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PROLOG | NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | OPERANDS | STDIN | INPUT FILES | ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES | ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS | STDOUT | STDERR | OUTPUT FILES | EXTENDED DESCRIPTION | EXIT STATUS | CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS | APPLICATION USAGE | EXAMPLES | RATIONALE | FUTURE DIRECTIONS | SEE ALSO | COPYRIGHT |
MAKE(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual MAKE(1P)
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux
implementation of this interface may differ (consult the
corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or
the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
make — maintain, update, and regenerate groups of programs
(DEVELOPMENT)
make [−einpqrst] [−f makefile]... [−k|−S] [macro=value...]
[target_name...]
The make utility shall update files that are derived from other
files. A typical case is one where object files are derived from the
corresponding source files. The make utility examines time
relationships and shall update those derived files (called targets)
that have modified times earlier than the modified times of the files
(called prerequisites) from which they are derived. A description
file (makefile) contains a description of the relationships between
files, and the commands that need to be executed to update the
targets to reflect changes in their prerequisites. Each
specification, or rule, shall consist of a target, optional
prerequisites, and optional commands to be executed when a
prerequisite is newer than the target. There are two types of rule:
1. Inference rules, which have one target name with at least one
<period> ('.') and no <slash> ('/')
2. Target rules, which can have more than one target name
In addition, make shall have a collection of built-in macros and
inference rules that infer prerequisite relationships to simplify
maintenance of programs.
To receive exactly the behavior described in this section, the user
shall ensure that a portable makefile shall:
* Include the special target .POSIX
* Omit any special target reserved for implementations (a leading
period followed by uppercase letters) that has not been specified
by this section
The behavior of make is unspecified if either or both of these
conditions are not met.
The make utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of
POSIX.1‐2008, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines, except for
Guideline 9.
The following options shall be supported:
−e Cause environment variables, including those with null
values, to override macro assignments within makefiles.
−f makefile
Specify a different makefile. The argument makefile is a
pathname of a description file, which is also referred to
as the makefile. A pathname of '−' shall denote the
standard input. There can be multiple instances of this
option, and they shall be processed in the order specified.
The effect of specifying the same option-argument more than
once is unspecified.
−i Ignore error codes returned by invoked commands. This mode
is the same as if the special target .IGNORE were specified
without prerequisites.
−k Continue to update other targets that do not depend on the
current target if a non-ignored error occurs while
executing the commands to bring a target up-to-date.
−n Write commands that would be executed on standard output,
but do not execute them. However, lines with a <plus-sign>
('+') prefix shall be executed. In this mode, lines with an
at-sign ('@') character prefix shall be written to standard
output.
−p Write to standard output the complete set of macro
definitions and target descriptions. The output format is
unspecified.
−q Return a zero exit value if the target file is up-to-date;
otherwise, return an exit value of 1. Targets shall not be
updated if this option is specified. However, a makefile
command line (associated with the targets) with a <plus-
sign> ('+') prefix shall be executed.
−r Clear the suffix list and do not use the built-in rules.
−S Terminate make if an error occurs while executing the
commands to bring a target up-to-date. This shall be the
default and the opposite of −k.
−s Do not write makefile command lines or touch messages (see
−t) to standard output before executing. This mode shall be
the same as if the special target .SILENT were specified
without prerequisites.
−t Update the modification time of each target as though a
touch target had been executed. Targets that have
prerequisites but no commands (see Target Rules), or that
are already up-to-date, shall not be touched in this
manner. Write messages to standard output for each target
file indicating the name of the file and that it was
touched. Normally, the makefile command lines associated
with each target are not executed. However, a command line
with a <plus-sign> ('+') prefix shall be executed.
Any options specified in the MAKEFLAGS environment variable shall be
evaluated before any options specified on the make utility command
line. If the −k and −S options are both specified on the make utility
command line or by the MAKEFLAGS environment variable, the last
option specified shall take precedence. If the −f or −p options
appear in the MAKEFLAGS environment variable, the result is
undefined.
The following operands shall be supported:
target_name
Target names, as defined in the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
section. If no target is specified, while make is
processing the makefiles, the first target that make
encounters that is not a special target or an inference
rule shall be used.
macro=value
Macro definitions, as defined in Macros.
If the target_name and macro=value operands are intermixed on the
make utility command line, the results are unspecified.
The standard input shall be used only if the makefile option-argument
is '−'. See the INPUT FILES section.
The input file, otherwise known as the makefile, is a text file
containing rules, macro definitions, and comments. See the EXTENDED
DESCRIPTION section.
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of
make:
LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization
variables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions
volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 8.2, Internationalization
Variables for the precedence of internationalization
variables used to determine the values of locale
categories.)
LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of
all the other internationalization variables.
LC_CTYPE Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of
bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte
as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input
files).
LC_MESSAGES
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the
format and contents of diagnostic messages written to
standard error.
MAKEFLAGS
This variable shall be interpreted as a character string
representing a series of option characters to be used as
the default options. The implementation shall accept both
of the following formats (but need not accept them when
intermixed):
* The characters are option letters without the leading
<hyphen> characters or <blank> separation used on a
make utility command line.
* The characters are formatted in a manner similar to a
portion of the make utility command line: options are
preceded by <hyphen> characters and <blank>-separated
as described in the Base Definitions volume of
POSIX.1‐2008, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.
The macro=value macro definition operands can also be
included. The difference between the contents of
MAKEFLAGS and the make utility command line is that the
contents of the variable shall not be subjected to the
word expansions (see Section 2.6, Word Expansions)
associated with parsing the command line values.
NLSPATH Determine the location of message catalogs for the
processing of LC_MESSAGES.
PROJECTDIR
Provide a directory to be used to search for SCCS files not
found in the current directory. In all of the following
cases, the search for SCCS files is made in the directory
SCCS in the identified directory. If the value of
PROJECTDIR begins with a <slash>, it shall be considered an
absolute pathname; otherwise, the value of PROJECTDIR is
treated as a user name and that user's initial working
directory shall be examined for a subdirectory src or
source. If such a directory is found, it shall be used.
Otherwise, the value is used as a relative pathname.
