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4 Writing Rules
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A "rule" appears in the makefile and says when and how to remake certain
files, called the rule's "targets" (most often only one per rule). It
lists the other files that are the "prerequisites" of the target, and
the "recipe" to use to create or update the target.
The order of rules is not significant, except for determining the
"default goal": the target for 'make' to consider, if you do not
otherwise specify one. The default goal is the target of the first rule
in the first makefile. If the first rule has multiple targets, only the
first target is taken as the default. There are two exceptions: a
target starting with a period is not a default unless it contains one or
more slashes, '/', as well; and, a target that defines a pattern rule
has no effect on the default goal. (
Defining and Redefining
Pattern Rules Pattern Rules.)
Therefore, we usually write the makefile so that the first rule is
the one for compiling the entire program or all the programs described
by the makefile (often with a target called 'all'). Arguments to
Specify the Goals Goals.
· Rule Example An example explained.
· Rule Syntax General syntax explained.
· Prerequisite Types There are two types of prerequisites.
· Wildcards Using wildcard characters such as '*'.
· Directory Search Searching other directories for source files.
· Phony Targets Using a target that is not a real file's name.
· Force Targets You can use a target without a recipe
or prerequisites to mark other targets
as phony.
· Empty Targets When only the date matters and the
files are empty.
· Special Targets Targets with special built-in meanings.
· Multiple Targets When to make use of several targets in a rule.
· Multiple Rules How to use several rules with the same target.
· Static Pattern Static pattern rules apply to multiple targets
and can vary the prerequisites according to
the target name.
· Double-Colon How to use a special kind of rule to allow
several independent rules for one target.
· Automatic Prerequisites How to automatically generate rules giving
prerequisites from source files themselves.