Linux "make" Command Line Options and Examples
GNU make utility to maintain groups of programs
The make utility will determine automatically which pieces of a large program need to be recompiled, and issue the commands to recom‐ pile them. The manual describes the GNU implementation of make, which was written by Richard Stallman and Roland McGrath, and is currently maintained by Paul Smith.
Usage:
make [OPTION]... [TARGET]...
Command Line Options:
-b
These options are ignored for compatibility with other versions of make.
make -b ...
-B
Unconditionally make all targets.
make -B ...
-C
Change to directory dir before reading the makefiles or doing anything else. If multiple -C options are specified, each isinterpreted relative to the previous one: -C / -C etc is equivalent to -C /etc. This is typically used with recursive invoca‐tions of make.
make -C ...
--debug[
Print debugging information in addition to normal processing. If the FLAGS are omitted, then the behavior is the same as if -dwas specified. FLAGS may be a for all debugging output (same as using -d), b for basic debugging, v for more verbose basicdebugging, i for showing implicit rules, j for details on invocation of commands, and m for debugging while remaking makefiles.Use n to disable all previous debugging flags.
make --debug[ ...
-e
Give variables taken from the environment precedence over variables from makefiles.
make -e ...
-f
Use file as a makefile.
make -f ...
-i
Ignore all errors in commands executed to remake files.
make -i ...
-I
Specifies a directory dir to search for included makefiles. If several -I options are used to specify several directories, thedirectories are searched in the order specified. Unlike the arguments to other flags of make, directories given with -I flagsmay come directly after the flag: -Idir is allowed, as well as -I dir. This syntax is allowed for compatibility with the C pre‐processor's -I flag.
make -I ...
-j
Specifies the number of jobs (commands) to run simultaneously. If there is more than one -j option, the last one is effective.If the -j option is given without an argument, make will not limit the number of jobs that can run simultaneously. When makeinvokes a sub-make, all instances of make will coordinate to run the specified number of jobs at a time; see the section PARAL‐LEL MAKE AND THE JOBSERVER for details.
make -j ...
--jobserver-fds
Internal option make uses to pass the jobserver pipe read and write file descriptor numbers to sub-makes; see the section PARAL‐LEL MAKE AND THE JOBSERVER for details
make --jobserver-fds ...
-k
Continue as much as possible after an error. While the target that failed, and those that depend on it, cannot be remade, theother dependencies of these targets can be processed all the same.
make -k ...
-l
Specifies that no new jobs (commands) should be started if there are others jobs running and the load average is at least load(a floating-point number). With no argument, removes a previous load limit.
make -l ...
-L
Use the latest mtime between symlinks and target.
make -L ...
-n
Print the commands that would be executed, but do not execute them (except in certain circumstances).
make -n ...
-o
Do not remake the file file even if it is older than its dependencies, and do not remake anything on account of changes in file.Essentially the file is treated as very old and its rules are ignored.
make -o ...
-O[type]
When running multiple jobs in parallel with -j, ensure the output of each job is collected together rather than interspersedwith output from other jobs. If type is not specified or is target the output from the entire recipe for each target is groupedtogether. If type is line the output from each command line within a recipe is grouped together. If type is recurse outputfrom an entire recursive make is grouped together. If type is none output synchronization is disabled.
make -O[type] ...
-p
Print the data base (rules and variable values) that results from reading the makefiles; then execute as usual or as otherwisespecified. This also prints the version information given by the -v switch (see below). To print the data base without tryingto remake any files, use make -p -f/dev/null.
make -p ...
-q
``Question mode''. Do not run any commands, or print anything; just return an exit status that is zero if the specified targetsare already up to date, nonzero otherwise.
make -q ...
-r
Eliminate use of the built-in implicit rules. Also clear out the default list of suffixes for suffix rules.
make -r ...
-R
Don't define any built-in variables.
make -R ...
-s
Silent operation; do not print the commands as they are executed.
make -s ...
-S
Cancel the effect of the -k option. This is never necessary except in a recursive make where -k might be inherited from thetop-level make via MAKEFLAGS or if you set -k in MAKEFLAGS in your environment.
make -S ...
-t
Touch files (mark them up to date without really changing them) instead of running their commands. This is used to pretend thatthe commands were done, in order to fool future invocations of make.
make -t ...
--trace
Information about the disposition of each target is printed (why the target is being rebuilt and what commands are run torebuild it).
make --trace ...
-v
Print the version of the make program plus a copyright, a list of authors and a notice that there is no warranty.
make -v ...
-w
Print a message containing the working directory before and after other processing. This may be useful for tracking down errorsfrom complicated nests of recursive make commands.
make -w ...
--no-print-directory
Turn off -w, even if it was turned on implicitly.
make --no-print-directory ...
-W
Pretend that the target file has just been modified. When used with the -n flag, this shows you what would happen if you wereto modify that file. Without -n, it is almost the same as running a touch command on the given file before running make, exceptthat the modification time is changed only in the imagination of make.
make -W ...
--warn-undefined-variables
Warn when an undefined variable is referenced.EXIT STATUSGNU make exits with a status of zero if all makefiles were successfully parsed and no targets that were built failed. A status ofone will be returned if the -q flag was used and make determines that a target needs to be rebuilt. A status of two will be returnedif any errors were encountered.
make --warn-undefined-variables ...