1 BMAKE(1) FreeBSD General Commands Manual BMAKE(1)
4 \e[1mbmake
\e[22m— maintain program dependencies
7 \e[1mbmake
\e[22m[
\e[1m-BeikNnqrSstWwX
\e[22m] [
\e[1m-C
\e[4m
\e[22mdirectory
\e[24m] [
\e[1m-D
\e[4m
\e[22mvariable
\e[24m] [
\e[1m-d
\e[4m
\e[22mflags
\e[24m]
8 [
\e[1m-f
\e[4m
\e[22mmakefile
\e[24m] [
\e[1m-I
\e[4m
\e[22mdirectory
\e[24m] [
\e[1m-J
\e[4m
\e[22mprivate
\e[24m] [
\e[1m-j
\e[4m
\e[22mmax_jobs
\e[24m]
9 [
\e[1m-m
\e[4m
\e[22mdirectory
\e[24m] [
\e[1m-T
\e[4m
\e[22mfile
\e[24m] [
\e[1m-V
\e[4m
\e[22mvariable
\e[24m] [
\e[1m-v
\e[4m
\e[22mvariable
\e[24m]
10 [
\e[4mvariable=value
\e[24m] [
\e[4mtarget
\e[24m
\e[4m...
\e[24m]
13 \e[1mbmake
\e[22mis a program designed to simplify the maintenance of other pro‐
14 grams. Its input is a list of specifications as to the files upon which
15 programs and other files depend. If no
\e[1m-f
\e[4m
\e[22mmakefile
\e[24m makefile option is
16 given,
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mwill try to open ‘
\e[4mmakefile
\e[24m’ then ‘
\e[4mMakefile
\e[24m’ in order to find
17 the specifications. If the file ‘
\e[4m.depend
\e[24m’ exists, it is read (see
20 This manual page is intended as a reference document only. For a more
21 thorough description of
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mand makefiles, please refer to
\e[4mPMake
\e[24m
\e[4m-
\e[24m
\e[4mA
\e[0m
24 \e[1mbmake
\e[22mwill prepend the contents of the
\e[4mMAKEFLAGS
\e[24m environment variable to
25 the command line arguments before parsing them.
27 The options are as follows:
29 \e[1m-B
\e[22mTry to be backwards compatible by executing a single shell per
30 command and by executing the commands to make the sources of a
31 dependency line in sequence.
33 \e[1m-C
\e[4m
\e[22mdirectory
\e[0m
34 Change to
\e[4mdirectory
\e[24m before reading the makefiles or doing any‐
35 thing else. If multiple
\e[1m-C
\e[22moptions are specified, each is inter‐
36 preted relative to the previous one:
\e[1m-C
\e[4m
\e[22m/
\e[24m
\e[1m-C
\e[4m
\e[22metc
\e[24m is equivalent to
37 \e[1m-C
\e[4m
\e[22m/etc
\e[24m.
39 \e[1m-D
\e[4m
\e[22mvariable
\e[0m
40 Define
\e[4mvariable
\e[24m to be 1, in the global scope.
42 \e[1m-d
\e[4m
\e[22m[-]flags
\e[0m
43 Turn on debugging, and specify which portions of
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mare to
44 print debugging information. Unless the flags are preceded by
45 ‘-’ they are added to the
\e[4mMAKEFLAGS
\e[24m environment variable and will
46 be processed by any child make processes. By default, debugging
47 information is printed to standard error, but this can be changed
48 using the
\e[4mF
\e[24m debugging flag. The debugging output is always un‐
49 buffered; in addition, if debugging is enabled but debugging out‐
50 put is not directed to standard output, then the standard output
51 is line buffered.
\e[4mFlags
\e[24m is one or more of the following:
53 \e[4mA
\e[24m Print all possible debugging information; equivalent to
54 specifying all of the debugging flags.
56 \e[4ma
\e[24m Print debugging information about archive searching and
59 \e[4mC
\e[24m Print debugging information about current working direc‐
62 \e[4mc
\e[24m Print debugging information about conditional evaluation.
64 \e[4md
\e[24m Print debugging information about directory searching and
67 \e[4me
\e[24m Print debugging information about failed commands and
70 \e[4mF
\e[24m[
\e[1m+
\e[22m]
\e[4mfilename
\e[0m
71 Specify where debugging output is written. This must be
72 the last flag, because it consumes the remainder of the
73 argument. If the character immediately after the ‘F’
74 flag is ‘+’, then the file will be opened in append mode;
75 otherwise the file will be overwritten. If the file name
76 is ‘stdout’ or ‘stderr’ then debugging output will be
77 written to the standard output or standard error output
78 file descriptors respectively (and the ‘+’ option has no
79 effect). Otherwise, the output will be written to the
80 named file. If the file name ends ‘.%d’ then the ‘%d’ is
83 \e[4mf
\e[24m Print debugging information about loop evaluation.
85 \e[4mg1
\e[24m Print the input graph before making anything.
87 \e[4mg2
\e[24m Print the input graph after making everything, or before
90 \e[4mg3
\e[24m Print the input graph before exiting on error.
92 \e[4mh
\e[24m Print debugging information about hash table operations.
94 \e[4mj
\e[24m Print debugging information about running multiple
97 \e[4mL
\e[24m Turn on lint checks. This will throw errors for variable
98 assignments that do not parse correctly, at the time of
99 assignment so the file and line number are available.
101 \e[4ml
\e[24m Print commands in Makefiles regardless of whether or not
102 they are prefixed by ‘@’ or other "quiet" flags. Also
103 known as "loud" behavior.
105 \e[4mM
\e[24m Print debugging information about "meta" mode decisions
108 \e[4mm
\e[24m Print debugging information about making targets, includ‐
109 ing modification dates.
111 \e[4mn
\e[24m Don't delete the temporary command scripts created when
112 running commands. These temporary scripts are created in
113 the directory referred to by the TMPDIR environment vari‐
114 able, or in
\e[4m/tmp
\e[24m if TMPDIR is unset or set to the empty
115 string. The temporary scripts are created by mkstemp(3),
116 and have names of the form
\e[4mmakeXXXXXX
\e[24m.
\e[4mNOTE
\e[24m: This can
117 create many files in TMPDIR or
\e[4m/tmp
\e[24m, so use with care.
119 \e[4mp
\e[24m Print debugging information about makefile parsing.
121 \e[4ms
\e[24m Print debugging information about suffix-transformation
124 \e[4mt
\e[24m Print debugging information about target list mainte‐
127 \e[4mV
\e[24m Force the
\e[1m-V
\e[22moption to print raw values of variables,
128 overriding the default behavior set via
129 \e[4m.MAKE.EXPAND_VARIABLES
\e[24m.
