will overwrite the first set.
‘Circular xxx <- yyy dependency dropped.’
This means that make detected a loop in the dependency graph: after tracing
the dependency yyy of target xxx, and its dependencies, etc., one of them
depended on xxx again.
‘Recursive variable ‘xxx’ references itself (eventually). Stop.’
This means you’ve defined a normal (recursive) make variable xxx that, when
its expanded, will refer to itself (xxx). This is not allowed; either use simply-
expanded variables (:=) or use the append operator (+=).
‘Unterminated variable reference. Stop.’
This means you forgot to provide the proper closing parenthesis or brace in
your variable or function reference.
‘insufficient arguments to function ‘xxx’. Stop.’
This means you haven’t provided the requisite number of arguments for this
function. See the documentation of the function for a description of its argu-
ments.
‘missing target pattern. Stop.’
‘multiple target patterns. Stop.’
‘target pattern contains no ‘%’. Stop.’
These are generated for malformed static pattern rules. The first means there’s
no pattern in the target section of the rule, the second means there are multiple
patterns in the target section, and the third means the target doesn’t contain
a pattern character (%).
Appendix C: Complex Makefile Example 131

Appendix C Complex Makefile Example

Here is the makefile for the GNU tar program. This is a moderately complex makefile.
Because it is the first target, the default goal is ‘all’. An interesting feature of this
makefile is that ‘testpad.h’ is a source file automatically created by the testpad program,
itself compiled from ‘testpad.c’.
If you type ‘make’ or ‘make all’, then make creates the ‘tar’ executable, the ‘rmt’ daemon
that provides remote tape access, and the ‘tar.info’ Info file.
If you type ‘make install’, then make not only creates ‘tar’, ‘rmt’, and ‘tar.info’, but
also installs them.
If you type ‘make clean’, then make removes the ‘.o’ files, and the ‘tar’, ‘rmt’, ‘testpad’,
‘testpad.h’, and ‘core’ files.
If you type ‘make distclean’, then make not only removes the same files as does ‘make
clean’ but also the ‘TAGS’, ‘Makefile’, and ‘config.status’ files. (Although it is not
evident, this makefile (and ‘config.status’) is generated by the user with the configure
program, which is provided in the tar distribution, but is not shown here.)
If you type ‘make realclean’, then make removes the same files as does ‘make distclean’
and also removes the Info files generated from ‘tar.texinfo’.
In addition, there are targets shar and dist that create distribution kits.
# Generated automatically from Makefile.in by configure.
# Un*x Makefile for GNU tar program.
# Copyright (C) 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
# This program is free software; you can redistribute
# it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU
# General Public License . . .
...
...
SHELL = /bin/sh

#### Start of system configuration section. ####

srcdir = .

# If you use gcc, you should either run the

# fixincludes script that comes with it or else use
# gcc with the -traditional option. Otherwise ioctl
# calls will be compiled incorrectly on some systems.
CC = gcc -O
YACC = bison -y
INSTALL = /usr/local/bin/install -c
INSTALLDATA = /usr/local/bin/install -c -m 644
# Things you might add to DEFS:
# -DSTDC_HEADERS If you have ANSI C headers and
# libraries.
# -DPOSIX If you have POSIX.1 headers and
132 GNU make