If PROJECTDIR is not set or has a null value, the search
for SCCS files shall be made in the directory SCCS in the
current directory.
The setting of PROJECTDIR affects all files listed in the
remainder of this utility description for files with a
component named SCCS.
The value of the SHELL environment variable shall not be used as a
macro and shall not be modified by defining the SHELL macro in a
makefile or on the command line. All other environment variables,
including those with null values, shall be used as macros, as defined
in Macros.
If not already ignored, make shall trap SIGHUP, SIGTERM, SIGINT, and
SIGQUIT and remove the current target unless the target is a
directory or the target is a prerequisite of the special target
.PRECIOUS or unless one of the −n, −p, or −q options was specified.
Any targets removed in this manner shall be reported in diagnostic
messages of unspecified format, written to standard error. After this
cleanup process, if any, make shall take the standard action for all
other signals.
The make utility shall write all commands to be executed to standard
output unless the −s option was specified, the command is prefixed
with an at-sign, or the special target .SILENT has either the current
target as a prerequisite or has no prerequisites. If make is invoked
without any work needing to be done, it shall write a message to
standard output indicating that no action was taken. If the −t option
is present and a file is touched, make shall write to standard output
a message of unspecified format indicating that the file was touched,
including the filename of the file.
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
Files can be created when the −t option is present. Additional files
can also be created by the utilities invoked by make.
The make utility attempts to perform the actions required to ensure
that the specified targets are up-to-date. A target is considered
out-of-date if it is older than any of its prerequisites or if it
does not exist. The make utility shall treat all prerequisites as
targets themselves and recursively ensure that they are up-to-date,
processing them in the order in which they appear in the rule. The
make utility shall use the modification times of files to determine
whether the corresponding targets are out-of-date.
After make has ensured that all of the prerequisites of a target are
up-to-date and if the target is out-of-date, the commands associated
with the target entry shall be executed. If there are no commands
listed for the target, the target shall be treated as up-to-date.
Makefile Syntax
A makefile can contain rules, macro definitions (see Macros), include
lines, and comments. There are two kinds of rules: inference rules
and target rules. The make utility shall contain a set of built-in
inference rules. If the −r option is present, the built-in rules
shall not be used and the suffix list shall be cleared. Additional
rules of both types can be specified in a makefile. If a rule is
defined more than once, the value of the rule shall be that of the
last one specified. Macros can also be defined more than once, and
the value of the macro is specified in Macros. Comments start with a
<number-sign> ('#') and continue until an unescaped <newline> is
reached.
By default, the following files shall be tried in sequence:
./makefile and ./Makefile. If neither ./makefile or ./Makefile are
found, other implementation-defined files may also be tried. On XSI-
conformant systems, the additional files ./s.makefile,
SCCS/s.makefile, ./s.Makefile, and SCCS/s.Makefile shall also be
tried.
The −f option shall direct make to ignore any of these default files
and use the specified argument as a makefile instead. If the '−'
argument is specified, standard input shall be used.
The term makefile is used to refer to any rules provided by the user,
whether in ./makefile or its variants, or specified by the −f option.
The rules in makefiles shall consist of the following types of lines:
target rules, including special targets (see Target Rules), inference
rules (see Inference Rules), macro definitions (see Macros), empty
lines, and comments.
Target and Inference Rules may contain command lines. Command lines
can have a prefix that shall be removed before execution (see
Makefile Execution).
When an escaped <newline> (one preceded by a <backslash>) is found
anywhere in the makefile except in a command line, an include line,
or a line immediately preceding an include line, it shall be
replaced, along with any leading white space on the following line,
with a single <space>. When an escaped <newline> is found in a
command line in a makefile, the command line shall contain the
<backslash>, the <newline>, and the next line, except that the first
character of the next line shall not be included if it is a <tab>.
When an escaped <newline> is found in an include line or in a line
immediately preceding an include line, the behavior is unspecified.
Include Lines
If the word include appears at the beginning of a line and is
followed by one or more <blank> characters, the string formed by the
remainder of the line shall be processed as follows to produce a
pathname:
* The trailing <newline> and any comment shall be discarded. If the
resulting string contains any double-quote characters ('"') the
behavior is unspecified.
* The resulting string shall be processed for macro expansion (see
Macros.
* Any <blank> characters that appear after the first non-<blank>
shall be used as separators to divide the macro-expanded string
into fields. It is unspecified whether any other white-space
characters are also used as separators. It is unspecified whether
pathname expansion (see Section 2.13, Pattern Matching Notation)
is also performed.
* If the processing of separators and optional pathname expansion
results in either zero or two or more non-empty fields, the
behavior is unspecified. If it results in one non-empty field,
that field is taken as the pathname.
If the pathname does not begin with a '/' it shall be treated as
relative to the current working directory of the process, not
relative to the directory containing the makefile. If the file does
not exist in this location, it is unspecified whether additional
directories are searched.
The contents of the file specified by the pathname shall be read and
processed as if they appeared in the makefile in place of the include
line. If the file ends with an escaped <newline> the behavior is
unspecified.
The file may itself contain further include lines. Implementations
shall support nesting of include files up to a depth of at least 16.
Makefile Execution
Makefile command lines shall be processed one at a time.
Makefile command lines can have one or more of the following
prefixes: a <hyphen> ('-'), an at-sign ('@'), or a <plus-sign> ('+').
These shall modify the way in which make processes the command.
− If the command prefix contains a <hyphen>, or the −i option is
present, or the special target .IGNORE has either the current
target as a prerequisite or has no prerequisites, any error
found while executing the command shall be ignored.
@ If the command prefix contains an at-sign and the make utility
command line −n option is not specified, or the −s option is
present, or the special target .SILENT has either the current
target as a prerequisite or has no prerequisites, the command
shall not be written to standard output before it is executed.
+ If the command prefix contains a <plus-sign>, this indicates a
makefile command line that shall be executed even if −n, −q, or
−t is specified.
