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(make.info)Remaking Makefiles

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How Makefiles Are Remade
========================

   Sometimes makefiles can be remade from other files, such as RCS or
SCCS files.  If a makefile can be remade from other files, you probably
want `make' to get an up-to-date version of the makefile to read in.

   To this end, after reading in all makefiles, `make' will consider
each as a goal target and attempt to update it.  If a makefile has a
rule which says how to update it (found either in that very makefile or
in another one) or if an implicit rule applies to it (Note: Using
Implicit Rules.), it will be updated if necessary.
After all makefiles have been checked, if any have actually been
changed, `make' starts with a clean slate and reads all the makefiles
over again.  (It will also attempt to update each of them over again,
but normally this will not change them again, since they are already up
to date.)

   If you know that one or more of your makefiles cannot be remade and
you want to keep `make' from performing an implicit rule search on
them, perhaps for efficiency reasons, you can use any normal method of
preventing implicit rule lookup to do so.  For example, you can write an
explicit rule with the makefile as the target, and an empty command
string (Note: Using Empty Commands.).

   If the makefiles specify a double-colon rule to remake a file with
commands but no prerequisites, that file will always be remade (Note:
Double-Colon).  In the case of makefiles, a makefile that has a
double-colon rule with commands but no prerequisites will be remade
every time `make' is run, and then again after `make' starts over and
reads the makefiles in again.  This would cause an infinite loop:
`make' would constantly remake the makefile, and never do anything
else.  So, to avoid this, `make' will *not* attempt to remake makefiles
which are specified as targets of a double-colon rule with commands but
no prerequisites.

   If you do not specify any makefiles to be read with `-f' or `--file'
options, `make' will try the default makefile names; Note: What Name to
Give Your Makefile..  Unlike makefiles explicitly
requested with `-f' or `--file' options, `make' is not certain that
these makefiles should exist.  However, if a default makefile does not
exist but can be created by running `make' rules, you probably want the
rules to be run so that the makefile can be used.

   Therefore, if none of the default makefiles exists, `make' will try
to make each of them in the same order in which they are searched for
(Note: What Name to Give Your Makefile.)  until it
succeeds in making one, or it runs out of names to try.  Note that it
is not an error if `make' cannot find or make any makefile; a makefile
is not always necessary.

   When you use the `-t' or `--touch' option (Note: Instead of
Executing the Commands.), you would not want to
use an out-of-date makefile to decide which targets to touch.  So the
`-t' option has no effect on updating makefiles; they are really
updated even if `-t' is specified.  Likewise, `-q' (or `--question')
and `-n' (or `--just-print') do not prevent updating of makefiles,
because an out-of-date makefile would result in the wrong output for
other targets.  Thus, `make -f mfile -n foo' will update `mfile', read
it in, and then print the commands to update `foo' and its prerequisites
without running them.  The commands printed for `foo' will be those
specified in the updated contents of `mfile'.

   However, on occasion you might actually wish to prevent updating of
even the makefiles.  You can do this by specifying the makefiles as
goals in the command line as well as specifying them as makefiles.
When the makefile name is specified explicitly as a goal, the options
`-t' and so on do apply to them.

   Thus, `make -f mfile -n mfile foo' would read the makefile `mfile',
print the commands needed to update it without actually running them,
and then print the commands needed to update `foo' without running
them.  The commands for `foo' will be those specified by the existing
contents of `mfile'.