# libraries.
# -DBSD42 If you have sys/dir.h (unless
# you use -DPOSIX), sys/file.h,
# and st_blocks in ‘struct stat’.
# -DUSG If you have System V/ANSI C
# string and memory functions
# and headers, sys/sysmacros.h,
# fcntl.h, getcwd, no valloc,
# and ndir.h (unless
# you use -DDIRENT).
# -DNO_MEMORY_H If USG or STDC_HEADERS but do not
# include memory.h.
# -DDIRENT If USG and you have dirent.h
# instead of ndir.h.
# -DSIGTYPE=int If your signal handlers
# return int, not void.
# -DNO_MTIO If you lack sys/mtio.h
# (magtape ioctls).
# -DNO_REMOTE If you do not have a remote shell
# or rexec.
# -DUSE_REXEC To use rexec for remote tape
# operations instead of
# forking rsh or remsh.
# -DVPRINTF_MISSING If you lack vprintf function
# (but have _doprnt).
# -DDOPRNT_MISSING If you lack _doprnt function.
# Also need to define
# -DVPRINTF_MISSING.
# -DFTIME_MISSING If you lack ftime system call.
# -DSTRSTR_MISSING If you lack strstr function.
# -DVALLOC_MISSING If you lack valloc function.
# -DMKDIR_MISSING If you lack mkdir and
# rmdir system calls.
# -DRENAME_MISSING If you lack rename system call.
# -DFTRUNCATE_MISSING If you lack ftruncate
# system call.
# -DV7 On Version 7 Unix (not
# tested in a long time).
# -DEMUL_OPEN3 If you lack a 3-argument version
# of open, and want to emulate it
# with system calls you do have.
# -DNO_OPEN3 If you lack the 3-argument open
# and want to disable the tar -k
# option instead of emulating open.
# -DXENIX If you have sys/inode.h
# and need it 94 to be included.

DEFS = -DSIGTYPE=int -DDIRENT -DSTRSTR_MISSING \

Appendix C: Complex Makefile Example 133

-DVPRINTF_MISSING -DBSD42
# Set this to rtapelib.o unless you defined NO_REMOTE,
# in which case make it empty.
RTAPELIB = rtapelib.o
LIBS =
DEF_AR_FILE = /dev/rmt8
DEFBLOCKING = 20

CDEBUG = -g
CFLAGS = $(CDEBUG) -I. -I$(srcdir) $(DEFS) \
-DDEF_AR_FILE=\"$(DEF_AR_FILE)\" \
-DDEFBLOCKING=$(DEFBLOCKING)
LDFLAGS = -g
prefix = /usr/local
# Prefix for each installed program,
# normally empty or ‘g’.
binprefix =

# The directory to install tar in.

bindir = $(prefix)/bin

# The directory to install the info files in.

infodir = $(prefix)/info
#### End of system configuration section. ####

SRC1 = tar.c create.c extract.c buffer.c \

getoldopt.c update.c gnu.c mangle.c
SRC2 = version.c list.c names.c diffarch.c \
port.c wildmat.c getopt.c
SRC3 = getopt1.c regex.c getdate.y
SRCS = $(SRC1) $(SRC2) $(SRC3)
OBJ1 = tar.o create.o extract.o buffer.o \
getoldopt.o update.o gnu.o mangle.o
OBJ2 = version.o list.o names.o diffarch.o \
port.o wildmat.o getopt.o
OBJ3 = getopt1.o regex.o getdate.o $(RTAPELIB)
OBJS = $(OBJ1) $(OBJ2) $(OBJ3)
AUX = README COPYING ChangeLog Makefile.in \
makefile.pc configure configure.in \
tar.texinfo tar.info* texinfo.tex \
tar.h port.h open3.h getopt.h regex.h \
rmt.h rmt.c rtapelib.c alloca.c \
msd_dir.h msd_dir.c tcexparg.c \
level-0 level-1 backup-specs testpad.c
all: tar rmt tar.info
134 GNU make

tar: $(OBJS)
$(CC) $(LDFLAGS) -o $@ $(OBJS) $(LIBS)
rmt: rmt.c
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) -o $@ rmt.c
tar.info: tar.texinfo
makeinfo tar.texinfo
install: all
$(INSTALL) tar $(bindir)/$(binprefix)tar
-test ! -f rmt || $(INSTALL) rmt /etc/rmt
$(INSTALLDATA) $(srcdir)/tar.info* $(infodir)
$(OBJS): tar.h port.h testpad.h
regex.o buffer.o tar.o: regex.h
# getdate.y has 8 shift/reduce conflicts.
testpad.h: testpad
./testpad
testpad: testpad.o
$(CC) -o $@ testpad.o
TAGS: $(SRCS)
etags $(SRCS)
clean:
rm -f *.o tar rmt testpad testpad.h core
distclean: clean
rm -f TAGS Makefile config.status
realclean: distclean
rm -f tar.info*
shar: $(SRCS) $(AUX)
shar $(SRCS) $(AUX) | compress \
> tar-‘sed -e ’/version_string/!d’ \
-e ’s/[^0-9.]*\([0-9.]*\).*/\1/’ \
-e q
version.c‘.shar.Z
dist: $(SRCS) $(AUX)
echo tar-‘sed \
-e ’/version_string/!d’ \
-e ’s/[^0-9.]*\([0-9.]*\).*/\1/’ \
-e q
version.c‘ > .fname
-rm -rf ‘cat .fname‘
mkdir ‘cat .fname‘
ln $(SRCS) $(AUX) ‘cat .fname‘
-rm -rf ‘cat .fname‘ .fname
tar chZf ‘cat .fname‘.tar.Z ‘cat .fname‘
Appendix C: Complex Makefile Example 135