131 \e[4mv
\e[24m Print debugging information about variable assignment.
133 \e[4mx
\e[24m Run shell commands with
\e[1m-x
\e[22mso the actual commands are
134 printed as they are executed.
136 \e[1m-e
\e[22mSpecify that environment variables override macro assignments
139 \e[1m-f
\e[4m
\e[22mmakefile
\e[0m
140 Specify a makefile to read instead of the default ‘
\e[4mmakefile
\e[24m’. If
141 \e[4mmakefile
\e[24m is ‘
\e[1m-
\e[22m’, standard input is read. Multiple makefiles may
142 be specified, and are read in the order specified.
144 \e[1m-I
\e[4m
\e[22mdirectory
\e[0m
145 Specify a directory in which to search for makefiles and included
146 makefiles. The system makefile directory (or directories, see
147 the
\e[1m-m
\e[22moption) is automatically included as part of this list.
149 \e[1m-i
\e[22mIgnore non-zero exit of shell commands in the makefile. Equiva‐
150 lent to specifying ‘
\e[1m-
\e[22m’ before each command line in the makefile.
152 \e[1m-J
\e[4m
\e[22mprivate
\e[0m
153 This option should
\e[4mnot
\e[24m be specified by the user.
155 When the
\e[1m-j
\e[22moption is in use in a recursive build, this option is
156 passed by a make to child makes to allow all the make processes
157 in the build to cooperate to avoid overloading the system.
159 \e[1m-j
\e[4m
\e[22mmax_jobs
\e[0m
160 Specify the maximum number of jobs that
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mmay have running at
161 any one time. The value is saved in
\e[4m.MAKE.JOBS
\e[24m. Turns compati‐
162 bility mode off, unless the
\e[1m-B
\e[22moption is also specified. When
163 compatibility mode is off, all commands associated with a target
164 are executed in a single shell invocation as opposed to the tra‐
165 ditional one shell invocation per line. This can break tradi‐
166 tional scripts which change directories on each command invoca‐
167 tion and then expect to start with a fresh environment on the
168 next line. It is more efficient to correct the scripts rather
169 than turn backwards compatibility on.
171 \e[1m-k
\e[22mContinue processing after errors are encountered, but only on
172 those targets that do not depend on the target whose creation
175 \e[1m-m
\e[4m
\e[22mdirectory
\e[0m
176 Specify a directory in which to search for sys.mk and makefiles
177 included via the <
\e[4mfile
\e[24m>-style include statement. The
\e[1m-m
\e[22moption
178 can be used multiple times to form a search path. This path will
179 override the default system include path: /usr/share/mk. Fur‐
180 thermore the system include path will be appended to the search
181 path used for "
\e[4mfile
\e[24m"-style include statements (see the
\e[1m-I
\e[22mop‐
184 If a file or directory name in the
\e[1m-m
\e[22margument (or the
185 MAKESYSPATH environment variable) starts with the string ".../"
186 then
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mwill search for the specified file or directory named
187 in the remaining part of the argument string. The search starts
188 with the current directory of the Makefile and then works upward
189 towards the root of the file system. If the search is success‐
190 ful, then the resulting directory replaces the ".../" specifica‐
191 tion in the
\e[1m-m
\e[22margument. If used, this feature allows
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mto
192 easily search in the current source tree for customized sys.mk
193 files (e.g., by using ".../mk/sys.mk" as an argument).
195 \e[1m-n
\e[22mDisplay the commands that would have been executed, but do not
196 actually execute them unless the target depends on the .MAKE spe‐
197 cial source (see below) or the command is prefixed with ‘
\e[1m+
\e[22m’.
199 \e[1m-N
\e[22mDisplay the commands which would have been executed, but do not
200 actually execute any of them; useful for debugging top-level
201 makefiles without descending into subdirectories.
203 \e[1m-q
\e[22mDo not execute any commands, but exit 0 if the specified targets
204 are up-to-date and 1, otherwise.
206 \e[1m-r
\e[22mDo not use the built-in rules specified in the system makefile.
208 \e[1m-S
\e[22mStop processing if an error is encountered. This is the default
209 behavior and the opposite of
\e[1m-k
\e[22m.
211 \e[1m-s
\e[22mDo not echo any commands as they are executed. Equivalent to
212 specifying ‘
\e[1m@
\e[22m’ before each command line in the makefile.
214 \e[1m-T
\e[4m
\e[22mtracefile
\e[0m
215 When used with the
\e[1m-j
\e[22mflag, append a trace record to
\e[4mtracefile
\e[0m
216 for each job started and completed.
218 \e[1m-t
\e[22mRather than re-building a target as specified in the makefile,
219 create it or update its modification time to make it appear up-
222 \e[1m-V
\e[4m
\e[22mvariable
\e[0m
223 Print the value of
\e[4mvariable
\e[24m. Do not build any targets. Multiple
224 instances of this option may be specified; the variables will be
225 printed one per line, with a blank line for each null or unde‐
226 fined variable. The value printed is extracted from the global
227 scope after all makefiles have been read. By default, the raw
228 variable contents (which may include additional unexpanded vari‐
229 able references) are shown. If
\e[4mvariable
\e[24m contains a ‘$’ then the
230 value will be recursively expanded to its complete resultant text
231 before printing. The expanded value will also be printed if
232 \e[4m.MAKE.EXPAND_VARIABLES
\e[24m is set to true and the
\e[1m-dV
\e[22moption has not
233 been used to override it. Note that loop-local and target-local
234 variables, as well as values taken temporarily by global vari‐
235 ables during makefile processing, are not accessible via this op‐
236 tion. The
\e[1m-dv
\e[22mdebug mode can be used to see these at the cost of
237 generating substantial extraneous output.
239 \e[1m-v
\e[4m
\e[22mvariable
\e[0m
240 Like
\e[1m-V
\e[22mbut the variable is always expanded to its complete
243 \e[1m-W
\e[22mTreat any warnings during makefile parsing as errors.
245 \e[1m-w
\e[22mPrint entering and leaving directory messages, pre and post pro‐
248 \e[1m-X
\e[22mDon't export variables passed on the command line to the environ‐
249 ment individually. Variables passed on the command line are
250 still exported via the
\e[4mMAKEFLAGS
\e[24m environment variable. This op‐
251 tion may be useful on systems which have a small limit on the
252 size of command arguments.
254 \e[4mvariable=value
\e[0m
255 Set the value of the variable
\e[4mvariable
\e[24m to
\e[4mvalue
\e[24m. Normally, all
256 values passed on the command line are also exported to sub-makes
257 in the environment. The
\e[1m-X
\e[22mflag disables this behavior. Vari‐
258 able assignments should follow options for POSIX compatibility
259 but no ordering is enforced.