An execution line is built from the command line by removing any
prefix characters. Except as described under the at-sign prefix, the
execution line shall be written to the standard output, optionally
preceded by a <tab>. The execution line shall then be executed by a
shell as if it were passed as the argument to the system() interface,
except that if errors are not being ignored then the shell −e option
shall also be in effect. If errors are being ignored for the command
(as a result of the −i option, a '−' command prefix, or a .IGNORE
special target), the shell −e option shall not be in effect. The
environment for the command being executed shall contain all of the
variables in the environment of make.
By default, when make receives a non-zero status from the execution
of a command, it shall terminate with an error message to standard
error.
Target Rules
Target rules are formatted as follows:
target [target...]: [prerequisite...][;command]
[<tab>command
<tab>command
...]
line that does not begin with <tab>
Target entries are specified by a <blank>-separated, non-null list of
targets, then a <colon>, then a <blank>-separated, possibly empty
list of prerequisites. Text following a <semicolon>, if any, and all
following lines that begin with a <tab>, are makefile command lines
to be executed to update the target. The first non-empty line that
does not begin with a <tab> or '#' shall begin a new entry. An empty
or blank line, or a line beginning with '#', may begin a new entry.
Applications shall select target names from the set of characters
consisting solely of periods, underscores, digits, and alphabetics
from the portable character set (see the Base Definitions volume of
POSIX.1‐2008, Section 6.1, Portable Character Set). Implementations
may allow other characters in target names as extensions. The
interpretation of targets containing the characters '%' and '"' is
implementation-defined.
A target that has prerequisites, but does not have any commands, can
be used to add to the prerequisite list for that target. Only one
target rule for any given target can contain commands.
Lines that begin with one of the following are called special targets
and control the operation of make:
.DEFAULT If the makefile uses this special target, the application
shall ensure that it is specified with commands, but
without prerequisites. The commands shall be used by make
if there are no other rules available to build a target.
.IGNORE Prerequisites of this special target are targets
themselves; this shall cause errors from commands
associated with them to be ignored in the same manner as
specified by the −i option. Subsequent occurrences of
.IGNORE shall add to the list of targets ignoring command
errors. If no prerequisites are specified, make shall
behave as if the −i option had been specified and errors
from all commands associated with all targets shall be
ignored.
.POSIX The application shall ensure that this special target is
specified without prerequisites or commands. If it appears
as the first non-comment line in the makefile, make shall
process the makefile as specified by this section;
otherwise, the behavior of make is unspecified.
.PRECIOUS Prerequisites of this special target shall not be removed
if make receives one of the asynchronous events explicitly
described in the ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS section. Subsequent
occurrences of .PRECIOUS shall add to the list of precious
files. If no prerequisites are specified, all targets in
the makefile shall be treated as if specified with
.PRECIOUS.
.SCCS_GET The application shall ensure that this special target is
specified without prerequisites. If this special target is
included in a makefile, the commands specified with this
target shall replace the default commands associated with
this special target (see Default Rules). The commands
specified with this target are used to get all SCCS files
that are not found in the current directory.
When source files are named in a dependency list, make
shall treat them just like any other target. Because the
source file is presumed to be present in the directory,
there is no need to add an entry for it to the makefile.
When a target has no dependencies, but is present in the
directory, make shall assume that that file is up-to-date.
If, however, an SCCS file named SCCS/s.source_file is found
for a target source_file, make compares the timestamp of
the target file with that of the SCCS/s.source_file to
ensure the target is up-to-date. If the target is missing,
or if the SCCS file is newer, make shall automatically
issue the commands specified for the .SCCS_GET special
target to retrieve the most recent version. However, if the
target is writable by anyone, make shall not retrieve a new
version.
.SILENT Prerequisites of this special target are targets
themselves; this shall cause commands associated with them
not to be written to the standard output before they are
executed. Subsequent occurrences of .SILENT shall add to
the list of targets with silent commands. If no
prerequisites are specified, make shall behave as if the −s
option had been specified and no commands or touch messages
associated with any target shall be written to standard
output.
.SUFFIXES Prerequisites of .SUFFIXES shall be appended to the list of
known suffixes and are used in conjunction with the
inference rules (see Inference Rules). If .SUFFIXES does
not have any prerequisites, the list of known suffixes
shall be cleared.
The special targets .IGNORE, .POSIX, .PRECIOUS, .SILENT, and
.SUFFIXES shall be specified without commands.
Targets with names consisting of a leading <period> followed by the
uppercase letters "POSIX" and then any other characters are reserved
for future standardization. Targets with names consisting of a
leading <period> followed by one or more uppercase letters are
reserved for implementation extensions.
Macros
Macro definitions are in the form:
string1 = [string2]
The macro named string1 is defined as having the value of string2,
where string2 is defined as all characters, if any, after the
<equals-sign>, up to a comment character ('#') or an unescaped
<newline>. Any <blank> characters immediately before or after the
<equals-sign> shall be ignored.
Applications shall select macro names from the set of characters
consisting solely of periods, underscores, digits, and alphabetics
from the portable character set (see the Base Definitions volume of
POSIX.1‐2008, Section 6.1, Portable Character Set). A macro name
shall not contain an <equals-sign>. Implementations may allow other
characters in macro names as extensions.
Macros can appear anywhere in the makefile. Macro expansions using
the forms $(string1) or ${string1} shall be replaced by string2, as
follows:
* Macros in target lines shall be evaluated when the target line is
read.
* Macros in makefile command lines shall be evaluated when the
command is executed.
* Macros in the string before the <equals-sign> in a macro
definition shall be evaluated when the macro assignment is made.
* Macros after the <equals-sign> in a macro definition shall not be
evaluated until the defined macro is used in a rule or command,
or before the <equals-sign> in a macro definition.
The parentheses or braces are optional if string1 is a single
character. The macro $$ shall be replaced by the single character
'$'. If string1 in a macro expansion contains a macro expansion, the
results are unspecified.
Macro expansions using the forms $(string1[:subst1=[subst2]]) or
${string1[:subst1=[subst2]]} can be used to replace all occurrences
of subst1 with subst2 when the macro substitution is performed. The
subst1 to be replaced shall be recognized when it is a suffix at the
end of a word in string1 (where a word, in this context, is defined
to be a string delimited by the beginning of the line, a <blank>, or
a <newline>). If string1 in a macro expansion contains a macro
expansion, the results are unspecified.