tar.zoo: $(SRCS) $(AUX)

-rm -rf tmp.dir
-mkdir tmp.dir
-rm tar.zoo
for X in $(SRCS) $(AUX) ; do \
echo $$X ; \
sed ’s/$$/^M/’ $$X \
> tmp.dir/$$X ; done
cd tmp.dir ; zoo aM ../tar.zoo *
-rm -rf tmp.dir
136 GNU make
Index of Concepts 137

Index of Concepts

# --load-average . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35, 79
# (comments), in commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 --makefile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 73, 78
# (comments), in makefile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 --max-load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35, 79
#include . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 --new-file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75, 81
--new-file, and recursion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
$ --no-builtin-rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
$, in function call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 --no-keep-going . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
$, in rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 --no-print-directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42, 81
$, in variable name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 --old-file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76, 79
$, in variable reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 --old-file, and recursion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
--print-data-base. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
--print-directory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
% --print-directory, and --directory . . . . . . . . . 42
%, in pattern rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 --print-directory, and recursion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
%, quoting in patsubst. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 --print-directory, disabling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
%, quoting in static pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 --question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75, 80
%, quoting in vpath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 --quiet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33, 80
%, quoting with \ (backslash) . . . . . . . . . . . 19, 28, 64 --recon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33, 75, 79
--silent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33, 80
* --stop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
* (wildcard character) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 --touch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75, 80
--touch, and recursion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
, --version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
,v (RCS file extension) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 --warn-undefined-variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
--what-if . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75, 81
- -b . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
-C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38, 78
- (in commands) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
-C, and -w . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
-, and define . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
-C, and recursion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
--assume-new . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75, 81
-d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
--assume-new, and recursion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
-e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
--assume-old . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76, 79
-e (shell flag) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
--assume-old, and recursion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
-f . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 73, 78
--debug . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
-f, and recursion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
--directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38, 78
-h . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
--directory, and --print-directory . . . . . . . . . 42
-i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36, 79
--directory, and recursion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
-I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 79
--dry-run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33, 75, 79
-j . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35, 79
--environment-overrides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
-j, and archive update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
--file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 73, 78
-j, and recursion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
--file, and recursion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
-k . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36, 78, 79
--help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
-l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
--ignore-errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36, 79
-l (library search) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
--include-dir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 79
-l (load average) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
--jobs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35, 79
-m . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
--jobs, and recursion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
-M (to compiler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
--just-print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33, 75, 79
-MM (to GNU compiler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
--keep-going . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36, 78, 79
138 GNU make

-n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33, 75, 79 :
-o . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76, 79 :: rules (double-colon) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
-o, and recursion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 := . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46, 51
-p . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
-q . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75, 80 =
-r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46, 51
-s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33, 80
-S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 ?
-t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75, 80
? (wildcard character) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
-t, and recursion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
?= . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48, 51
-v . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
-w . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
-W . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75, 81
@
-w, and -C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 @ (in commands) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
-w, and recursion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 @, and define . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
-W, and recursion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
-w, disabling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 [
[. . .] (wildcard characters). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

