Free Software Foundation
Make enables the end user to build and install your package without knowing the details of how that is done -- because these details are recorded in the makefile that you supply. Make figures out automatically which files it needs to update, based on which source files have changed. It also automatically determines the proper order for updating files, in case one non-source file depends on another non-source file. As a result, if you change a few source files and then run Make, it does not need to recompile all of your program.
It updates only those non-source files that depend directly or indirectly on the source files that you changed. Make is not limited to any particular language. For each non-source file in the program, the makefile specifies the shell commands to compute it. These shell commands can run a compiler to produce an object file, the linker to produce an executable, ar to update a library, or TeX or Makeinfo to format documentation.
Make is not limited to building a package. You can also use Make to control installing or deinstalling a package, generate tags tables for it, or anything else you want to do often enough to make it worth while writing down how to do it. A rule in the makefile tells Make how to execute a series of commands in order to build a target file from source files. It also specifies a list of dependencies of the target file.
This list should include all files (whether source files or other targets) which are used as inputs to the commands in the rule. When you run Make, you can specify particular targets to update; otherwise, Make updates the first target listed in the makefile. Of course, any other target files needed as input for generating these targets must be updated first. Make uses the makefile to figure out which target files ought to be brought up to date, and then determines which of them actually need to be updated.
If a target file is newer than all of its dependencies, then it is already up to date, and it does not need to be regenerated. The other target files do need to be updated, but in the right order: each target file must be regenerated before it is used in regenerating other targets. GNU Make has many powerful features for use in makefiles, beyond what other Make versions have.
It can also regenerate, use, and then delete intermediate files which need not be saved. GNU Make also has a few simple features that are very convenient. For example, the -o file option which says ``pretend that source file file has not changed, even though it has changed.'' This is extremely useful when you add a new macro to a header file. However, the most important difference between GNU Make and most versions of Make is that GNU Make is free software.
We have developed conventions for how to write Makefiles, which all GNU packages ought to follow. These conventions are found in the chapter ``Makefile conventions'' (147 k characters) of the GNU Coding Standards (147 k characters). It can also be found on the GNU mirrors; please use a mirror if possible. Documentation for Make is available online, as is documentation for most GNU software. You may also find more information about Make by running info make or man make, or by looking at /usr/share/doc/make/, /usr/local/doc/make/, or similar directories on your system. A brief summary is available by running make --help.
Make, including development and enhancement requests, as well as bug reports. Announcements about Make and most other GNU software are made on info-gnu (archive). Security reports that should not be made immediately public can be sent directly to the maintainer. If there is no response to an urgent issue, you can escalate to the general security mailing list for advice. Development of Make, and GNU in general, is a volunteer effort, and you can contribute. For information, please read How to help GNU. If you'd like to get involved, it's a good idea to join the discussion mailing list (see above).
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