Macro expansions in string1 of macro definition lines shall be
evaluated when read. Macro expansions in string2 of macro definition
lines shall be performed when the macro identified by string1 is
expanded in a rule or command.
Macro definitions shall be taken from the following sources, in the
following logical order, before the makefile(s) are read.
1. Macros specified on the make utility command line, in the order
specified on the command line. It is unspecified whether the
internal macros defined in Internal Macros are accepted from this
source.
2. Macros defined by the MAKEFLAGS environment variable, in the
order specified in the environment variable. It is unspecified
whether the internal macros defined in Internal Macros are
accepted from this source.
3. The contents of the environment, excluding the MAKEFLAGS and
SHELL variables and including the variables with null values.
4. Macros defined in the inference rules built into make.
Macro definitions from these sources shall not override macro
definitions from a lower-numbered source. Macro definitions from a
single source (for example, the make utility command line, the
MAKEFLAGS environment variable, or the other environment variables)
shall override previous macro definitions from the same source.
Macros defined in the makefile(s) shall override macro definitions
that occur before them in the makefile(s) and macro definitions from
source 4. If the −e option is not specified, macros defined in the
makefile(s) shall override macro definitions from source 3. Macros
defined in the makefile(s) shall not override macro definitions from
source 1 or source 2.
Before the makefile(s) are read, all of the make utility command line
options (except −f and −p) and make utility command line macro
definitions (except any for the MAKEFLAGS macro), not already
included in the MAKEFLAGS macro, shall be added to the MAKEFLAGS
macro, quoted in an implementation-defined manner such that when
MAKEFLAGS is read by another instance of the make command, the
original macro's value is recovered. Other implementation-defined
options and macros may also be added to the MAKEFLAGS macro. If this
modifies the value of the MAKEFLAGS macro, or, if the MAKEFLAGS macro
is modified at any subsequent time, the MAKEFLAGS environment
variable shall be modified to match the new value of the MAKEFLAGS
macro. The result of setting MAKEFLAGS in the Makefile is
unspecified.
Before the makefile(s) are read, all of the make utility command line
macro definitions (except the MAKEFLAGS macro or the SHELL macro)
shall be added to the environment of make. Other implementation-
defined variables may also be added to the environment of make.
The SHELL macro shall be treated specially. It shall be provided by
make and set to the pathname of the shell command language
interpreter (see sh(1p)). The SHELL environment variable shall not
affect the value of the SHELL macro. If SHELL is defined in the
makefile or is specified on the command line, it shall replace the
original value of the SHELL macro, but shall not affect the SHELL
environment variable. Other effects of defining SHELL in the makefile
or on the command line are implementation-defined.
Inference Rules
Inference rules are formatted as follows:
target:
<tab>command
[<tab>command]
...
line that does not begin with <tab> or #
The application shall ensure that the target portion is a valid
target name (see Target Rules) of the form .s2 or .s1.s2 (where .s1
and .s2 are suffixes that have been given as prerequisites of the
.SUFFIXES special target and s1 and s2 do not contain any <slash> or
<period> characters.) If there is only one <period> in the target, it
is a single-suffix inference rule. Targets with two periods are
double-suffix inference rules. Inference rules can have only one
target before the <colon>.
The application shall ensure that the makefile does not specify
prerequisites for inference rules; no characters other than white
space shall follow the <colon> in the first line, except when
creating the empty rule, described below. Prerequisites are inferred,
as described below.
Inference rules can be redefined. A target that matches an existing
inference rule shall overwrite the old inference rule. An empty rule
can be created with a command consisting of simply a <semicolon>
(that is, the rule still exists and is found during inference rule
search, but since it is empty, execution has no effect). The empty
rule can also be formatted as follows:
rule: ;
where zero or more <blank> characters separate the <colon> and
<semicolon>.
The make utility uses the suffixes of targets and their prerequisites
to infer how a target can be made up-to-date. A list of inference
rules defines the commands to be executed. By default, make contains
a built-in set of inference rules. Additional rules can be specified
in the makefile.
The special target .SUFFIXES contains as its prerequisites a list of
suffixes that shall be used by the inference rules. The order in
which the suffixes are specified defines the order in which the
inference rules for the suffixes are used. New suffixes shall be
appended to the current list by specifying a .SUFFIXES special target
in the makefile. A .SUFFIXES target with no prerequisites shall clear
the list of suffixes. An empty .SUFFIXES target followed by a new
.SUFFIXES list is required to change the order of the suffixes.
Normally, the user would provide an inference rule for each suffix.
The inference rule to update a target with a suffix .s1 from a
prerequisite with a suffix .s2 is specified as a target .s2.s1. The
internal macros provide the means to specify general inference rules
(see Internal Macros).
When no target rule is found to update a target, the inference rules
shall be checked. The suffix of the target (.s1) to be built is
compared to the list of suffixes specified by the .SUFFIXES special
targets. If the .s1 suffix is found in .SUFFIXES, the inference rules
shall be searched in the order defined for the first .s2.s1 rule
whose prerequisite file ($*.s2) exists. If the target is out-of-date
with respect to this prerequisite, the commands for that inference
rule shall be executed.
If the target to be built does not contain a suffix and there is no
rule for the target, the single suffix inference rules shall be
checked. The single-suffix inference rules define how to build a
target if a file is found with a name that matches the target name
with one of the single suffixes appended. A rule with one suffix .s2
is the definition of how to build target from target.s2. The other
suffix (.s1) is treated as null.
A <tilde> ('~') in the above rules refers to an SCCS file in the
current directory. Thus, the rule .c~.o would transform an SCCS C-
language source file into an object file (.o). Because the s. of
the SCCS files is a prefix, it is incompatible with make's suffix
point of view. Hence, the '~' is a way of changing any file reference
into an SCCS file reference.
Libraries
If a target or prerequisite contains parentheses, it shall be treated
as a member of an archive library. For the lib(member.o) expression
lib refers to the name of the archive library and member.o to the
member name. The application shall ensure that the member is an
object file with the .o suffix. The modification time of the
expression is the modification time for the member as kept in the
archive library; see ar(1p). The .a suffix shall refer to an archive
library. The .s2.a rule shall be used to update a member in the
library from a file with a suffix .s2.
