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GNU Info (make.info)Makefile ContentsWhat Makefiles Contain ====================== Makefiles contain five kinds of things: "explicit rules", "implicit rules", "variable definitions", "directives", and "comments". Rules, variables, and directives are described at length in later chapters. * An "explicit rule" says when and how to remake one or more files, called the rule's targets. It lists the other files that the targets depend on, call the "prerequisites" of the target, and may also give commands to use to create or update the targets. Note: Writing Rules. * An "implicit rule" says when and how to remake a class of files based on their names. It describes how a target may depend on a file with a name similar to the target and gives commands to create or update such a target. *Note Using Implicit Rules: Implicit Rules. * A "variable definition" is a line that specifies a text string value for a variable that can be substituted into the text later. The simple makefile example shows a variable definition for `objects' as a list of all object files (Note: Variables Make Makefiles Simpler.). * A "directive" is a command for `make' to do something special while reading the makefile. These include: * Reading another makefile (*note Including Other Makefiles: Include.). * Deciding (based on the values of variables) whether to use or ignore a part of the makefile (Note: Conditional Parts of Makefiles.). * Defining a variable from a verbatim string containing multiple lines (Note: Defining Variables Verbatim.). * `#' in a line of a makefile starts a "comment". It and the rest of the line are ignored, except that a trailing backslash not escaped by another backslash will continue the comment across multiple lines. Comments may appear on any of the lines in the makefile, except within a `define' directive, and perhaps within commands (where the shell decides what is a comment). A line containing just a comment (with perhaps spaces before it) is effectively blank, and is ignored. automatically generated by info2www version 1.2.2.9 |