make --
maintain, update, and regenerate groups of programs
Synopsis
make [-fmakefile]
[-BeiknpPqrstuw] [names]
Description
make allows the programmer to maintain, update, and
regenerate groups of computer programs.
make executes commands in
makefile to update one or more target
names (names are typically programs).
If the -f
option is not present, then makefile, Makefile, and the
Source Code Control System (SCCS) files
s.makefile, and s.Makefile are tried in order.
If makefile is -, the standard input is taken.
More than one -fmakefile argument pair may appear.
make updates a target only if its dependents are
newer than the target.
All prerequisite files of a target are added recursively to
the list of targets.
Missing files are deemed to be outdated.
The following list of directives
can be included in makefiles to modify the behavior of make.
They are used in makefiles
as if they were targets:
.DEFAULT:
If a file must be made but there are no explicit commands
or relevant built-in rules, the commands associated
with the name
.DEFAULT
are used if it exists.
.IGNORE:
Same effect as the -i option.
.MUTEX:
Serialize the updating of specified targets
(see the ``Parallel make'' subsection, below).
.PRECIOUS:
Dependents of the .PRECIOUS entry will not be removed when
quit or interrupt are pressed.
.SILENT:
Same effect as the -s option.
The options for make are listed below:
-B
Arrange the output of parallel make in appropriate blocks for
readability.
-e
Environment variables override assignments within makefiles.
-fmakefile
Description filename
(makefile
is assumed to
be the name of a description file).
-i
Ignore error codes returned by invoked commands.
-k
Abandon work on the current entry if it fails, but continue on other
branches that do not depend on that entry.
-n
No execute mode.
Print commands, but do not execute them.
Even command lines beginning with an ``@'' are printed.
-p
Print out the complete set of macro definitions and target descriptions.
-P
Update in parallel more than one target at a time.
The number of targets updated concurrently is determined by the environment
variable PARALLEL and the presence of
.MUTEX directives in makefiles.
-q
Question.
make
returns a zero or non-zero
status code depending on whether or not the target file
has been updated.
-r
Do not use the built-in rules.
-s
Silent mode.
Do not print command lines before executing.
-t
Touch the target files (causing them to be updated)
rather than issue the usual commands.
-u
Unconditionally make the target, ignoring all timestamps.
-w
Suppress warning messages.
Fatal messages will not be affected.
Creating the makefile
The makefile invoked with the -f option (or accessed by default)
is a carefully structured file of explicit instructions for updating
and regenerating programs, and contains a sequence
of entries that specify dependencies.
The first line
of an entry is a blank-separated, non-null list of
targets, then a ``:'',
then a (possibly null) list of prerequisite files or dependencies.
Text following a
``;''
and all following lines
that begin with a tab are shell commands
to be executed to update the target.
The first non-empty line that does not begin with a tab or
``#'' begins a new dependency or macro definition.
Shell commands may
be continued across lines with a backslash-new-line
(``\'' new-line) sequence.
Everything printed by make (except the initial tab) is passed
directly to the shell as is.
Thus,
echo a\
b
will produce
ab
exactly the same as the shell would.
Sharp
(#)
and new-line surround comments
including contained ``\'' new-line sequences.
The following
makefile
says that
pgm
depends on two
files
a.o
and
b.o,
and that they in turn depend on
their corresponding source files
(a.c
and
b.c)
and a common file
incl.h:
pgm: a.o b.o
cc a.o b.o -o pgm
a.o: incl.h a.c
cc -c a.c
b.o: incl.h b.c
cc -c b.c
Command lines are executed one at a time, each by its
own shell.
The SHELL environment variable
can be used to specify which shell make should use to execute
commands.
The default is /usr/bin/sh.
The first one or two characters in a command can be
the following: ``@'', ``-'', ``@-'', or ``-@''.
If ``@'' is present, printing of the command is suppressed.
If ``-'' is present, make ignores an error.
A line is printed when it is executed unless the
-s
option is present, or the entry
.SILENT:
is included in
the makefile,
or unless the initial character sequence contains a ``@''.
The -n
option specifies printing without execution; however, if the
command line has the string
``$(MAKE)'' in it, the line is
always executed (see the discussion of the
MAKEFLAGS
macro in the ``Environment'' section).
The -t (touch) option updates the modified date of a
file without executing any commands.
Commands returning non-zero status normally terminate
make.
If the -i option is present, if the entry .IGNORE:
is included in the makefile,
or if the initial character sequence of the command contains
-, the error is ignored.
If the -k option is present,
work is abandoned on the current
entry, but continues on other branches
that do not depend on that entry.
Interrupt and quit cause the target to be deleted
unless the target is a dependent of the directive .PRECIOUS.
Parallel make
If make is invoked with the -P option,
it tries to build more than one target at a time, in parallel.