261 There are seven different types of lines in a makefile: file dependency
262 specifications, shell commands, variable assignments, include statements,
263 conditional directives, for loops, and comments.
265 In general, lines may be continued from one line to the next by ending
266 them with a backslash (‘\’). The trailing newline character and initial
267 whitespace on the following line are compressed into a single space.
269 \e[1mFILE DEPENDENCY SPECIFICATIONS
\e[0m
270 Dependency lines consist of one or more targets, an operator, and zero or
271 more sources. This creates a relationship where the targets “depend” on
272 the sources and are customarily created from them. A target is consid‐
273 ered out-of-date if it does not exist, or if its modification time is
274 less than that of any of its sources. An out-of-date target will be re-
275 created, but not until all sources have been examined and themselves re-
276 created as needed. Three operators may be used:
278 \e[1m:
\e[22mMany dependency lines may name this target but only one may have
279 attached shell commands. All sources named in all dependency lines
280 are considered together, and if needed the attached shell commands
281 are run to create or re-create the target. If
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mis inter‐
282 rupted, the target is removed.
284 \e[1m!
\e[22mThe same, but the target is always re-created whether or not it is
287 \e[1m::
\e[22mAny dependency line may have attached shell commands, but each one
288 is handled independently: its sources are considered and the at‐
289 tached shell commands are run if the target is out of date with re‐
290 spect to (only) those sources. Thus, different groups of the at‐
291 tached shell commands may be run depending on the circumstances.
292 Furthermore, unlike
\e[1m:,
\e[22mfor dependency lines with no sources, the
293 attached shell commands are always run. Also unlike
\e[1m:,
\e[22mthe target
294 will not be removed if
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mis interrupted.
295 All dependency lines mentioning a particular target must use the same op‐
298 Targets and sources may contain the shell wildcard values ‘?’, ‘*’, ‘[]’,
299 and ‘{}’. The values ‘?’, ‘*’, and ‘[]’ may only be used as part of the
300 final component of the target or source, and must be used to describe ex‐
301 isting files. The value ‘{}’ need not necessarily be used to describe
302 existing files. Expansion is in directory order, not alphabetically as
305 \e[1mSHELL COMMANDS
\e[0m
306 Each target may have associated with it one or more lines of shell com‐
307 mands, normally used to create the target. Each of the lines in this
308 script
\e[4mmust
\e[24m be preceded by a tab. (For historical reasons, spaces are
309 not accepted.) While targets can appear in many dependency lines if de‐
310 sired, by default only one of these rules may be followed by a creation
311 script. If the ‘
\e[1m::
\e[22m’ operator is used, however, all rules may include
312 scripts and the scripts are executed in the order found.
314 Each line is treated as a separate shell command, unless the end of line
315 is escaped with a backslash (‘\’) in which case that line and the next
316 are combined. If the first characters of the command are any combination
317 of ‘
\e[1m@
\e[22m’, ‘
\e[1m+
\e[22m’, or ‘
\e[1m-
\e[22m’, the command is treated specially. A ‘
\e[1m@
\e[22m’ causes the
318 command not to be echoed before it is executed. A ‘
\e[1m+
\e[22m’ causes the command
319 to be executed even when
\e[1m-n
\e[22mis given. This is similar to the effect of
320 the .MAKE special source, except that the effect can be limited to a sin‐
321 gle line of a script. A ‘
\e[1m-
\e[22m’ in compatibility mode causes any non-zero
322 exit status of the command line to be ignored.
324 When
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mis run in jobs mode with
\e[1m-j
\e[4m
\e[22mmax_jobs
\e[24m, the entire script for
325 the target is fed to a single instance of the shell. In compatibility
326 (non-jobs) mode, each command is run in a separate process. If the com‐
327 mand contains any shell meta characters (‘#=|^(){};&<>*?[]:$`\\n’) it
328 will be passed to the shell; otherwise
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mwill attempt direct execu‐
329 tion. If a line starts with ‘
\e[1m-
\e[22m’ and the shell has ErrCtl enabled then
330 failure of the command line will be ignored as in compatibility mode.
331 Otherwise ‘
\e[1m-
\e[22m’ affects the entire job; the script will stop at the first
332 command line that fails, but the target will not be deemed to have
335 Makefiles should be written so that the mode of
\e[1mbmake
\e[22moperation does not
336 change their behavior. For example, any command which needs to use “cd”
337 or “chdir” without potentially changing the directory for subsequent com‐
338 mands should be put in parentheses so it executes in a subshell. To
339 force the use of one shell, escape the line breaks so as to make the
340 whole script one command. For example:
342 avoid-chdir-side-effects:
343 @echo Building $@ in `pwd`
344 @(cd ${.CURDIR} && ${MAKE} $@)
347 ensure-one-shell-regardless-of-mode:
348 @echo Building $@ in `pwd`; \
349 (cd ${.CURDIR} && ${MAKE} $@); \
352 Since
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mwill chdir(2) to ‘
\e[4m.OBJDIR
\e[24m’ before executing any targets, each
353 child process starts with that as its current working directory.
355 \e[1mVARIABLE ASSIGNMENTS
\e[0m
356 Variables in make behave much like macros in the C preprocessor.
358 Variable assignments have the form ‘
\e[4mNAME
\e[24m
\e[4mop
\e[24m
\e[4mvalue
\e[24m’, where:
360 \e[4mNAME
\e[24m is a single-word variable name, consisting, by tradition, of all
363 \e[4mop
\e[24m is one of the five variable assignment operators described below,
366 \e[4mvalue
\e[24m is interpreted according to the variable assignment operator.
368 Whitespace around
\e[4mNAME
\e[24m,
\e[4mop
\e[24m and
\e[4mvalue
\e[24m is discarded.
370 \e[1mVariable assignment operators
\e[0m
371 The five operators that can be used to assign values to variables are:
373 \e[1m=
\e[22mAssign the value to the variable. Any previous value is over‐
376 \e[1m+=
\e[22mAppend the value to the current value of the variable, separating
377 them by a single space.
379 \e[1m?=
\e[22mAssign the value to the variable if it is not already defined.
381 \e[1m:=
\e[22mAssign with expansion, i.e. expand the value before assigning it
382 to the variable. Normally, expansion is not done until the vari‐
385 \e[4mNOTE
\e[24m: References to undefined variables are
\e[4mnot
\e[24m expanded. This
386 can cause problems when variable modifiers are used.
388 \e[1m!=
\e[22mExpand the value and pass it to the shell for execution and as‐
389 sign the result to the variable. Any newlines in the result are
390 replaced with spaces.
