xref: /original-bsd/usr.bin/make/make.1 (revision 76321dfe)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1993
2.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" %sccs.include.redist.roff%
5.\"
6.\"	@(#)make.1	8.4 (Berkeley) 03/19/94
7.\"
8.Dd
9.Dt MAKE 1
10.Os
11.Sh NAME
12.Nm make
13.Nd maintain program dependencies
14.Sh SYNOPSIS
15.Nm make
16.Op Fl eiknqrstv
17.Op Fl D Ar variable
18.Op Fl d Ar flags
19.Op Fl f Ar makefile
20.Op Fl I Ar directory
21.Bk -words
22.Op Fl j Ar max_jobs
23.Ek
24.Op Ar variable=value
25.Op Ar target ...
26.Sh DESCRIPTION
27.Nm Make
28is a program designed to simplify the maintenance of other programs.
29Its input is a list of specifications as to the files upon which programs
30and other files depend.
31If the file
32.Ql Pa makefile
33exists, it is read for this list of specifications.
34If it does not exist, the file
35.Ql Pa Makefile
36is read.
37If the file
38.Ql Pa .depend
39exists, it is read (see
40.Xr mkdep 1) .
41.Pp
42This manual page is intended as a reference document only.
43For a more thorough description of
44.Nm make
45and makefiles, please refer to
46.%T "Make \- A Tutorial" .
47.Pp
48The options are as follows:
49.Bl -tag -width Ds
50.It Fl D Ar variable
51Define Ar variable
52to be 1, in the global context.
53.It Fl d Ar flags
54Turn on debugging, and specify which portions of
55.Nm make
56are to print debugging information.
57.Ar Flags
58is one or more of the following:
59.Bl -tag -width Ds
60.It Ar A
61Print all possible debugging information;
62equivalent to specifying all of the debugging flags.
63.It Ar a
64Print debugging information about archive searching and caching.
65.It Ar c
66Print debugging information about conditional evaluation.
67.It Ar d
68Print debugging information about directory searching and caching.
69.It Ar "g1"
70Print the input graph before making anything.
71.It Ar "g2"
72Print the input graph after making everything, or before exiting
73on error.
74.It Ar j
75Print debugging information about running multiple shells.
76.It Ar m
77Print debugging information about making targets, including modification
78dates.
79.It Ar s
80Print debugging information about suffix-transformation rules.
81.It Ar t
82Print debugging information about target list maintenance.
83.It Ar v
84Print debugging information about variable assignment.
85.El
86.It Fl e
87Specify that environmental variables override macro assignments within
88makefiles.
89.It Fl f Ar makefile
90Specify a makefile to read instead of the default
91.Ql Pa makefile
92and
93.Ql Pa Makefile .
94If
95.Ar makefile
96is
97.Ql Fl ,
98standard input is read.
99Multiple makefile's may be specified, and are read in the order specified.
100.It Fl I Ar directory
101Specify a directory in which to search for makefiles and included makefiles.
102The system makefile directory is automatically included as part of this
103list.
104.It Fl i
105Ignore non-zero exit of shell commands in the makefile.
106Equivalent to specifying
107.Ql Fl
108before each command line in the makefile.
109.It Fl j Ar max_jobs
110Specify the maximum number of jobs that
111.Nm make
112may have running at any one time.
113.It Fl k
114Continue processing after errors are encountered, but only on those targets
115that do not depend on the target whose creation caused the error.
116.It Fl n
117Display the commands that would have been executed, but do not actually
118execute them.
119.It Fl q
120Do not execute any commands, but exit 0 if the specified targets are
121up-to-date and 1, otherwise.
122.It Fl r
123Do not use the built-in rules specified in the system makefile.
124.It Fl s
125Do not echo any commands as they are executed.
126Equivalent to specifying
127.Ql Ic @
128before each command line in the makefile.
129.It Fl t
130Rather than re-building a target as specified in the makefile, create it
131or update its modification time to make it appear up-to-date.
132.It Ar variable=value
133Set the value of the variable
134.Ar variable
135to
136.Ar value .
