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On this page you find all important commands for the CLI tool make. If the command you are looking for is missing please ask our AI.

make

Make is a popular command line tool used for building software. It is primarily designed to automate the compilation and execution of software projects. Make uses a file called "Makefile" to specify the dependencies, rules, and commands to build the project.

Make is a powerful tool for managing complex software projects with multiple source files. It automatically determines which parts of the project need to be rebuilt based on the modification timestamp of the files. This reduces unnecessary rebuilds and improves overall build efficiency.

Make follows the concept of targets and prerequisites. In a Makefile, each target represents a file that needs to be built, and prerequisites are the files required to build the target. Make checks the timestamp of the target and prerequisites to determine if a rebuild is necessary.

Make provides various commands for building, cleaning, and deploying the project. By simply running the command "make" in the project directory, it executes the default target specified in the Makefile.

Make supports parallel builds, meaning it can build multiple target files simultaneously, utilizing multiple processor cores and speeding up the build process.

Make offers a range of built-in functions and variables that can be used in the Makefile to control the build process and customize the build workflow.

Make is widely used in various programming languages, including C, C++, Java, Python, and many more. The concepts and syntax of Make are consistent across different platforms, making it highly portable.

Make has become an integral part of build automation systems and continuous integration pipelines. It integrates seamlessly with other tools like version control systems (e.g., Git), testing frameworks, and deployment tools.

Make allows developers to separate the build process from the source code, making it easier to distribute and share software projects. It promotes modularity and reusability in development.

Make has an extensive community and a large number of resources available online, including tutorials, documentation, and example projects, making it easy to get started and learn.

List of commands for make:

  • make:tldr:099da make: Call the first target specified in the Makefile (usually named "all").
    $ make
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  • make:tldr:14743 make: Call a specific target.
    $ make ${target}
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  • make:tldr:2ccbb make: Call a specific target, executing 4 jobs at a time in parallel.
    $ make -j${4} ${target}
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  • make:tldr:5c9aa make: Execute make from another directory.
    $ make --directory ${path-to-directory}
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  • make:tldr:7c892 make: Override variables defined in the Makefile by the environment.
    $ make --environment-overrides ${target}
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  • make:tldr:c5cdd make: Override a variable defined in the Makefile.
    $ make ${target} ${variable}=${new_value}
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  • make:tldr:e9486 make: Use a specific Makefile.
    $ make --file ${filename}
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  • make:tldr:f42f7 make: Force making of a target, even if source files are unchanged.
    $ make --always-make ${target}
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tool overview