Internal Macros
The make utility shall maintain five internal macros that can be used
in target and inference rules. In order to clearly define the meaning
of these macros, some clarification of the terms target rule,
inference rule, target, and prerequisite is necessary.
Target rules are specified by the user in a makefile for a particular
target. Inference rules are user-specified or make-specified rules
for a particular class of target name. Explicit prerequisites are
those prerequisites specified in a makefile on target lines.
Implicit prerequisites are those prerequisites that are generated
when inference rules are used. Inference rules are applied to
implicit prerequisites or to explicit prerequisites that do not have
target rules defined for them in the makefile. Target rules are
applied to targets specified in the makefile.
Before any target in the makefile is updated, each of its
prerequisites (both explicit and implicit) shall be updated. This
shall be accomplished by recursively processing each prerequisite.
Upon recursion, each prerequisite shall become a target itself. Its
prerequisites in turn shall be processed recursively until a target
is found that has no prerequisites, at which point the recursion
stops. The recursion shall then back up, updating each target as it
goes.
In the definitions that follow, the word target refers to one of:
* A target specified in the makefile
* An explicit prerequisite specified in the makefile that becomes
the target when make processes it during recursion
* An implicit prerequisite that becomes a target when make
processes it during recursion
In the definitions that follow, the word prerequisite refers to one
of the following:
* An explicit prerequisite specified in the makefile for a
particular target
* An implicit prerequisite generated as a result of locating an
appropriate inference rule and corresponding file that matches
the suffix of the target
The five internal macros are:
$@ The $@ shall evaluate to the full target name of the current
target, or the archive filename part of a library archive
target. It shall be evaluated for both target and inference
rules.
For example, in the .c.a inference rule, $@ represents the
out-of-date .a file to be built. Similarly, in a makefile
target rule to build lib.a from file.c, $@ represents the
out-of-date lib.a.
$% The $% macro shall be evaluated only when the current target
is an archive library member of the form libname(member.o).
In these cases, $@ shall evaluate to libname and $% shall
evaluate to member.o. The $% macro shall be evaluated for
both target and inference rules.
For example, in a makefile target rule to build
lib.a(file.o), $% represents file.o, as opposed to $@, which
represents lib.a.
$? The $? macro shall evaluate to the list of prerequisites that
are newer than the current target. It shall be evaluated for
both target and inference rules.
For example, in a makefile target rule to build prog from
file1.o, file2.o, and file3.o, and where prog is not out-of-
date with respect to file1.o, but is out-of-date with respect
to file2.o and file3.o, $? represents file2.o and file3.o.
$< In an inference rule, the $< macro shall evaluate to the
filename whose existence allowed the inference rule to be
chosen for the target. In the .DEFAULT rule, the $< macro
shall evaluate to the current target name. The meaning of the
$< macro shall be otherwise unspecified.
For example, in the .c.a inference rule, $< represents the
prerequisite .c file.
$* The $* macro shall evaluate to the current target name with
its suffix deleted. It shall be evaluated at least for
inference rules.
For example, in the .c.a inference rule, $*.o represents the
out-of-date .o file that corresponds to the prerequisite .c
file.
Each of the internal macros has an alternative form. When an
uppercase 'D' or 'F' is appended to any of the macros, the meaning
shall be changed to the directory part for 'D' and filename part for
'F'. The directory part is the path prefix of the file without a
trailing <slash>; for the current directory, the directory part is
'.'. When the $? macro contains more than one prerequisite filename,
the $(?D) and $(?F) (or ${?D} and ${?F}) macros expand to a list of
directory name parts and filename parts respectively.
For the target lib(member.o) and the s2.a rule, the internal macros
shall be defined as:
$< member.s2
$* member
$@ lib
$? member.s2
$% member.o
Default Rules
The default rules for make shall achieve results that are the same as
if the following were used. Implementations that do not support the
C-Language Development Utilities option may omit CC, CFLAGS, YACC,
YFLAGS, LEX, LFLAGS, LDFLAGS, and the .c, .y, and .l inference rules.
Implementations that do not support FORTRAN may omit FC, FFLAGS, and
the .f inference rules. Implementations may provide additional macros
and rules.
SPECIAL TARGETS
.SCCS_GET: sccs $(SCCSFLAGS) get $(SCCSGETFLAGS) $@
.SUFFIXES: .o .c .y .l .a .sh .f .c~ .y~ .l~ .sh~ .f~
MACROS
MAKE=make
AR=ar
ARFLAGS=−rv
YACC=yacc
YFLAGS=
LEX=lex
LFLAGS=
LDFLAGS=
CC=c99
CFLAGS=−O
FC=fort77
FFLAGS=−O 1
GET=get
GFLAGS=
SCCSFLAGS=
SCCSGETFLAGS=−s
SINGLE SUFFIX RULES
.c:
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) −o $@ $<
.f:
$(FC) $(FFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) −o $@ $<
.sh:
cp $< $@
chmod a+x $@
.c~:
$(GET) $(GFLAGS) −p $< > $*.c
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) −o $@ $*.c
.f~:
$(GET) $(GFLAGS) −p $< > $*.f
$(FC) $(FFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) −o $@ $*.f
.sh~:
$(GET) $(GFLAGS) −p $< > $*.sh
cp $*.sh $@
chmod a+x $@
DOUBLE SUFFIX RULES
.c.o:
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) −c $<
.f.o:
$(FC) $(FFLAGS) −c $<
.y.o:
$(YACC) $(YFLAGS) $<
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) −c y.tab.c
rm −f y.tab.c
mv y.tab.o $@
.l.o:
$(LEX) $(LFLAGS) $<
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) −c lex.yy.c
rm −f lex.yy.c
mv lex.yy.o $@
.y.c:
$(YACC) $(YFLAGS) $<
mv y.tab.c $@
.l.c:
$(LEX) $(LFLAGS) $<
mv lex.yy.c $@
.c~.o:
$(GET) $(GFLAGS) −p $< > $*.c
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) −c $*.c
.f~.o:
$(GET) $(GFLAGS) −p $< > $*.f
$(FC) $(FFLAGS) −c $*.f
.y~.o:
$(GET) $(GFLAGS) −p $< > $*.y
$(YACC) $(YFLAGS) $*.y
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) −c y.tab.c
rm −f y.tab.c
mv y.tab.o $@
.l~.o:
$(GET) $(GFLAGS) −p $< > $*.l
$(LEX) $(LFLAGS) $*.l
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) −c lex.yy.c
rm −f lex.yy.c
mv lex.yy.o $@
.y~.c:
$(GET) $(GFLAGS) −p $< > $*.y
$(YACC) $(YFLAGS) $*.y
mv y.tab.c $@
.l~.c:
$(GET) $(GFLAGS) −p $< > $*.l
$(LEX) $(LFLAGS) $*.l
mv lex.yy.c $@
.c.a:
$(CC) −c $(CFLAGS) $<
$(AR) $(ARFLAGS) $@ $*.o
rm −f $*.o
.f.a:
$(FC) −c $(FFLAGS) $<
$(AR) $(ARFLAGS) $@ $*.o
rm −f $*.o
When the −q option is specified, the make utility shall exit with one
of the following values:
0 Successful completion.
1 The target was not up-to-date.
>1 An error occurred.
When the −q option is not specified, the make utility shall exit with
one of the following values:
0 Successful completion.
>0 An error occurred.
Default.
The following sections are informative.
If there is a source file (such as ./source.c) and there are two SCCS
files corresponding to it (./s.source.c and ./SCCS/s.source.c), on
XSI-conformant systems make uses the SCCS file in the current
directory. However, users are advised to use the underlying SCCS
utilities (admin, delta, get, and so on) or the sccs utility for all
source files in a given directory. If both forms are used for a given
source file, future developers are very likely to be confused.
It is incumbent upon portable makefiles to specify the .POSIX special
target in order to guarantee that they are not affected by local
extensions.
The −k and −S options are both present so that the relationship
between the command line, the MAKEFLAGS variable, and the makefile
can be controlled precisely. If the k flag is passed in MAKEFLAGS and
a command is of the form:
$(MAKE) −S foo
then the default behavior is restored for the child make.
When the −n option is specified, it is always added to MAKEFLAGS.
This allows a recursive make −n target to be used to see all of the
action that would be taken to update target.
Because of widespread historical practice, interpreting a <number-
sign> ('#') inside a variable as the start of a comment has the
unfortunate side-effect of making it impossible to place a <number-
sign> in a variable, thus forbidding something like:
CFLAGS = "−D COMMENT_CHAR='#'"
Many historical make utilities stop chaining together inference rules
when an intermediate target is nonexistent. For example, it might be
possible for a make to determine that both .y.c and .c.o could be
used to convert a .y to a .o. Instead, in this case, make requires
the use of a .y.o rule.
The best way to provide portable makefiles is to include all of the
rules needed in the makefile itself. The rules provided use only
features provided by other parts of this volume of POSIX.1‐2008. The
default rules include rules for optional commands in this volume of
POSIX.1‐2008. Only rules pertaining to commands that are provided are
needed in an implementation's default set.
Macros used within other macros are evaluated when the new macro is
used rather than when the new macro is defined. Therefore:
MACRO = value1
NEW = $(MACRO)
MACRO = value2
target:
echo $(NEW)
would produce value2 and not value1 since NEW was not expanded until
it was needed in the echo command line.
Some historical applications have been known to intermix target_name
and macro=name operands on the command line, expecting that all of
the macros are processed before any of the targets are dealt with.
Conforming applications do not do this, although some backwards-
compatibility support may be included in some implementations.
The following characters in filenames may give trouble: '=', ':',
'`', single-quote, and '@'. In include filenames, pattern matching
characters and '"' should also be avoided, as they may be treated as
special by some implementations.
For inference rules, the description of $< and $? seem similar.
However, an example shows the minor difference. In a makefile
containing:
foo.o: foo.h
if foo.h is newer than foo.o, yet foo.c is older than foo.o, the
built-in rule to make foo.o from foo.c is used, with $< equal to
foo.c and $? equal to foo.h. If foo.c is also newer than foo.o, $<
is equal to foo.c and $? is equal to foo.h foo.c.
1. The following command:
make
makes the first target found in the makefile.
2. The following command:
make junk
makes the target junk.
3. 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
c99 a.o b.o −o pgm
a.o: incl.h a.c
c99 −c a.c
b.o: incl.h b.c
c99 −c b.c
4. An example for making optimized .o files from .c files is:
.c.o:
c99 −c −O $*.c
or:
.c.o:
c99 −c −O $<
5. The most common use of the archive interface follows. Here, it is
assumed that the source files are all C-language source:
lib: lib(file1.o) lib(file2.o) lib(file3.o)
@echo lib is now up-to-date
The .c.a rule is used to make file1.o, file2.o, and file3.o and
insert them into lib.
The treatment of escaped <newline> characters throughout the
makefile is historical practice. For example, the inference rule:
.c.o\
:
works, and the macro:
f= bar baz\
biz
a:
echo ==$f==
echoes "==bar baz biz==".
If $? were:
/usr/include/stdio.h /usr/include/unistd.h foo.h
then $(?D) would be:
/usr/include /usr/include .
and $(?F) would be:
stdio.h unistd.h foo.h
6. The contents of the built-in rules can be viewed by running:
make −p −f /dev/null 2>/dev/null
The make utility described in this volume of POSIX.1‐2008 is intended
to provide the means for changing portable source code into
executables that can be run on an POSIX.1‐2008-conforming system. It
reflects the most common features present in System V and BSD makes.