137.El
138.Pp
139There are seven different types of lines in a makefile: file dependency
140specifications, shell commands, variable assignments, include statements,
141conditional directives, for loops, and comments.
142.Pp
143In general, lines may be continued from one line to the next by ending
144them with a backslash
145.Pq Ql \e .
146The trailing newline character and initial whitespace on the following
147line are compressed into a single space.
148.Sh FILE DEPENDENCY SPECIFICATIONS
149Dependency lines consist of one or more targets, an operator, and zero
150or more sources.
151This creates a relationship where the targets ``depend'' on the sources
152and are usually created from them.
153The exact relationship between the target and the source is determined
154by the operator that separates them.
155The three operators are as follows:
156.Bl -tag -width flag
157.It Ic \&:
158A target is considered out-of-date if its modification time is less than
159those of any of its sources.
160Sources for a target accumulate over dependency lines when this operator
161is used.
162The target is removed if
163.Nm make
164is interrupted.
165.It Ic \&!
166Targets are always re-created, but not until all sources have been
167examined and re-created as necessary.
168Sources for a target accumulate over dependency lines when this operator
169is used.
170The target is removed if
171.Nm make
172is interrupted.
173.It Ic \&::
174If no sources are specified, the target is always re-created.
175Otherwise, a target is considered out-of-date if any of its sources has
176been modified more recently than the target.
177Sources for a target do not accumulate over dependency lines when this
178operator is used.
179The target will not be removed if
180.Nm make
181is interrupted.
182.El
183.Pp
184Targets and sources may contain the shell wildcard values
185.Ql ? ,
186.Ql * ,
187.Ql []
188and
189.Ql {} .
190The values
191.Ql ? ,
192.Ql *
193and
194.Ql []
195may only be used as part of the final
196component of the target or source, and must be used to describe existing
197files.
198The value
199.Ql {}
200need not necessarily be used to describe existing files.
201Expansion is in directory order, not alphabetically as done in the shell.
202.Sh SHELL COMMANDS
203Each target may have associated with it a series of shell commands, normally
204used to create the target.
205Each of the commands in this script
206.Em must
207be preceded by a tab.
208While any target may appear on a dependency line, only one of these
209dependencies may be followed by a creation script, unless the
210.Ql Ic ::
211operator is used.
212.Pp
213If the first or first two characters of the command line are
214.Ql Ic @
215and/or
216.Ql Ic \- ,
217the command is treated specially.
218A
219.Ql Ic @
220causes the command not to be echoed before it is executed.
221A
222.Ql Ic \-
223causes any non-zero exit status of the command line to be ignored.
224.Sh VARIABLE ASSIGNMENTS
225Variables in make are much like variables in the shell, and, by tradition,
226consist of all upper-case letters.
227The five operators that can be used to assign values to variables are as
228follows:
229.Bl -tag -width Ds
230.It Ic \&=
231Assign the value to the variable.
232Any previous value is overridden.
233.It Ic \&+=
234Append the value to the current value of the variable.
235.It Ic \&?=
236Assign the value to the variable if it is not already defined.
237.It Ic \&:=
238Assign with expansion, i.e. expand the value before assigning it
239to the variable.
240Normally, expansion is not done until the variable is referenced.
241.It Ic \&!=
242Expand the value and pass it to the shell for execution and assign
243the result to the variable.
244Any newlines in the result are replaced with spaces.
245.El
246.Pp
247Any white-space before the assigned
248.Ar value
249is removed; if the value is being appended, a single space is inserted
250between the previous contents of the variable and the appended value.
251.Pp
252Variables are expanded by surrounding the variable name with either
253curly braces
254.Pq Ql {}
255or parenthesis
256.Pq Ql ()
257and preceding it with
258a dollar sign
259.Pq Ql \&$ .
260If the variable name contains only a single letter, the surrounding
261braces or parenthesis are not required.
262This shorter form is not recommended.
263.Pp
264Variable substitution occurs at two distinct times, depending on where
265the variable is being used.
266Variables in dependency lines are expanded as the line is read.
267Variables in shell commands are expanded when the shell command is
268executed.
269.Pp
270The four different classes of variables (in order of increasing precedence)
271are:
272.Bl -tag -width Ds
273.It Environment variables
274Variables defined as part of
275.Nm make Ns 's
276environment.