__.SYMDEF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
.
.a (archives) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 ~
.c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
~ (tilde) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
.C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
.cc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
+
.ch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
+, and define . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
.d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
+= . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
.def . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
.dvi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
.f . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
\
.F . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 \ (backslash), for continuation lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
.info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 \ (backslash), in commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
.l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 \ (backslash), to quote % . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19, 28, 64
.ln . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
.mod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 A
.o . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84, 85 algorithm for directory search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
.p . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 all (standard target) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
.PRECIOUS intermediate files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 appending to variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
.r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 ar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
.s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
.S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 archive member targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
.sh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 archive symbol directory updating . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
.sym . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 archive, and -j . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
.tex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 archive, and parallel execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
.texi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 archive, suffix rule for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
.texinfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Arg list too long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
.txinfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 arguments of functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
.w . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 as . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85, 88
.web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 assembly, rule to compile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
.y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 automatic generation of dependencies . . . . . . 10, 30
Index of Concepts 139

automatic variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 computed variable name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

conditional variable assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
B conditionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
continuation lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
backquotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
conventions for makefiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
backslash (\), for continuation lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
ctangle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86, 88
backslash (\), in commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
cweave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86, 88
backslash (\), to quote % . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19, 28, 64
backslashes in pathnames and wildcard expansion
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 D
basename. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 deducing commands (implicit rules) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
binary packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 default directries for included makefiles . . . . . . . . 10
broken pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 default goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5, 15
bugs, reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 default makefile name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
built-in special targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 default rules, last-resort. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
defining variables verbatim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
C deletion of target files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
C, rule to compile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
dependencies, automatic generation . . . . . . . . 10, 30
C++, rule to compile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
dependencies, introduction to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
cc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84, 88
dependencies, list of all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
cd (shell command) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33, 38
dependencies, list of changed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
chains of rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
dependencies, varying (static pattern) . . . . . . . . . . 27
check (standard target). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
dependency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
clean (standard target). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
dependency pattern, implicit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
clean target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5, 8
dependency pattern, static (not implicit) . . . . . . . 28
cleaning up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
directive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
clobber (standard target) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
directories, printing them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86, 88
directories, updating archive symbol . . . . . . . . . . 102
combining rules by dependency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
directory part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
command line variable definitions, and recursion
directory search (VPATH) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
directory search (VPATH), and implicit rules. . . . . 21
command line variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
directory search (VPATH), and link libraries . . . . . 21
commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
directory search (VPATH), and shell commands . . 21
commands, backslash (\) in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
directory search algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
commands, comments in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
directory search, traditional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
commands, echoing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
dist (standard target) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
commands, empty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
distclean (standard target) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
commands, errors in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
dollar sign ($), in function call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
commands, execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
dollar sign ($), in rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
commands, execution in parallel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
dollar sign ($), in variable name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
commands, expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
dollar sign ($), in variable reference . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
commands, how to write . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
double-colon rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
commands, instead of executing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
duplicate words, removing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
commands, introduction to. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
commands, quoting newlines in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
commands, sequences of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 E
comments, in commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 E2BIG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
comments, in makefile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 echoing of commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
compatibility in exporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Emacs (M-x compile) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
compilation, testing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 empty commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
140 GNU make

empty targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 globbing (wildcards) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
environment, and recursion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 goal, default . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5, 15
environment, SHELL in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 goal, how to specify. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
errors (in commands) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
errors with wildcards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 H
execution, in parallel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 home directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
execution, instead of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
execution, of commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
exit status (errors). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
I
explicit rule, definition of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 IEEE Standard 1003.2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
exporting variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 implicit rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
implicit rule, and directory search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
implicit rule, and VPATH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
F implicit rule, definition of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
f77 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85, 88 implicit rule, how to use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
features of GNU make . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 implicit rule, introduction to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
features, missing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 implicit rule, predefined. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
file name functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 implicit rule, search algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
file name of makefile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 included makefiles, default directries . . . . . . . . . . . 10
file name of makefile, how to specify . . . . . . . . . . . 10 including (MAKEFILES variable) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
file name prefix, adding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 including other makefiles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
file name suffix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 incompatibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
file name suffix, adding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Info, rule to format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
file name with wildcards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 install (standard target) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
file name, basename of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 intermediate files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
file name, directory part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 intermediate files, preserving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
file name, nondirectory part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 intermediate targets, explicit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
files, assuming new . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 interrupt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
files, assuming old . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
files, avoiding recompilation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
files, intermediate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
J
filtering out words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 job slots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
filtering words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 job slots, and recursion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
finding strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 jobs, limiting based on load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
flags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 joining lists of words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
flags for compilers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
flavors of variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 K
FORCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 killing (interruption) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
force targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Fortran, rule to compile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 L
functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
last-resort default rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
functions, for file names. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
ld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
functions, for text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
lex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86, 88
functions, syntax of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Lex, rule to run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
libraries for linking, directory search . . . . . . . . . . . 21
G library archive, suffix rule for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
g++ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85, 88 limiting jobs based on load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
gcc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 link libraries, and directory search . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
generating dependencies automatically . . . . . 10, 30 linking, predefined rule for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
get . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87, 88 lint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Index of Concepts 141