392 \e[1mExpansion of variables
\e[0m
393 In contexts where variables are expanded, ‘$$’ expands to a single dollar
394 sign. References to variables have the form ‘${
\e[4mname
\e[24m[:
\e[4mmodifiers
\e[24m]}’ or
395 ‘$(
\e[4mname
\e[24m[:
\e[4mmodifiers
\e[24m]’). If the variable name contains only a single char‐
396 acter, the surrounding curly braces or parentheses are not required.
397 This shorter form is not recommended.
399 If the variable name contains a dollar, then the name itself is expanded
400 first. This allows almost arbitrary variable names, however names con‐
401 taining dollar, braces, parentheses, or whitespace are really best
404 If the result of expanding a variable contains a dollar sign (‘$’), the
405 string is expanded again.
407 Variable substitution occurs at four distinct times, depending on where
408 the variable is being used.
410 1. Variables in dependency lines are expanded as the line is read.
412 2. Variables in conditionals are expanded individually, but only as far
413 as necessary to determine the result of the conditional.
415 3. Variables in shell commands are expanded when the shell command is
418 4. “.for” loop index variables are expanded on each loop iteration.
419 Note that other variables are not expanded when composing the body
420 of a loop, so the following example code:
438 Because while ${a} contains “1 2 3” after the loop is executed, ${b}
439 contains “${j} ${j} ${j}” which expands to “3 3 3” since after the
440 loop completes ${j} contains “3”.
442 \e[1mVariable classes
\e[0m
443 The four different classes of variables (in order of increasing prece‐
446 Environment variables
447 Variables defined as part of
\e[1mbmake
\e[22m's environment.
450 Variables defined in the makefile or in included makefiles.
452 Command line variables
453 Variables defined as part of the command line.
456 Variables that are defined specific to a certain target.
458 Local variables can be set on a dependency line, if
459 \e[4m.MAKE.TARGET_LOCAL_VARIABLES
\e[24m is not set to ‘false’. The rest of the line
460 (which will already have had global variables expanded) is the variable
463 COMPILER_WRAPPERS= ccache distcc icecc
465 ${OBJS}: .MAKE.META.CMP_FILTER=${COMPILER_WRAPPERS:S,^,N,}
467 Only the targets ‘${OBJS}’ will be impacted by that filter (in "meta"
468 mode) and simply enabling/disabling any of the compiler wrappers will not
469 render all of those targets out-of-date.
471 \e[4mNOTE
\e[24m: target-local variable assignments behave differently in that;
473 \e[1m+=
\e[22mOnly appends to a previous local assignment for the same
476 \e[1m:=
\e[22mIs redundant with respect to global variables, which have
477 already been expanded.
479 The seven built-in local variables are as follows:
481 \e[4m.ALLSRC
\e[24m The list of all sources for this target; also known as
484 \e[4m.ARCHIVE
\e[24m The name of the archive file; also known as ‘
\e[4m!
\e[24m’.
486 \e[4m.IMPSRC
\e[24m In suffix-transformation rules, the name/path of the
487 source from which the target is to be transformed (the
488 “implied” source); also known as ‘
\e[4m<
\e[24m’. It is not defined
491 \e[4m.MEMBER
\e[24m The name of the archive member; also known as ‘
\e[4m%
\e[24m’.
493 \e[4m.OODATE
\e[24m The list of sources for this target that were deemed out-
494 of-date; also known as ‘
\e[4m?
\e[24m’.
496 \e[4m.PREFIX
\e[24m The file prefix of the target, containing only the file
497 portion, no suffix or preceding directory components;
498 also known as ‘
\e[4m*
\e[24m’. The suffix must be one of the known
499 suffixes declared with
\e[1m.SUFFIXES
\e[22mor it will not be recog‐
502 \e[4m.TARGET
\e[24m The name of the target; also known as ‘
\e[4m@
\e[24m’. For compati‐
503 bility with other makes this is an alias for
\e[1m.ARCHIVE
\e[22min
504 archive member rules.
506 The shorter forms (‘
\e[4m>
\e[24m’, ‘
\e[4m!
\e[24m’, ‘
\e[4m<
\e[24m’, ‘
\e[4m%
\e[24m’, ‘
\e[4m?
\e[24m’, ‘
\e[4m*
\e[24m’, and ‘
\e[4m@
\e[24m’) are permitted
507 for backward compatibility with historical makefiles and legacy POSIX
508 make and are not recommended.
510 Variants of these variables with the punctuation followed immediately by
511 ‘D’ or ‘F’, e.g. ‘
\e[4m$(@D)
\e[24m’, are legacy forms equivalent to using the ‘:H’
512 and ‘:T’ modifiers. These forms are accepted for compatibility with AT&T
513 System V UNIX makefiles and POSIX but are not recommended.
515 Four of the local variables may be used in sources on dependency lines
516 because they expand to the proper value for each target on the line.
517 These variables are ‘
\e[4m.TARGET
\e[24m’, ‘
\e[4m.PREFIX
\e[24m’, ‘
\e[4m.ARCHIVE
\e[24m’, and ‘
\e[4m.MEMBER
\e[24m’.
519 \e[1mAdditional built-in variables
\e[0m
520 In addition,
\e[1mbmake
\e[22msets or knows about the following variables:
522 \e[4m.ALLTARGETS
\e[24m The list of all targets encountered in the Makefile. If
523 evaluated during Makefile parsing, lists only those tar‐
524 gets encountered thus far.
526 \e[4m.CURDIR
\e[24m A path to the directory where
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mwas executed. Refer
527 to the description of ‘PWD’ for more details.
529 \e[4m.INCLUDEDFROMDIR
\e[0m
530 The directory of the file this Makefile was included
533 \e[4m.INCLUDEDFROMFILE
\e[0m
534 The filename of the file this Makefile was included from.
536 MAKE The name that
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mwas executed with (
\e[4margv[0]
\e[24m). For
537 compatibility
\e[1mbmake
\e[22malso sets
\e[4m.MAKE
\e[24m with the same value.
538 The preferred variable to use is the environment variable
539 MAKE because it is more compatible with other versions of
540 \e[1mbmake
\e[22mand cannot be confused with the special target with
543 \e[4m.MAKE.DEPENDFILE
\e[0m
544 Names the makefile (default ‘
\e[4m.depend
\e[24m’) from which gener‐
545 ated dependencies are read.
547 \e[4m.MAKE.EXPAND_VARIABLES
\e[0m
548 A boolean that controls the default behavior of the
\e[1m-V
\e[0m
549 option. If true, variable values printed with
\e[1m-V
\e[22mare
550 fully expanded; if false, the raw variable contents
551 (which may include additional unexpanded variable refer‐
554 \e[4m.MAKE.EXPORTED
\e[24m The list of variables exported by
\e[1mbmake
\e[22m.