277.It Global variables
278Variables defined in the makefile or in included makefiles.
279.It Command line variables
280Variables defined as part of the command line.
281.It Local variables
282Variables that are defined specific to a certain target.
283The seven local variables are as follows:
284.Bl -tag -width ".ARCHIVE"
285.It Va .ALLSRC
286The list of all sources for this target; also known as
287.Ql Va \&> .
288.It Va .ARCHIVE
289The name of the archive file.
290.It Va .IMPSRC
291The name/path of the source from which the target is to be transformed
292(the ``implied'' source); also known as
293.Ql Va \&< .
294.It Va .MEMBER
295The name of the archive member.
296.It Va .OODATE
297The list of sources for this target that were deemed out-of-date; also
298known as
299.Ql Va \&? .
300.It Va .PREFIX
301The file prefix of the file, containing only the file portion, no suffix
302or preceding directory components; also known as
303.Ql Va * .
304.It Va .TARGET
305The name of the target; also known as
306.Ql Va @ .
307.El
308.Pp
309The shorter forms
310.Ql Va @ ,
311.Ql Va ? ,
312.Ql Va \&>
313and
314.Ql Va *
315are permitted for backward
316compatibility with historical makefiles and are not recommended.
317The six variables
318.Ql Va "@F" ,
319.Ql Va "@D" ,
320.Ql Va "<F" ,
321.Ql Va "<D" ,
322.Ql Va "*F"
323and
324.Ql Va "*D"
325are
326permitted for compatibility with
327.At V
328makefiles and are not recommended.
329.Pp
330Four of the local variables may be used in sources on dependency lines
331because they expand to the proper value for each target on the line.
332These variables are
333.Ql Va .TARGET ,
334.Ql Va .PREFIX ,
335.Ql Va .ARCHIVE ,
336and
337.Ql Va .MEMBER .
338.Pp
339In addition,
340.Nm make
341sets or knows about the following variables:
342.Bl -tag -width MAKEFLAGS
343.It Va \&$
344A single dollar sign
345.Ql \&$ ,
346i.e.
347.Ql \&$$
348expands to a single dollar
349sign.
350.It Va .MAKE
351The name that
352.Nm make
353was executed with
354.Pq Va argv Op 0
355.It Va .CURDIR
356A path to the directory where
357.Nm make
358was executed.
359.It Va .OBJDIR
360A path to the directory where the targets are built.
361.It Ev MAKEFLAGS
362The environment variable
363.Ql Ev MAKEFLAGS
364may contain anything that
365may be specified on
366.Nm make Ns 's
367command line.
368Anything specified on
369.Nm make Ns 's
370command line is appended to the
371.Ql Ev MAKEFLAGS
372variable which is then
373entered into the environment for all programs which
374.Nm make
375executes.
376.El
377.Pp
378Variable expansion may be modified to select or modify each word of the
379variable (where a ``word'' is white-space delimited sequence of characters).
380The general format of a variable expansion is as follows:
381.Pp
382.Dl {variable[:modifier[:...]]}
383.Pp
384Each modifier begins with a colon and one of the following
385special characters.
386The colon may be escaped with a backslash
387.Pq Ql \e .
388.Bl -tag -width Cm E\&
389.It Cm E
390Replaces each word in the variable with its suffix.
391.It Cm H
392Replaces each word in the variable with everything but the last component.
393.It Cm M Ns Ar pattern
394Select only those words that match the rest of the modifier.
395The standard shell wildcard characters
396.Pf ( Ql * ,
397.Ql ? ,
398and
399.Ql Op )
400may
401be used.
402The wildcard characters may be escaped with a backslash
403.Pq Ql \e .
404.It Cm N Ns Ar pattern
405This is identical to
406.Ql Cm M ,
407but selects all words which do not match
408the rest of the modifier.
409.It Cm R
410Replaces each word in the variable with everything but its suffix.
411.Sm off
412.It Cm S No \&/ Ar old_pattern Xo
413.No \&/ Ar new_pattern
414.No \&/ Op Cm g
415.Xc
416.Sm on
417Modify the first occurrence of
418.Ar old_pattern
419in each word to be replaced with
420.Ar new_pattern .