lint, rule to run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 objs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

list of all dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 OBJS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
list of changed dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 old-fashioned suffix rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
load average . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
loops in variable expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 options, and recursion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
lpr (shell command) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16, 24 options, setting from environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
options, setting in makefiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
M order of pattern rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
m2c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 origin of variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 overriding makefiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
make depend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 overriding variables with arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
MAKECMDGOALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 overriding with override . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
makefile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
makefile name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 P
makefile name, how to specify. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 parallel execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
makefile rule parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 parallel execution, and archive update . . . . . . . . 102
makefile, and MAKEFILES variable. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 parts of makefile rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
makefile, conventions for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Pascal, rule to compile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
makefile, how make processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 pattern rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
makefile, how to write . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 pattern rules, order of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
makefile, including . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 pattern rules, static (not implicit) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
makefile, overriding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 pattern rules, static, syntax of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
makefile, remaking of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 pattern-specific variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
makefile, simple. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 pc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85, 88
makeinfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86, 88 phony targets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
match-anything rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 pitfalls of wildcards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
match-anything rule, used to override . . . . . . . . . . 13 portability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
missing features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 POSIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
mistakes with wildcards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 POSIX.2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
modified variable reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 post-installation commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Modula-2, rule to compile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 pre-installation commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
mostlyclean (standard target) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 precious targets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
multiple rules for one target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 prefix, adding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
multiple rules for one target (::) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 preserving intermediate files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
multiple targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 preserving with .PRECIOUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24, 90
multiple targets, in pattern rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 preserving with .SECONDARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
print (standard target). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
N print target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16, 24
name of makefile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 printing directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
name of makefile, how to specify . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 printing of commands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
nested variable reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 problems and bugs, reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
newline, quoting, in commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 problems with wildcards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
newline, quoting, in makefile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 processing a makefile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
nondirectory part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Q
O question mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
obj . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 quoting %, in patsubst. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
OBJ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 quoting %, in static pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 quoting %, in vpath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
OBJECTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 quoting newline, in commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
142 GNU make

quoting newline, in makefile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 rule, implicit, definition of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