(This is done by using the standard UNIX system process mechanism
which enables multiple processes to run simultaneously.)
For the makefile shown in the example in the previous section,
it would create processes to build a.o and b.o in parallel.
After these processes were complete, it would build pgm.
The number of targets make will try to build in parallel is
determined by the value of the environment variable PARALLEL.
If -P is invoked, but PARALLEL is not set,
then make will try to build no more than two targets in parallel.
You can use the .MUTEX directive to serialize
the updating of some specified targets.
This is useful when two or more targets modify a common output file,
such as when inserting modules into an archive
or when creating an intermediate file with the same name,
as is done by lex and yacc.
If the makefile in the previous section contained a
.MUTEX directive of the form
.MUTEX: a.o b.o
it would prevent make
from building a.o and b.o in parallel.
Environment
The environment is read by make.
All variables are assumed to be macro
definitions and are processed as such.
The environment variables are processed
before any makefile and after the internal rules;
thus, macro assignments
in a makefile override environment variables.
The -e option causes
the environment to override the macro assignments in a makefile.
Suffixes and their associated rules in the makefile will override any
identical suffixes in the built-in rules.
The MAKEFLAGS environment variable
is processed by make as containing
any legal input option
(except -f, -p and -r) defined
for the command line.
Further,
upon invocation, make invents the variable if it is not in the
environment, puts the current options into it, and passes it on to
invocations of commands.
Thus, MAKEFLAGS always contains the
current input options.
This feature proves very useful for ``super-makes''.
In fact, as noted above,
when the -n option is used, the command
$(MAKE) is executed
anyway; hence, one can perform a make -n
recursively on a whole software
system to see what would have been executed.
This result is possible because the -n
is put in MAKEFLAGS and passed to further invocations of
$(MAKE).
This usage is one way of debugging
all of the makefiles for a software project without actually doing anything.
Include files
If the string include
appears as the first seven letters of a line in a
makefile,
and is followed by a blank or a tab, the rest of the
line is assumed to be a filename and will be read by
the current invocation, after substituting for any macros.
Macros
Entries of the form
``string1 = string2''
are macro definitions.
string2
is defined as all characters up to a comment character or
an unescaped new-line.
Subsequent appearances of
``$(string1[:subst1=[subst2]])''
are replaced by
string2.
The parentheses are optional if a single-character macro name is used and
there is no substitute sequence.
The macro ``$$'' is replaced by the single character ``$''.
The optional
``:subst1=subst2''
is a substitute sequence.
If it is specified, all non-overlapping occurrences of subst1 in the
named macro are replaced by subst2.
Strings (for the purposes of this
type of substitution) are delimited by
blanks, tabs, new-line characters, and beginnings of lines.
An example of the use of the substitute sequence is shown in the
``Libraries'' section.
Internal macros
There are five internally maintained macros that are useful
for writing rules for building targets.
$
The macro $ stands for
the filename part of the current dependent with the suffix deleted.
It is
evaluated only for inference rules.
$@
The $@ macro stands for
the full target name of the current target.
It is evaluated
only for explicitly named dependencies.
$<
The $< macro is only evaluated for inference rules or
the .DEFAULT rule.
It is
the module that is outdated with respect to the target
(the manufactured dependent file name).
Thus, in the ``.c.o'' rule, the $< macro would evaluate to
the .c file.
An example for making
optimized .o files from .c files is:
.c.o:
cc -c -O $.c
or alternatively:
.c.o:
cc -c -O $<
$?
The $? macro is evaluated when explicit rules from the makefile
are evaluated.
It is
the list of prerequisites that are outdated with respect to
the target, and essentially those modules that must be rebuilt.
$%
The $% macro is only evaluated when the target is an
archive library member of the form ``lib(file.o)''.
In this case,
$@ evaluates to ``lib'' and $% evaluates to the
library member, file.o.
Four of the five macros can have alternative forms.
When an upper case ``D'' or ``F'' is appended to any of the four
macros, the meaning is changed to ``directory part'' for ``D''
and ``file part'' for ``F''.
Thus, $(@D) refers to the directory
part of the string ``$@''.
If there is no directory part, ./ is generated.
The only macro excluded from this
alternative form is $?.
Suffixes
Certain names (for instance, those ending with .o)
have inferable prerequisites such as .c, .s, and so on.
If no update commands for such a file appear in
the makefile,
and if an inferable prerequisite
exists, that prerequisite is compiled to make the target.
In this case, make has inference rules
that allow building files from other files
by examining the suffixes and determining an
appropriate inference rule to use.