421If a
422.Ql g
423is appended to the last slash of the pattern, all occurrences
424in each word are replaced.
425If
426.Ar old_pattern
427begins with a carat
428.Pq Ql ^ ,
429.Ar old_pattern
430is anchored at the beginning of each word.
431If
432.Ar old_pattern
433ends with a dollar sign
434.Pq Ql \&$ ,
435it is anchored at the end of each word.
436Inside
437.Ar new_string ,
438an ampersand
439.Pq Ql &
440is replaced by
441.Ar old_pattern .
442Any character may be used as a delimiter for the parts of the modifier
443string.
444The anchoring, ampersand and delimiter characters may be escaped with a
445backslash
446.Pq Ql \e .
447.Pp
448Variable expansion occurs in the normal fashion inside both
449.Ar old_string
450and
451.Ar new_string
452with the single exception that a backslash is used to prevent the expansion
453of a dollar sign
454.Pq Ql \&$
455not a preceding dollar sign as is usual.
456.It Cm T
457Replaces each word in the variable with its last component.
458.It Ar old_string=new_string
459This is the
460.At V
461style variable substitution.
462It must be the last modifier specified.
463If
464.Ar old_string
465or
466.Ar new_string
467do not contain the pattern matching character
468.Ar %
469then it is assumed that they are
470anchored at the end of each word, so only suffixes or entire
471words may be replaced. Otherwise
472.Ar %
473is the substring of
474.Ar old_string
475to be replaced in
476.Ar new_string
477.El
478.Sh INCLUDE STATEMENTS, CONDITIONALS AND FOR LOOPS
479Makefile inclusion, conditional structures and for loops  reminiscent
480of the C programming language are provided in
481.Nm make .
482All such structures are identified by a line beginning with a single
483dot
484.Pq Ql \&.
485character.
486Files are included with either
487.Ql .include <file>
488or
489.Ql .include \*qfile\*q .
490Variables between the angle brackets or double quotes are expanded
491to form the file name.
492If angle brackets are used, the included makefile is expected to be in
493the system makefile directory.
494If double quotes are used, the including makefile's directory and any
495directories specified using the
496.Fl I
497option are searched before the system
498makefile directory.
499.Pp
500Conditional expressions are also preceded by a single dot as the first
501character of a line.
502The possible conditionals are as follows:
503.Bl -tag -width Ds
504.It Ic .undef Ar variable
505Un-define the specified global variable.
506Only global variables may be un-defined.
507.It Xo
508.Ic \&.if
509.Oo \&! Oc Ns Ar expression
510.Op Ar operator expression ...
511.Xc
512Test the value of an expression.
513.It Xo
514.Ic .ifdef
515.Oo \&! Oc Ns Ar variable
516.Op Ar operator variable ...
517.Xc
518Test the value of a variable.
519.It Xo
520.Ic .ifndef
521.Oo \&! Oc Ns Ar variable
522.Op Ar operator variable ...
523.Xc
524Test the value of a variable.
525.It Xo
526.Ic .ifmake
527.Oo \&! Oc Ns Ar target
528.Op Ar operator target ...
529.Xc
530Test the the target being built.
531.It Xo
532.Ic .ifnmake
533.Oo \&! Oc Ar target
534.Op Ar operator target ...
535.Xc
536Test the target being built.
537.It Ic .else
538Reverse the sense of the last conditional.
539.It Xo
540.Ic .elif
541.Oo \&! Oc Ar expression
542.Op Ar operator expression ...
543.Xc
544A combination of
545.Ql Ic .else
546followed by
547.Ql Ic .if .
548.It Xo
549.Ic .elifdef
550.Oo \&! Oc Ns Ar variable
551.Op Ar operator variable ...
552.Xc
553A combination of
554.Ql Ic .else
555followed by
556.Ql Ic .ifdef .
557.It Xo
558.Ic .elifndef
559.Oo \&! Oc Ns Ar variable
560.Op Ar operator variable ...
561.Xc
562A combination of
563.Ql Ic .else
564followed by
565.Ql Ic .ifndef .