556 \e[4m.MAKE.JOBS
\e[24m The argument to the
\e[1m-j
\e[22moption.
558 \e[4m.MAKE.JOB.PREFIX
\e[0m
559 If
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mis run with
\e[1m-j
\e[22m, the output for each target is
560 prefixed with a token ‘--- target ---’ the first part of
561 which can be controlled via
\e[4m.MAKE.JOB.PREFIX
\e[24m. If
562 \e[4m.MAKE.JOB.PREFIX
\e[24m is empty, no token is printed. For ex‐
563 ample, setting
\e[4m.MAKE.JOB.PREFIX
\e[24m to
564 ${.newline}---${.MAKE:T}[${.MAKE.PID}] would produce to‐
565 kens like ‘---make[1234] target ---’ making it easier to
566 track the degree of parallelism being achieved.
568 .MAKE.TARGET_LOCAL_VARIABLES
569 If set to ‘false’, apparent variable assignments in de‐
570 pendency lines are treated as normal sources.
572 MAKEFLAGS The environment variable ‘MAKEFLAGS’ may contain anything
573 that may be specified on
\e[1mbmake
\e[22m's command line. Anything
574 specified on
\e[1mbmake
\e[22m's command line is appended to the
575 ‘MAKEFLAGS’ variable which is then entered into the envi‐
576 ronment for all programs which
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mexecutes.
578 \e[4m.MAKE.LEVEL
\e[24m The recursion depth of
\e[1mbmake
\e[22m. The initial instance of
579 \e[1mbmake
\e[22mwill be 0, and an incremented value is put into the
580 environment to be seen by the next generation. This al‐
581 lows tests like: .if ${.MAKE.LEVEL} == 0 to protect
582 things which should only be evaluated in the initial in‐
583 stance of
\e[1mbmake
\e[22m.
585 \e[4m.MAKE.MAKEFILE_PREFERENCE
\e[0m
586 The ordered list of makefile names (default ‘
\e[4mmakefile
\e[24m’,
587 ‘
\e[4mMakefile
\e[24m’) that
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mwill look for.
589 \e[4m.MAKE.MAKEFILES
\e[0m
590 The list of makefiles read by
\e[1mbmake
\e[22m, which is useful for
591 tracking dependencies. Each makefile is recorded only
592 once, regardless of the number of times read.
594 \e[4m.MAKE.MODE
\e[24m Processed after reading all makefiles. Can affect the
595 mode that
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mruns in. It can contain a number of key‐
598 \e[4mcompat
\e[24m Like
\e[1m-B
\e[22m, puts
\e[1mbmake
\e[22minto "compat"
601 \e[4mmeta
\e[24m Puts
\e[1mbmake
\e[22minto "meta" mode, where
602 meta files are created for each tar‐
603 get to capture the command run, the
604 output generated and if filemon(4)
605 is available, the system calls which
606 are of interest to
\e[1mbmake
\e[22m. The cap‐
607 tured output can be very useful when
610 \e[4mcurdirOk=
\e[24m
\e[4mbf
\e[24m Normally
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mwill not create .meta
611 files in ‘
\e[4m.CURDIR
\e[24m’. This can be
612 overridden by setting
\e[4mbf
\e[24m to a value
613 which represents True.
615 \e[4mmissing-meta=
\e[24m
\e[4mbf
\e[24m If
\e[4mbf
\e[24m is True, then a missing .meta
616 file makes the target out-of-date.
618 \e[4mmissing-filemon=
\e[24m
\e[4mbf
\e[24m If
\e[4mbf
\e[24m is True, then missing filemon
619 data makes the target out-of-date.
621 \e[4mnofilemon
\e[24m Do not use filemon(4).
623 \e[4menv
\e[24m For debugging, it can be useful to
624 include the environment in the .meta
627 \e[4mverbose
\e[24m If in "meta" mode, print a clue
628 about the target being built. This
629 is useful if the build is otherwise
630 running silently. The message
631 printed the value of:
632 \e[4m.MAKE.META.PREFIX
\e[24m.
634 \e[4mignore-cmd
\e[24m Some makefiles have commands which
635 are simply not stable. This keyword
636 causes them to be ignored for deter‐
637 mining whether a target is out of
638 date in "meta" mode. See also
639 \e[1m.NOMETA_CMP
\e[22m.
641 \e[4msilent=
\e[24m
\e[4mbf
\e[24m If
\e[4mbf
\e[24m is True, when a .meta file is
642 created, mark the target
\e[1m.SILENT
\e[22m.
644 \e[4mrandomize-targets
\e[24m In both compat and parallel mode, do
645 not make the targets in the usual
646 order, but instead randomize their
647 order. This mode can be used to de‐
648 tect undeclared dependencies between
651 \e[4m.MAKE.META.BAILIWICK
\e[0m
652 In "meta" mode, provides a list of prefixes which match
653 the directories controlled by
\e[1mbmake
\e[22m. If a file that was
654 generated outside of
\e[4m.OBJDIR
\e[24m but within said bailiwick is
655 missing, the current target is considered out-of-date.
657 \e[4m.MAKE.META.CMP_FILTER
\e[0m
658 In "meta" mode, it can (very rarely!) be useful to filter
659 command lines before comparison. This variable can be
660 set to a set of modifiers that will be applied to each
661 line of the old and new command that differ, if the fil‐
662 tered commands still differ, the target is considered
665 \e[4m.MAKE.META.CREATED
\e[0m
666 In "meta" mode, this variable contains a list of all the
667 meta files updated. If not empty, it can be used to
668 trigger processing of
\e[4m.MAKE.META.FILES
\e[24m.
670 \e[4m.MAKE.META.FILES
\e[0m
671 In "meta" mode, this variable contains a list of all the
672 meta files used (updated or not). This list can be used
673 to process the meta files to extract dependency informa‐
676 \e[4m.MAKE.META.IGNORE_PATHS
\e[0m
677 Provides a list of path prefixes that should be ignored;
678 because the contents are expected to change over time.
679 The default list includes: ‘
\e[4m/dev
\e[24m
\e[4m/etc
\e[24m
\e[4m/proc
\e[24m
\e[4m/tmp
\e[24m
\e[4m/var/run
\e[0m
682 \e[4m.MAKE.META.IGNORE_PATTERNS
\e[0m
683 Provides a list of patterns to match against pathnames.
684 Ignore any that match.
686 \e[4m.MAKE.META.IGNORE_FILTER
\e[0m
687 Provides a list of variable modifiers to apply to each
688 pathname. Ignore if the expansion is an empty string.