The current default inference rules are:
.c
.c~
.f
.f~
.s
.s~
.sh
.sh~
.C
.C~
.c.a
.c.o
.c~.a
.c~.c
.c~.o
.f.a
.f.o
.f~.a
.f~.f
.f~.o
.h~.h
.l.c
.l.o
.l~.c
.l~.l
.l~.o
.s.a
.s.o
.s~.a
.s~.o
.s~.s
.sh~.sh
.y.c
.y.o
.y~.c
.y~.o
.y~.y
.C.a
.C.o
.C~.a
.C~.C
.C~.o
.L.C
.L.o
.L~.C
.L~.L
.L~.o
.Y.C
.Y.o
.Y~.C
.Y~.o
.Y~.Y
The internal rules for make are contained in the source
file rules.c for the make program.
These rules can be
locally modified.
To print out the rules compiled into
the make on any machine in a form suitable for recompilation,
the following command is used:
make -pf - 2>/dev/null </dev/null
A tilde in the above rules refers to an SCCS file
(see
sccsfile(F)).
Thus, the
rule ``.c~.o'' would transform an SCCS C source file into an
object file (.o).
Because the s. of the SCCS files is a prefix,
it is incompatible with the make suffix point of view.
Hence, the tilde is a way of changing any file reference into an SCCS
file reference.
A rule with only one suffix (for example, ``.c:'') is the definition
of how to build x from x.c.
In effect, the other suffix is null.
This feature is useful for building targets
from only one source file, for example, shell
procedures and simple C programs.
Additional suffixes are given as the
dependency list for .SUFFIXES.
Order is significant: the first possible name for which both
a file and a rule exist is inferred as a prerequisite.
The default list is:
Here again, the above command for printing the internal rules will
display the list of suffixes implemented on the current machine.
Multiple suffix lists accumulate; .SUFFIXES: with no dependencies
clears the list of suffixes.
Inference rules
The first example can be done more briefly:
pgm: a.o b.o
cc a.o b.o -o pgm
a.o b.o: incl.h
This abbreviation is possible because make has
a set of internal rules for building files.
The user may add rules to this list by simply putting
them in the makefile.
Certain macros are used by the default inference rules
to permit the inclusion of optional matter in
any resulting commands.
For example, CFLAGS, LFLAGS, and YFLAGS
are used for compiler options to
cc(C),
lex(C),
and
yacc(C),
respectively.
Again, the previous method for examining
the current rules is recommended.
The inference of prerequisites can be controlled.
The rule to create a file with suffix
.o
from a file with suffix
.c
is specified as an entry with ``.c.o:'' as the target and no dependents.
Shell commands associated with the target define the
rule for making a .o file from a .c file.
Any target that has no slashes in it and starts with a dot
is identified as a rule and not a true target.
Libraries
If a target or dependency name contains parentheses, it is
assumed to be an archive library, the string within parentheses
referring to a member within the library.
Thus, ``lib(file.o)'' and ``$(LIB)(file.o)'' both refer to
an archive library that contains file.o.
(This example assumes the LIB macro has been previously defined.)
The expression $(LIB)(file1.o file2.o) is not legal.
Rules pertaining to archive libraries have the form
``.XX.a''
where the XX
is the suffix from which the archive member
is to be made.
Note that the current implementation
requires the XX to be different from the suffix of the archive
member.
Thus, one cannot have ``lib(file.o)'' depend upon file.o
explicitly.
The most common use of the archive interface follows.
Here, we assume the source files are all C type source:
In fact, the ``.c.a'' rule listed above is built into make and
is unnecessary in this example.
A more interesting, but more limited example of an archive library
maintenance construction follows:
lib: lib(file1.o) lib(file2.o) lib(file3.o)
$(CC) -c $(CFLAGS) $(?:.o=.c)
$(AR) $(ARFLAGS) lib $?
rm $?
@echo lib is now up-to-date
.c.a:;
Here the substitution mode of the macro expansions is used.
The ``$?'' list is defined to be the set
of object filenames (inside lib) whose C
source files are outdated.
The substitution mode
translates the .o to .c.
(Unfortunately, one cannot as yet transform
to .c~; however, this transformation may become possible
in the future.)
Also note the disabling of the ``.c.a:'' rule,
which would have created each object file, one by one.
This particular construct speeds up archive library maintenance considerably.
This type of construct becomes very cumbersome if the archive library
contains a mix of assembly programs and C programs.
Files
[Mm]akefile
s.[Mm]akefile
/usr/bin/sh
/usr/lib/locale/locale/LC_MESSAGES/uxepu
language-specific message file
(see LANG in
environ(M))
Some commands return non-zero status inappropriately;
use -i or the - command line prefix
to overcome the difficulty.
Filenames with the characters ``='',
``:'', and ``@'' will not work.
Commands that are directly executed by the shell, notably
cd(C),
are ineffectual across new-lines in make.
The syntax ``lib(file1.o file2.o file3.o)'' is illegal.
You cannot build ``lib(file.o)'' from file.o.