rule, implicit, how to use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
rule, implicit, introduction to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
R rule, implicit, predefined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Ratfor, rule to compile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 rule, introduction to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
RCS, rule to extract from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 rule, multiple for one target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
README . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 rule, no commands or dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
realclean (standard target) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 rule, pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
recompilation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 rule, static pattern. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
recompilation, avoiding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 rule, static pattern versus implicit . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
recording events with empty targets. . . . . . . . . . . . 24 rule, with multiple targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
recursion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
recursion, and -C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
recursion, and -f . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 S
recursion, and -j . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 s. (SCCS file prefix). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
recursion, and -o . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 SCCS, rule to extract from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
recursion, and -t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 search algorithm, implicit rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
recursion, and -w . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 search path for dependencies (VPATH) . . . . . . . . . . 18
recursion, and -W . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 search path for dependencies (VPATH), and implicit
recursion, and command line variable definitions rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 search path for dependencies (VPATH), and link
recursion, and environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
recursion, and MAKE variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 searching for strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
recursion, and MAKEFILES variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 secondary files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
recursion, and options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 secondary targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
recursion, and printing directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 sed (shell command) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
recursion, and variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 selecting a word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
recursion, level of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 selecting word lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
recursive variable expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45, 46 sequences of commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
recursively expanded variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 setting options from environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
reference to variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45, 48 setting options in makefiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
relinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 setting variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
remaking makefiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 several rules for one target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
removal of target files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 several targets in a rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
removing duplicate words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 shar (standard target) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
removing, to clean up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 shell command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
reporting bugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 shell command, and directory search . . . . . . . . . . . 21
rm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 shell command, execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
rm (shell command) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5, 16, 22, 36 shell command, function for. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
rule commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 shell file name pattern (in include) . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
rule dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 shell wildcards (in include) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
rule syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 SHELL, MS-DOS specifics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
rule targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
rule, and $ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 silent operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
rule, double-colon (::) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 simple makefile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
rule, explicit, definition of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 simple variable expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
rule, how to write . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 simplifying with variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
rule, implicit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 simply expanded variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
rule, implicit, and directory search . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 sorting words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
rule, implicit, and VPATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 spaces, in variable values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
rule, implicit, chains of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 spaces, stripping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Index of Concepts 143

special targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 tex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86, 88

specifying makefile name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 TEX, rule to run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
standard input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 texi2dvi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86, 88
standards conformance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Texinfo, rule to format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
standards for makefiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 tilde (~) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
static pattern rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 touch (shell command). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16, 24
static pattern rule, syntax of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 touching files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
static pattern rule, versus implicit . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 traditional directory search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
stem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27, 94
stem, variable for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 U
strings, searching for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
undefined variables, warning message . . . . . . . . . . 81
stripping whitespace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
updating archive symbol directories . . . . . . . . . . . 102
sub-make . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
updating makefiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
subdirectories, recursion for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
substitution variable reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
suffix rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 V
suffix rule, for archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
suffix, adding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 value, how a variable gets it . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
suffix, function to find . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
suffix, substituting in variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 variable definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
symbol directories, updating archive . . . . . . . . . . 102 variables, ‘$’ in name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
syntax of rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 variables, and implicit rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
variables, appending to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
variables, automatic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
T variables, command line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
tab character (in commands) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 variables, command line, and recursion . . . . . . . . . 40
tabs in rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 variables, computed names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
TAGS (standard target) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 variables, conditional assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
tangle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86, 88 variables, defining verbatim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
tar (standard target) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 variables, environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38, 55
target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 variables, exporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
target pattern, implicit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 variables, flavors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
target pattern, static (not implicit) . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 variables, how they get their values . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
target, deleting on error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 variables, how to reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
target, deleting on interrupt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 variables, loops in expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
target, multiple in pattern rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 variables, modified reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
target, multiple rules for one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 variables, nested references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
target, touching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 variables, origin of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
target-specific variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 variables, overriding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 variables, overriding with arguments . . . . . . . . . . . 77
targets without a file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 variables, pattern-specific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
targets, built-in special . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 variables, recursively expanded. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
targets, empty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 variables, setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
targets, force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 variables, simply expanded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
targets, introduction to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 variables, spaces in values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
targets, multiple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 variables, substituting suffix in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
targets, phony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 variables, substitution reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
terminal rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 variables, target-specific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
test (standard target) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 variables, warning for undefined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
testing compilation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 varying dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
144 GNU make

verbatim variable definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 wildcards and MS-DOS/MS-Windows backslashes

vpath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
VPATH, and implicit rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 word, selecting a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
VPATH, and link libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 words, extracting first . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
words, filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
words, filtering out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
W words, finding number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
weave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86, 88 words, iterating over . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Web, rule to run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 words, joining lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
what if . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 words, removing duplicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
whitespace, in variable values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 words, selecting lists of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
whitespace, stripping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 writing rule commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
wildcard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 writing rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
wildcard pitfalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
wildcard, function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Y
wildcard, in archive member . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 yacc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42, 86, 88
wildcard, in include . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Yacc, rule to run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Index of Functions, Variables, & Directives 145