690 \e[4m.MAKE.META.PREFIX
\e[0m
691 Defines the message printed for each meta file updated in
692 "meta verbose" mode. The default value is:
693 Building ${.TARGET:H:tA}/${.TARGET:T}
695 \e[4m.MAKEOVERRIDES
\e[24m This variable is used to record the names of variables
696 assigned to on the command line, so that they may be ex‐
697 ported as part of ‘MAKEFLAGS’. This behavior can be dis‐
698 abled by assigning an empty value to ‘
\e[4m.MAKEOVERRIDES
\e[24m’
699 within a makefile. Extra variables can be exported from
700 a makefile by appending their names to ‘
\e[4m.MAKEOVERRIDES
\e[24m’.
701 ‘MAKEFLAGS’ is re-exported whenever ‘
\e[4m.MAKEOVERRIDES
\e[24m’ is
704 \e[4m.MAKE.PATH_FILEMON
\e[0m
705 If
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mwas built with filemon(4) support, this is set
706 to the path of the device node. This allows makefiles to
707 test for this support.
709 \e[4m.MAKE.PID
\e[24m The process-id of
\e[1mbmake
\e[22m.
711 \e[4m.MAKE.PPID
\e[24m The parent process-id of
\e[1mbmake
\e[22m.
713 \e[4m.MAKE.SAVE_DOLLARS
\e[0m
714 value should be a boolean that controls whether ‘$$’ are
715 preserved when doing ‘:=’ assignments. The default is
716 false, for backwards compatibility. Set to true for com‐
717 patability with other makes. If set to false, ‘$$’ be‐
718 comes ‘$’ per normal evaluation rules.
720 \e[4m.MAKE.UID
\e[24m The user-id running
\e[1mbmake
\e[22m.
722 \e[4m.MAKE.GID
\e[24m The group-id running
\e[1mbmake
\e[22m.
724 \e[4mMAKE_PRINT_VAR_ON_ERROR
\e[0m
725 When
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mstops due to an error, it sets ‘
\e[4m.ERROR_TARGET
\e[24m’
726 to the name of the target that failed, ‘
\e[4m.ERROR_CMD
\e[24m’ to
727 the commands of the failed target, and in "meta" mode, it
728 also sets ‘
\e[4m.ERROR_CWD
\e[24m’ to the getcwd(3), and
729 ‘
\e[4m.ERROR_META_FILE
\e[24m’ to the path of the meta file (if any)
730 describing the failed target. It then prints its name
731 and the value of ‘
\e[4m.CURDIR
\e[24m’ as well as the value of any
732 variables named in ‘
\e[4mMAKE_PRINT_VAR_ON_ERROR
\e[24m’.
734 \e[4m.newline
\e[24m This variable is simply assigned a newline character as
735 its value. This allows expansions using the
\e[1m:@
\e[22mmodifier
736 to put a newline between iterations of the loop rather
737 than a space. For example, the printing of
738 ‘
\e[4mMAKE_PRINT_VAR_ON_ERROR
\e[24m’ could be done as
739 ${MAKE_PRINT_VAR_ON_ERROR:@v@$v='${$v}'${.newline}@}.
741 \e[4m.OBJDIR
\e[24m A path to the directory where the targets are built. Its
742 value is determined by trying to chdir(2) to the follow‐
743 ing directories in order and using the first match:
745 1. ${MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX}${.CURDIR}
747 (Only if ‘MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX’ is set in the environ‐
748 ment or on the command line.)
752 (Only if ‘MAKEOBJDIR’ is set in the environment or
753 on the command line.)
755 3. ${.CURDIR}
\e[4m/obj.
\e[24m${MACHINE}
757 4. ${.CURDIR}
\e[4m/obj
\e[0m
759 5.
\e[4m/usr/obj/
\e[24m${.CURDIR}
763 Variable expansion is performed on the value before it's
764 used, so expressions such as
765 ${.CURDIR:S,^/usr/src,/var/obj,}
766 may be used. This is especially useful with
769 ‘
\e[4m.OBJDIR
\e[24m’ may be modified in the makefile via the special
770 target ‘
\e[1m.OBJDIR
\e[22m’. In all cases,
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mwill chdir(2) to
771 the specified directory if it exists, and set ‘
\e[4m.OBJDIR
\e[24m’
772 and ‘PWD’ to that directory before executing any targets.
774 Except in the case of an explicit ‘
\e[1m.OBJDIR
\e[22m’ target,
\e[1mbmake
\e[0m
775 will check that the specified directory is writable and
776 ignore it if not. This check can be skipped by setting
777 the environment variable ‘MAKE_OBJDIR_CHECK_WRITABLE’ to
780 \e[4m.PARSEDIR
\e[24m A path to the directory of the current ‘
\e[4mMakefile
\e[24m’ being
783 \e[4m.PARSEFILE
\e[24m The basename of the current ‘
\e[4mMakefile
\e[24m’ being parsed.
784 This variable and ‘
\e[4m.PARSEDIR
\e[24m’ are both set only while the
785 ‘
\e[4mMakefiles
\e[24m’ are being parsed. If you want to retain
786 their current values, assign them to a variable using as‐
787 signment with expansion ‘
\e[1m:=
\e[22m’.
789 \e[4m.PATH
\e[24m A variable that represents the list of directories that
790 \e[1mbmake
\e[22mwill search for files. The search list should be
791 updated using the target ‘
\e[4m.PATH
\e[24m’ rather than the vari‐
794 PWD Alternate path to the current directory.
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mnormally
795 sets ‘
\e[4m.CURDIR
\e[24m’ to the canonical path given by getcwd(3).
796 However, if the environment variable ‘PWD’ is set and
797 gives a path to the current directory, then
\e[1mbmake
\e[22msets
798 ‘
\e[4m.CURDIR
\e[24m’ to the value of ‘PWD’ instead. This behavior
799 is disabled if ‘MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX’ is set or ‘MAKEOBJDIR’
800 contains a variable transform. ‘PWD’ is set to the value
801 of ‘
\e[4m.OBJDIR
\e[24m’ for all programs which
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mexecutes.
803 .SHELL The pathname of the shell used to run target scripts. It
806 .SUFFIXES The list of known suffixes. It is read-only.