566.It Xo
567.Ic .elifmake
568.Oo \&! Oc Ns Ar target
569.Op Ar operator target ...
570.Xc
571A combination of
572.Ql Ic .else
573followed by
574.Ql Ic .ifmake .
575.It Xo
576.Ic .elifnmake
577.Oo \&! Oc Ns Ar target
578.Op Ar operator target ...
579.Xc
580A combination of
581.Ql Ic .else
582followed by
583.Ql Ic .ifnmake .
584.It Ic .endif
585End the body of the conditional.
586.El
587.Pp
588The
589.Ar operator
590may be any one of the following:
591.Bl -tag -width "Cm XX"
592.It Cm \&|\&|
593logical OR
594.It Cm \&&&
595Logical
596.Tn AND ;
597of higher precedence than
598.Dq .
599.El
600.Pp
601As in C,
602.Nm make
603will only evaluate a conditional as far as is necessary to determine
604its value.
605Parentheses may be used to change the order of evaluation.
606The boolean operator
607.Ql Ic \&!
608may be used to logically negate an entire
609conditional.
610It is of higher precedence than
611.Ql Ic \&&& .
612.Pp
613The value of
614.Ar expression
615may be any of the following:
616.Bl -tag -width Ic defined
617.It Ic defined
618Takes a variable name as an argument and evaluates to true if the variable
619has been defined.
620.It Ic make
621Takes a target name as an argument and evaluates to true if the target
622was specified as part of
623.Nm make Ns 's
624command line or was declared the default target (either implicitly or
625explicitly, see
626.Va .MAIN )
627before the line containing the conditional.
628.It Ic empty
629Takes a variable, with possible modifiers, and evaluates to true if
630the expansion of the variable would result in an empty string.
631.It Ic exists
632Takes a file name as an argument and evaluates to true if the file exists.
633The file is searched for on the system search path (see
634.Va .PATH ) .
635.It Ic target
636Takes a target name as an argument and evaluates to true if the target
637has been defined.
638.El
639.Pp
640.Ar Expression
641may also be an arithmetic or string comparison.  Variable expansion is
642performed on both sides of the comparison, after which the integral
643values are compared.  A value is interpreted as hexadecimal if it is
644preceded by 0x, otherwise it is decimal; octal numbers are not supported.
645The standard C relational operators are all supported.  If after
646variable expansion, either the left or right hand side of a
647.Ql Ic ==
648or
649.Ql Ic "!="
650operator is not an integral value, then
651string comparison is performed between the expanded
652variables.
653If no relational operator is given, it is assumed that the expanded
654variable is being compared against 0.
655.Pp
656When
657.Nm make
658is evaluating one of these conditional expression, and it encounters
659a word it doesn't recognize, either the ``make'' or ``defined''
660expression is applied to it, depending on the form of the conditional.
661If the form is
662.Ql Ic .ifdef
663or
664.Ql Ic .ifndef ,
665the ``defined'' expression
666is applied.
667Similarly, if the form is
668.Ql Ic .ifmake
669or
670.Ql Ic .ifnmake , the ``make''
671expression is applied.
672.Pp
673If the conditional evaluates to true the parsing of the makefile continues
674as before.
675If it evaluates to false, the following lines are skipped.
676In both cases this continues until a
677.Ql Ic .else
678or
679.Ql Ic .endif
680is found.
681.Pp
682For loops are typically used to apply a set of rules to a list of files.
683The syntax of a for loop is:
684.Bl -tag -width Ds
685.It Xo
686.Ic \&.for
687.Ar variable
688.Ic in
689.Ar expression
690.Xc
691.It Xo
692<make-rules>
693.Xc
694.It Xo
695.Ic \&.endfor
696.Xc
697.El
698After the for
699.Ic expression
700is evaluated, it is split into words. The
701iteration
702.Ic variable
703is successively set to each word, and substituted in the
704.Ic make-rules
705inside the body of the for loop.
706.Sh COMMENTS
707Comments begin with a hash
708.Pq Ql \&#
709character, anywhere but in a shell
710command line, and continue to the end of the line.