Index of Functions, Variables, & Directives

$ .SUFFIXES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24, 97
$% . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
$(%D) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 /
$(%F) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 /usr/gnu/include . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
$(*D) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 /usr/include . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
$(*F) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 /usr/local/include . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
$(?D) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
$(?F) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 ?
$(@D) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
? (automatic variable) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
$(@F) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
?D (automatic variable) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
$(^D) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
?F (automatic variable) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
$(^F) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
$(<D) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
$(<F) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
@
$* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 @ (automatic variable) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
$*, and static pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 @D (automatic variable) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
$? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 @F (automatic variable) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
$@ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
$+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 +
$^ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 + (automatic variable) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
$< . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
^
% ^ (automatic variable) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
% (automatic variable) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 ^D (automatic variable) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
%D (automatic variable) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 ^F (automatic variable) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
%F (automatic variable) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
<
* < (automatic variable) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
<D (automatic variable) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
* (automatic variable) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
<F (automatic variable) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
* (automatic variable), unsupported bizarre usage
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
*D (automatic variable) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 A
*F (automatic variable) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 addprefix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
addsuffix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
. AR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
ARFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
.DEFAULT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24, 96
AS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
.DEFAULT, and empty commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
ASFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
.DELETE_ON_ERROR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
.EXPORT_ALL_VARIABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25, 40
.IGNORE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25, 36
B
.INTERMEDIATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 basename . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
.PHONY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22, 24
.POSIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 C
.PRECIOUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24, 37 CC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
.SECONDARY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 CFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
.SILENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25, 33 CO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
146 GNU make

COFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 M
COMSPEC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 MAKE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38, 47
CPP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 MAKECMDGOALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
CPPFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 makefile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
CTANGLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Makefile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
CWEAVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 MAKEFILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 40
CXX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 MAKEFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
CXXFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 MAKEINFO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
MAKELEVEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40, 47
D MAKEOVERRIDES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
define . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 MFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
dir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
N
E notdir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
else . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
endef . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
O
endif . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 OUTPUT_OPTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
override . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
F P
FC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
patsubst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48, 64
FFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
PFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
filter-out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
findstring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
firstword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 R
foreach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 RFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
RM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
G S
GET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
GFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
SHELL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
GNUmakefile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
SHELL (command execution) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
GPATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
sort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
strip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
I subst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26, 64
ifdef . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 suffix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
ifeq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 SUFFIXES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
ifndef . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
ifneq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 T
include . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
TANGLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
TEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
J TEXI2DVI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
join . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
U
L unexport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
LDFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
LEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 V
LFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 vpath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18, 19
Index of Functions, Variables, & Directives 147

VPATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

W
WEAVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Y
wildcard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17, 68 YACC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 YACCR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
wordlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 YFLAGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
148 GNU make
 i

Short Contents
1 Overview of make . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 An Introduction to Makefiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3 Writing Makefiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4 Writing Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5 Writing the Commands in Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
6 How to Use Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
7 Conditional Parts of Makefiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
8 Functions for Transforming Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
9 How to Run make . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
10 Using Implicit Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
11 Using make to Update Archive Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
12 Features of GNU make . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
13 Incompatibilities and Missing Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
14 Makefile Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Appendix A Quick Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Appendix B Errors Generated by Make . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Appendix C Complex Makefile Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Index of Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Index of Functions, Variables, & Directives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
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 iii

Table of Contents

1 Overview of make . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 How to Read This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Problems and Bugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2 An Introduction to Makefiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1 What a Rule Looks Like . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2 A Simple Makefile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3 How make Processes a Makefile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.4 Variables Make Makefiles Simpler. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.5 Letting make Deduce the Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.6 Another Style of Makefile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.7 Rules for Cleaning the Directory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

3 Writing Makefiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.1 What Makefiles Contain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.2 What Name to Give Your Makefile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.3 Including Other Makefiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.4 The Variable MAKEFILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.5 How Makefiles Are Remade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.6 Overriding Part of Another Makefile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