Historically, the make utility has been an especially fertile ground
for vendor and research organization-specific syntax modifications
and extensions. Examples include:
* Syntax supporting parallel execution (such as from various multi-
processor vendors, GNU, and others)
* Additional ``operators'' separating targets and their
prerequisites (System V, BSD, and others)
* Specifying that command lines containing the strings "${MAKE}"
and "$(MAKE)" are executed when the −n option is specified (GNU
and System V)
* Modifications of the meaning of internal macros when referencing
libraries (BSD and others)
* Using a single instance of the shell for all of the command lines
of the target (BSD and others)
* Allowing <space> characters as well as <tab> characters to
delimit command lines (BSD)
* Adding C preprocessor-style ``include'' and ``ifdef'' constructs
(System V, GNU, BSD, and others)
* Remote execution of command lines (Sprite and others)
* Specifying additional special targets (BSD, System V, and most
others)
Additionally, many vendors and research organizations have rethought
the basic concepts of make, creating vastly extended, as well as
completely new, syntaxes. Each of these versions of make fulfills the
needs of a different community of users; it is unreasonable for this
volume of POSIX.1‐2008 to require behavior that would be incompatible
(and probably inferior) to historical practice for such a community.
In similar circumstances, when the industry has enough sufficiently
incompatible formats as to make them irreconcilable, this volume of
POSIX.1‐2008 has followed one or both of two courses of action.
Commands have been renamed (cksum, echo, and pax) and/or command line
options have been provided to select the desired behavior (grep, od,
and pax).
Because the syntax specified for the make utility is, by and large, a
subset of the syntaxes accepted by almost all versions of make, it
was decided that it would be counter-productive to change the name.
And since the makefile itself is a basic unit of portability, it
would not be completely effective to reserve a new option letter,
such as make −P, to achieve the portable behavior. Therefore, the
special target .POSIX was added to the makefile, allowing users to
specify ``standard'' behavior. This special target does not preclude
extensions in the make utility, nor does it preclude such extensions
being used by the makefile specifying the target; it does, however,
preclude any extensions from being applied that could alter the
behavior of previously valid syntax; such extensions must be
controlled via command line options or new special targets. It is
incumbent upon portable makefiles to specify the .POSIX special
target in order to guarantee that they are not affected by local
extensions.
The portable version of make described in this reference page is not
intended to be the state-of-the-art software generation tool and, as
such, some newer and more leading-edge features have not been
included. An attempt has been made to describe the portable makefile
in a manner that does not preclude such extensions as long as they do
not disturb the portable behavior described here.
When the −n option is specified, it is always added to MAKEFLAGS.
This allows a recursive make −n target to be used to see all of the
action that would be taken to update target.
The definition of MAKEFLAGS allows both the System V letter string
and the BSD command line formats. The two formats are sufficiently
different to allow implementations to support both without ambiguity.
Early proposals stated that an ``unquoted'' <number-sign> was treated
as the start of a comment. The make utility does not pay any
attention to quotes. A <number-sign> starts a comment regardless of
its surroundings.
The text about ``other implementation-defined pathnames may also be
tried'' in addition to ./makefile and ./Makefile is to allow such
extensions as SCCS/s.Makefile and other variations. It was made an
implementation-defined requirement (as opposed to unspecified
behavior) to highlight surprising implementations that might select
something unexpected like /etc/Makefile. XSI-conformant systems also
try ./s.makefile, SCCS/s.makefile, ./s.Makefile, and SCCS/s.Makefile.
Early proposals contained the macro NPROC as a means of specifying
that make should use n processes to do the work required. While this
feature is a valuable extension for many systems, it is not common
usage and could require other non-trivial extensions to makefile
syntax. This extension is not required by this volume of
POSIX.1‐2008, but could be provided as a compatible extension. The
macro PARALLEL is used by some historical systems with essentially
the same meaning (but without using a name that is a common system
limit value). It is suggested that implementors recognize the
existing use of NPROC and/or PARALLEL as extensions to make.
The default rules are based on System V. The default CC= value is c99
instead of cc because this volume of POSIX.1‐2008 does not
standardize the utility named cc. Thus, every conforming application
would be required to define CC=c99 to expect to run. There is no
advantage conferred by the hope that the makefile might hit the
``preferred'' compiler because this cannot be guaranteed to work.
Also, since the portable makescript can only use the c99 options, no
advantage is conferred in terms of what the script can do. It is a
quality-of-implementation issue as to whether c99 is as valuable as
cc.
The −d option to make is frequently used to produce debugging
information, but is too implementation-defined to add to this volume
of POSIX.1‐2008.
The −p option is not passed in MAKEFLAGS on most historical
implementations and to change this would cause many implementations
to break without sufficiently increased portability.
Commands that begin with a <plus-sign> ('+') are executed even if the
−n option is present. Based on the GNU version of make, the behavior
of −n when the <plus-sign> prefix is encountered has been extended to
apply to −q and −t as well. However, the System V convention of
forcing command execution with −n when the command line of a target
contains either of the strings "$(MAKE)" or "${MAKE}" has not been
adopted. This functionality appeared in early proposals, but the
danger of this approach was pointed out with the following example of
a portion of a makefile:
subdir:
cd subdir; rm all_the_files; $(MAKE)
The loss of the System V behavior in this case is well-balanced by
the safety afforded to other makefiles that were not aware of this
situation. In any event, the command line <plus-sign> prefix can
provide the desired functionality.
The double <colon> in the target rule format is supported in BSD
systems to allow more than one target line containing the same target
name to have commands associated with it. Since this is not
functionality described in the SVID or XPG3 it has been allowed as an
extension, but not mandated.
The default rules are provided with text specifying that the built-in
rules shall be the same as if the listed set were used. The intent is
that implementations should be able to use the rules without change,
but will be allowed to alter them in ways that do not affect the
primary behavior.
The best way to provide portable makefiles is to include all of the
rules needed in the makefile itself. The rules provided use only
features provided by other portions of this volume of POSIX.1‐2008.
The default rules include rules for optional commands in this volume
of POSIX.1‐2008. Only rules pertaining to commands that are provided
are needed in the default set of an implementation.
One point of discussion was whether to drop the default rules list
from this volume of POSIX.1‐2008. They provide convenience, but do
not enhance portability of applications. The prime benefit is in
portability of users who wish to type make command and have the
command build from a command.c file.
The historical MAKESHELL feature was omitted. In some implementations
it is used to let a user override the shell to be used to run make
commands. This was confusing; for a portable make, the shell should
be chosen by the makefile writer or specified on the make command
line and not by a user running make.