711.Sh SPECIAL SOURCES
712.Bl -tag -width Ic .IGNORE
713.It Ic .IGNORE
714Ignore any errors from the commands associated with this target, exactly
715as if they all were preceded by a dash
716.Pq Ql \- .
717.It Ic .MAKE
718Execute the commands associated with this target even if the
719.Fl n
720or
721.Fl t
722options were specified.
723Normally used to mark recursive
724.Nm make Ns 's .
725.It Ic .NOTMAIN
726Normally
727.Nm make
728selects the first target it encounters as the default target to be built
729if no target was specified.
730This source prevents this target from being selected.
731.It Ic .OPTIONAL
732If a target is marked with this attribute and
733.Nm make
734can't figure out how to create it, it will ignore this fact and assume
735the file isn't needed or already exists.
736.It Ic .PRECIOUS
737When
738.Nm make
739is interrupted, it removes any partially made targets.
740This source prevents the target from being removed.
741.It Ic .SILENT
742Do not echo any of the commands associated with this target, exactly
743as if they all were preceded by an at sign
744.Pq Ql @ .
745.It Ic .USE
746Turn the target into
747.Nm make Ns 's .
748version of a macro.
749When the target is used as a source for another target, the other target
750acquires the commands, sources, and attributes (except for
751.Ic .USE )
752of the
753source.
754If the target already has commands, the
755.Ic .USE
756target's commands are appended
757to them.
758.El
759.Sh "SPECIAL TARGETS"
760Special targets may not be included with other targets, i.e. they must be
761the only target specified.
762.Bl -tag -width Ic .BEGIN
763.It Ic .BEGIN
764Any command lines attached to this target are executed before anything
765else is done.
766.It Ic .DEFAULT
767This is sort of a
768.Ic .USE
769rule for any target (that was used only as a
770source) that
771.Nm make
772can't figure out any other way to create.
773Only the shell script is used.
774The
775.Ic .IMPSRC
776variable of a target that inherits
777.Ic .DEFAULT Ns 's
778commands is set
779to the target's own name.
780.It Ic .END
781Any command lines attached to this target are executed after everything
782else is done.
783.It Ic .IGNORE
784Mark each of the sources with the
785.Ic .IGNORE
786attribute.
787If no sources are specified, this is the equivalent of specifying the
788.Fl i
789option.
790.It Ic .INTERRUPT
791If
792.Nm make
793is interrupted, the commands for this target will be executed.
794.It Ic .MAIN
795If no target is specified when
796.Nm make
797is invoked, this target will be built.
798.It Ic .MAKEFLAGS
799This target provides a way to specify flags for
800.Nm make
801when the makefile is used.
802The flags are as if typed to the shell, though the
803.Fl f
804option will have
805no effect.
806.It Ic .PATH
807The sources are directories which are to be searched for files not
808found in the current directory.
809If no sources are specified, any previously specified directories are
810deleted.
811.It Ic .PRECIOUS
812Apply the
813.Ic .PRECIOUS
814attribute to any specified sources.
815If no sources are specified, the
816.Ic .PRECIOUS
817attribute is applied to every
818target in the file.
819.It Ic .SILENT
820Apply the
821.Ic .SILENT
822attribute to any specified sources.
823If no sources are specified, the
824.Ic .SILENT
825attribute is applied to every
826command in the file.
827.It Ic .SUFFIXES
828Each source specifies a suffix to
829.Nm make .
830If no sources are specified, any previous specified suffices are deleted.
831.Sh ENVIRONMENT
832.Nm Make
833utilizes the following environment variables, if they exist:
834.Ev MAKE ,
835.Ev MAKEFLAGS
836and
837.Ev MAKEOBJDIR .
838.Sh FILES
839.Bl -tag -width /usr/share/mk -compact
840.It .depend
841list of dependencies
842.It Makefile
843list of dependencies
844.It makefile
845list of dependencies
846.It sys.mk
847system makefile
848.It /usr/share/mk
849system makefile directory
850.El
851.Sh SEE ALSO
852.Xr mkdep 1
853.Sh HISTORY
854A
855.Nm Make
856command appeared in
857.At v7 .
858