4 Writing Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.1 Rule Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.2 Using Wildcard Characters in File Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.2.1 Wildcard Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.2.2 Pitfalls of Using Wildcards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.2.3 The Function wildcard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.3 Searching Directories for Dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.3.1 VPATH: Search Path for All Dependencies . . . . . . . . 18
4.3.2 The vpath Directive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.3.3 How Directory Searches are Performed . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.3.4 Writing Shell Commands with Directory Search . . 21
4.3.5 Directory Search and Implicit Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.3.6 Directory Search for Link Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.4 Phony Targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.5 Rules without Commands or Dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.6 Empty Target Files to Record Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.7 Special Built-in Target Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.8 Multiple Targets in a Rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.9 Multiple Rules for One Target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.10 Static Pattern Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
iv GNU make

4.10.1 Syntax of Static Pattern Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

4.10.2 Static Pattern Rules versus Implicit Rules . . . . . . 29
4.11 Double-Colon Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.12 Generating Dependencies Automatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

5 Writing the Commands in Rules . . . . . . . . . . . 33

5.1 Command Echoing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.2 Command Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.3 Parallel Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5.4 Errors in Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.5 Interrupting or Killing make . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.6 Recursive Use of make . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.6.1 How the MAKE Variable Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
5.6.2 Communicating Variables to a Sub-make. . . . . . . . . 38
5.6.3 Communicating Options to a Sub-make . . . . . . . . . . 40
5.6.4 The ‘--print-directory’ Option. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
5.7 Defining Canned Command Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
5.8 Using Empty Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

6 How to Use Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

6.1 Basics of Variable References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6.2 The Two Flavors of Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
6.3 Advanced Features for Reference to Variables. . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
6.3.1 Substitution References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
6.3.2 Computed Variable Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
6.4 How Variables Get Their Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
6.5 Setting Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
6.6 Appending More Text to Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6.7 The override Directive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
6.8 Defining Variables Verbatim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
6.9 Variables from the Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
6.10 Target-specific Variable Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
6.11 Pattern-specific Variable Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

7 Conditional Parts of Makefiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

7.1 Example of a Conditional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
7.2 Syntax of Conditionals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
7.3 Conditionals that Test Flags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

8 Functions for Transforming Text . . . . . . . . . . . 63

8.1 Function Call Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
8.2 Functions for String Substitution and Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . 64
8.3 Functions for File Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
8.4 The foreach Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
8.5 The origin Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
8.6 The shell Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
 v

9 How to Run make . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

9.1 Arguments to Specify the Makefile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
9.2 Arguments to Specify the Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
9.3 Instead of Executing the Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
9.4 Avoiding Recompilation of Some Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
9.5 Overriding Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
9.6 Testing the Compilation of a Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
9.7 Summary of Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

10 Using Implicit Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

10.1 Using Implicit Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
10.2 Catalogue of Implicit Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
10.3 Variables Used by Implicit Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
10.4 Chains of Implicit Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
10.5 Defining and Redefining Pattern Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
10.5.1 Introduction to Pattern Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
10.5.2 Pattern Rule Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
10.5.3 Automatic Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
10.5.4 How Patterns Match . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
10.5.5 Match-Anything Pattern Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
10.5.6 Canceling Implicit Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
10.6 Defining Last-Resort Default Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
10.7 Old-Fashioned Suffix Rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
10.8 Implicit Rule Search Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

11 Using make to Update Archive Files . . . . . . 101

11.1 Archive Members as Targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
11.2 Implicit Rule for Archive Member Targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
11.2.1 Updating Archive Symbol Directories . . . . . . . . . 102
11.3 Dangers When Using Archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
11.4 Suffix Rules for Archive Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

12 Features of GNU make . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

13 Incompatibilities and Missing Features . . . 109

14 Makefile Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

14.1 General Conventions for Makefiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
14.2 Utilities in Makefiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
14.3 Variables for Specifying Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
14.4 Variables for Installation Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
14.5 Standard Targets for Users. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
14.6 Install Command Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Appendix A Quick Reference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

vi GNU make

Appendix B Errors Generated by Make . . . . . 129

Appendix C Complex Makefile Example . . . . 131

Index of Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Index of Functions, Variables, & Directives . . . 145