808 .TARGETS The list of targets explicitly specified on the command
811 VPATH Colon-separated (“:”) lists of directories that
\e[1mbmake
\e[0m
812 will search for files. The variable is supported for
813 compatibility with old make programs only, use ‘
\e[4m.PATH
\e[24m’
816 \e[1mVariable modifiers
\e[0m
817 Variable expansion may be modified to select or modify each word of the
818 variable (where a “word” is white-space delimited sequence of charac‐
819 ters). The general format of a variable expansion is as follows:
821 ${variable[:modifier[:...]]}
823 Each modifier begins with a colon, which may be escaped with a backslash
826 A set of modifiers can be specified via a variable, as follows:
828 modifier_variable=modifier[:...]
829 ${variable:${modifier_variable}[:...]}
831 In this case the first modifier in the modifier_variable does not start
832 with a colon, since that must appear in the referencing variable. If any
833 of the modifiers in the modifier_variable contain a dollar sign (‘$’),
834 these must be doubled to avoid early expansion.
836 The supported modifiers are:
838 \e[1m:E
\e[22mReplaces each word in the variable with its suffix.
840 \e[1m:H
\e[22mReplaces each word in the variable with everything but the last com‐
843 \e[1m:M
\e[4m
\e[22mpattern
\e[0m
844 Selects only those words that match
\e[4mpattern
\e[24m. The standard shell
845 wildcard characters (‘*’, ‘?’, and ‘[]’) may be used. The wildcard
846 characters may be escaped with a backslash (‘\’). As a consequence
847 of the way values are split into words, matched, and then joined, a
850 will normalize the inter-word spacing, removing all leading and
851 trailing space, and converting multiple consecutive spaces to single
854 \e[1m:N
\e[4m
\e[22mpattern
\e[0m
855 This is identical to ‘
\e[1m:M
\e[22m’, but selects all words which do not match
858 \e[1m:O
\e[22mOrders every word in variable alphabetically.
860 \e[1m:On
\e[22mOrders every word in variable numerically. A number followed by one
861 of ‘k’, ‘M’ or ‘G’ is multiplied by the appropriate factor (1024
862 (k), 1048576 (M), or 1073741824 (G)). Both upper- and lower-case
863 letters are accepted.
865 \e[1m:Or
\e[22mOrders every word in variable in reverse alphabetical order.
868 Orders every word in variable in reverse numerical order.
870 \e[1m:Ox
\e[22mShuffles the words in variable. The results will be different each
871 time you are referring to the modified variable; use the assignment
872 with expansion ‘
\e[1m:=
\e[22m’ to prevent such behavior. For example,
874 LIST= uno due tre quattro
875 RANDOM_LIST= ${LIST:Ox}
876 STATIC_RANDOM_LIST:= ${LIST:Ox}
879 @echo "${RANDOM_LIST}"
880 @echo "${RANDOM_LIST}"
881 @echo "${STATIC_RANDOM_LIST}"
882 @echo "${STATIC_RANDOM_LIST}"
883 may produce output similar to:
890 \e[1m:Q
\e[22mQuotes every shell meta-character in the variable, so that it can be
891 passed safely to the shell.
893 \e[1m:q
\e[22mQuotes every shell meta-character in the variable, and also doubles
894 ‘$’ characters so that it can be passed safely through recursive in‐
895 vocations of
\e[1mbmake
\e[22m. This is equivalent to: ‘:S/\$/&&/g:Q’.
897 \e[1m:R
\e[22mReplaces each word in the variable with everything but its suffix.
899 \e[1m:range
\e[22m[=
\e[4mcount
\e[24m]
900 The value is an integer sequence representing the words of the orig‐
901 inal value, or the supplied
\e[4mcount
\e[24m.
903 \e[1m:gmtime
\e[22m[=
\e[4mutc
\e[24m]
904 The value is a format string for strftime(3), using gmtime(3). If a
905 \e[4mutc
\e[24m value is not provided or is 0, the current time is used.
908 Computes a 32-bit hash of the value and encode it as hex digits.
910 \e[1m:localtime
\e[22m[=
\e[4mutc
\e[24m]
911 The value is a format string for strftime(3), using localtime(3).
912 If a
\e[4mutc
\e[24m value is not provided or is 0, the current time is used.
914 \e[1m:tA
\e[22mAttempts to convert variable to an absolute path using realpath(3),
915 if that fails, the value is unchanged.
917 \e[1m:tl
\e[22mConverts variable to lower-case letters.
919 \e[1m:ts
\e[4m
\e[22mc
\e[0m
920 Words in the variable are normally separated by a space on expan‐
921 sion. This modifier sets the separator to the character
\e[4mc
\e[24m. If
\e[4mc
\e[24m is
922 omitted, then no separator is used. The common escapes (including
923 octal numeric codes) work as expected.
925 \e[1m:tu
\e[22mConverts variable to upper-case letters.
927 \e[1m:tW
\e[22mCauses the value to be treated as a single word (possibly containing
928 embedded white space). See also ‘
\e[1m:[*]
\e[22m’.
930 \e[1m:tw
\e[22mCauses the value to be treated as a sequence of words delimited by
931 white space. See also ‘
\e[1m:[@]
\e[22m’.
933 \e[1m:S
\e[22m/
\e[4mold_string
\e[24m/
\e[4mnew_string
\e[24m/[
\e[1m1gW
\e[22m]
934 Modifies the first occurrence of
\e[4mold_string
\e[24m in each word of the
935 variable's value, replacing it with
\e[4mnew_string
\e[24m. If a ‘g’ is ap‐
936 pended to the last delimiter of the pattern, all occurrences in each
937 word are replaced. If a ‘1’ is appended to the last delimiter of
938 the pattern, only the first occurrence is affected. If a ‘W’ is ap‐
939 pended to the last delimiter of the pattern, then the value is
940 treated as a single word (possibly containing embedded white space).
941 If
\e[4mold_string
\e[24m begins with a caret (‘^’),
\e[4mold_string
\e[24m is anchored at
942 the beginning of each word. If
\e[4mold_string
\e[24m ends with a dollar sign
943 (‘$’), it is anchored at the end of each word. Inside
\e[4mnew_string
\e[24m,
944 an ampersand (‘&’) is replaced by
\e[4mold_string
\e[24m (without any ‘^’ or
945 ‘$’). Any character may be used as a delimiter for the parts of the
946 modifier string. The anchoring, ampersand and delimiter characters
947 may be escaped with a backslash (‘\’).
949 Variable expansion occurs in the normal fashion inside both
950 \e[4mold_string
\e[24m and
\e[4mnew_string
\e[24m with the single exception that a backslash
951 is used to prevent the expansion of a dollar sign (‘$’), not a pre‐
952 ceding dollar sign as is usual.