The make utilities in most historical implementations process the
prerequisites of a target in left-to-right order, and the makefile
format requires this. It supports the standard idiom used in many
makefiles that produce yacc programs; for example:
foo: y.tab.o lex.o main.o
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) −o $@ t.tab.o lex.o main.o
In this example, if make chose any arbitrary order, the lex.o might
not be made with the correct y.tab.h. Although there may be better
ways to express this relationship, it is widely used historically.
Implementations that desire to update prerequisites in parallel
should require an explicit extension to make or the makefile format
to accomplish it, as described previously.
The algorithm for determining a new entry for target rules is
partially unspecified. Some historical makes allow blank, empty, or
comment lines within the collection of commands marked by leading
<tab> characters. A conforming makefile must ensure that each command
starts with a <tab>, but implementations are free to ignore blank,
empty, and comment lines without triggering the start of a new entry.
The ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS section includes having SIGTERM and SIGHUP,
along with the more traditional SIGINT and SIGQUIT, remove the
current target unless directed not to do so. SIGTERM and SIGHUP were
added to parallel other utilities that have historically cleaned up
their work as a result of these signals. When make receives any
signal other than SIGQUIT, it is required to resend itself the signal
it received so that it exits with a status that reflects the signal.
The results from SIGQUIT are partially unspecified because, on
systems that create core files upon receipt of SIGQUIT, the core from
make would conflict with a core file from the command that was
running when the SIGQUIT arrived. The main concern was to prevent
damaged files from appearing up-to-date when make is rerun.
The .PRECIOUS special target was extended to affect all targets
globally (by specifying no prerequisites). The .IGNORE and .SILENT
special targets were extended to allow prerequisites; it was judged
to be more useful in some cases to be able to turn off errors or
echoing for a list of targets than for the entire makefile. These
extensions to make in System V were made to match historical practice
from the BSD make.
Macros are not exported to the environment of commands to be run.
This was never the case in any historical make and would have serious
consequences. The environment is the same as the environment to make
except that MAKEFLAGS and macros defined on the make command line are
added.
Some implementations do not use system() for all command lines, as
required by the portable makefile format; as a performance
enhancement, they select lines without shell metacharacters for
direct execution by execve(). There is no requirement that system()
be used specifically, but merely that the same results be achieved.
The metacharacters typically used to bypass the direct execve()
execution have been any of:
= | ^ ( ) ; & < > * ? [ ] : $ ` ' " \ \n
The default in some advanced versions of make is to group all the
command lines for a target and execute them using a single shell
invocation; the System V method is to pass each line individually to
a separate shell. The single-shell method has the advantages in
performance and the lack of a requirement for many continued lines.
However, converting to this newer method has caused portability
problems with many historical makefiles, so the behavior with the
POSIX makefile is specified to be the same as that of System V. It is
suggested that the special target .ONESHELL be used as an
implementation extension to achieve the single-shell grouping for a
target or group of targets.
Novice users of make have had difficulty with the historical need to
start commands with a <tab>. Since it is often difficult to discern
differences between <tab> and <space> characters on terminals or
printed listings, confusing bugs can arise. In early proposals, an
attempt was made to correct this problem by allowing leading <blank>
characters instead of <tab> characters. However, implementors
reported many makefiles that failed in subtle ways following this
change, and it is difficult to implement a make that unambiguously
can differentiate between macro and command lines. There is
extensive historical practice of allowing leading <space> characters
before macro definitions. Forcing macro lines into column 1 would be
a significant backwards-compatibility problem for some makefiles.
Therefore, historical practice was restored.
There is substantial variation in the handling of include lines by
different implementations. However, there is enough commonality for
the standard to be able to specify a minimum set of requirements that
allow the feature to be used portably. Known variations have been
explicitly called out as unspecified behavior in the description.
The System V dynamic dependency feature was not included. It would
support:
cat: $$@.c
that would expand to;
cat: cat.c
This feature exists only in the new version of System V make and,
while useful, is not in wide usage. This means that macros are
expanded twice for prerequisites: once at makefile parse time and
once at target update time.
Consideration was given to adding metarules to the POSIX make. This
would make %.o: %.c the same as .c.o:. This is quite useful and
available from some vendors, but it would cause too many changes to
this make to support. It would have introduced rule chaining and new
substitution rules. However, the rules for target names have been set
to reserve the '%' and '"' characters. These are traditionally used
to implement metarules and quoting of target names, respectively.
Implementors are strongly encouraged to use these characters only for
these purposes.
A request was made to extend the suffix delimiter character from a
<period> to any character. The metarules feature in newer makes
solves this problem in a more general way. This volume of
POSIX.1‐2008 is staying with the more conservative historical
definition.
The standard output format for the −p option is not described because
it is primarily a debugging option and because the format is not
generally useful to programs. In historical implementations the
output is not suitable for use in generating makefiles. The −p format
has been variable across historical implementations. Therefore, the
definition of −p was only to provide a consistently named option for
obtaining make script debugging information.
Some historical implementations have not cleared the suffix list with
−r.
Implementations should be aware that some historical applications
have intermixed target_name and macro=value operands on the command
line, expecting that all of the macros are processed before any of
the targets are dealt with. Conforming applications do not do this,
but some backwards-compatibility support may be warranted.
Empty inference rules are specified with a <semicolon> command rather
than omitting all commands, as described in an early proposal. The
latter case has no traditional meaning and is reserved for
implementation extensions, such as in GNU make.
None.
Chapter 2, Shell Command Language, ar(1p), c99(1p), get(1p), lex(1p),
sccs(1p), sh(1p), yacc(1p)
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 6.1, Portable
Character Set, Chapter 8, Environment Variables, Section 12.2,
Utility Syntax Guidelines
The System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2008, exec(1p), system(3p)
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information
Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open
Group Base Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open
Group. (This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1
applied.) In the event of any discrepancy between this version and
the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original
Standard can be obtained online at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are
most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the
source files to man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2013 MAKE(1P)
Pages that refer to this page: c99(1p), sccs(1p)