954 \e[1m:C
\e[22m/
\e[4mpattern
\e[24m/
\e[4mreplacement
\e[24m/[
\e[1m1gW
\e[22m]
955 The
\e[1m:C
\e[22mmodifier is just like the
\e[1m:S
\e[22mmodifier except that the old and
956 new strings, instead of being simple strings, are an extended regu‐
957 lar expression (see regex(3)) string
\e[4mpattern
\e[24m and an ed(1)-style
958 string
\e[4mreplacement
\e[24m. Normally, the first occurrence of the pattern
959 \e[4mpattern
\e[24m in each word of the value is substituted with
\e[4mreplacement
\e[24m.
960 The ‘1’ modifier causes the substitution to apply to at most one
961 word; the ‘g’ modifier causes the substitution to apply to as many
962 instances of the search pattern
\e[4mpattern
\e[24m as occur in the word or
963 words it is found in; the ‘W’ modifier causes the value to be
964 treated as a single word (possibly containing embedded white space).
966 As for the
\e[1m:S
\e[22mmodifier, the
\e[4mpattern
\e[24m and
\e[4mreplacement
\e[24m are subjected to
967 variable expansion before being parsed as regular expressions.
969 \e[1m:T
\e[22mReplaces each word in the variable with its last path component.
971 \e[1m:u
\e[22mRemoves adjacent duplicate words (like uniq(1)).
973 \e[1m:?
\e[4m
\e[22mtrue_string
\e[24m
\e[1m:
\e[4m
\e[22mfalse_string
\e[0m
974 If the variable name (not its value), when parsed as a .if condi‐
975 tional expression, evaluates to true, return as its value the
976 \e[4mtrue_string
\e[24m, otherwise return the
\e[4mfalse_string
\e[24m. Since the variable
977 name is used as the expression, :? must be the first modifier after
978 the variable name itself - which will, of course, usually contain
979 variable expansions. A common error is trying to use expressions
981 ${NUMBERS:M42:?match:no}
982 which actually tests defined(NUMBERS), to determine if any words
983 match "42" you need to use something like:
984 ${"${NUMBERS:M42}" != "":?match:no}.
986 \e[1m:
\e[4m
\e[22mold_string
\e[24m
\e[1m=
\e[4m
\e[22mnew_string
\e[0m
987 This is the AT&T System V UNIX style variable substitution. It must
988 be the last modifier specified. If
\e[4mold_string
\e[24m or
\e[4mnew_string
\e[24m do not
989 contain the pattern matching character
\e[4m%
\e[24m then it is assumed that
990 they are anchored at the end of each word, so only suffixes or en‐
991 tire words may be replaced. Otherwise
\e[4m%
\e[24m is the substring of
992 \e[4mold_string
\e[24m to be replaced in
\e[4mnew_string
\e[24m. If only
\e[4mold_string
\e[24m con‐
993 tains the pattern matching character
\e[4m%
\e[24m, and
\e[4mold_string
\e[24m matches, then
994 the result is the
\e[4mnew_string
\e[24m. If only the
\e[4mnew_string
\e[24m contains the
995 pattern matching character
\e[4m%
\e[24m, then it is not treated specially and
996 it is printed as a literal
\e[4m%
\e[24m on match. If there is more than one
997 pattern matching character (
\e[4m%
\e[24m) in either the
\e[4mnew_string
\e[24m or
998 \e[4mold_string
\e[24m, only the first instance is treated specially (as the
999 pattern character); all subsequent instances are treated as regular
1002 Variable expansion occurs in the normal fashion inside both
1003 \e[4mold_string
\e[24m and
\e[4mnew_string
\e[24m with the single exception that a backslash
1004 is used to prevent the expansion of a dollar sign (‘$’), not a pre‐
1005 ceding dollar sign as is usual.
1007 \e[1m:@
\e[4m
\e[22mtemp
\e[24m
\e[1m@
\e[4m
\e[22mstring
\e[24m
\e[1m@
\e[0m
1008 This is the loop expansion mechanism from the OSF Development Envi‐
1009 ronment (ODE) make. Unlike
\e[1m.for
\e[22mloops, expansion occurs at the time
1010 of reference. Assigns
\e[4mtemp
\e[24m to each word in the variable and evalu‐
1011 ates
\e[4mstring
\e[24m. The ODE convention is that
\e[4mtemp
\e[24m should start and end
1012 with a period. For example.
1013 ${LINKS:@.LINK.@${LN} ${TARGET} ${.LINK.}@}
1015 However a single character variable is often more readable:
1016 ${MAKE_PRINT_VAR_ON_ERROR:@v@$v='${$v}'${.newline}@}
1018 \e[1m:_
\e[22m[
\e[1m=
\e[4m
\e[22mvar
\e[24m]
1019 Saves the current variable value in ‘$_’ or the named
\e[4mvar
\e[24m for later
1020 reference. Example usage:
1022 M_cmpv.units = 1 1000 1000000
1023 M_cmpv = S,., ,g:_:range:@i@+ $${_:[-$$i]} \
1024 \* $${M_cmpv.units:[$$i]}@:S,^,expr 0 ,1:sh
1026 .if ${VERSION:${M_cmpv}} < ${3.1.12:L:${M_cmpv}}
1028 Here ‘$_’ is used to save the result of the ‘:S’ modifier which is
1029 later referenced using the index values from ‘:range’.
1031 \e[1m:U
\e[4m
\e[22mnewval
\e[0m
1032 If the variable is undefined,
\e[4mnewval
\e[24m is the value. If the variable
1033 is defined, the existing value is returned. This is another ODE
1034 make feature. It is handy for setting per-target CFLAGS for in‐
1036 ${_${.TARGET:T}_CFLAGS:U${DEF_CFLAGS}}
1037 If a value is only required if the variable is undefined, use:
1040 \e[1m:D
\e[4m
\e[22mnewval
\e[0m
1041 If the variable is defined,
\e[4mnewval
\e[24m is the value.
1043 \e[1m:L
\e[22mThe name of the variable is the value.
1045 \e[1m:P
\e[22mThe path of the node which has the same name as the variable is the
1046 value. If no such node exists or its path is null, then the name of
1047 the variable is used. In order for this modifier to work, the name
1048 (node) must at least have appeared on the rhs of a dependency.
1050 \e[1m:!
\e[4m
\e[22mcmd
\e[24m
\e[1m!
\e[0m
1051 The output of running
\e[4mcmd
\e[24m is the value.
1053 \e[1m:sh
\e[22mIf the variable is non-empty it is run as a command and the output
1054 becomes the new value.
1056 \e[1m::=
\e[4m
\e[22mstr
\e[0m
1057 The variable is assigned the value
\e[4mstr
\e[24m after substitution. This
1058 modifier and its variations are useful in obscure situations such as
1059 wanting to set a variable when shell commands are being parsed.
1060 These assignment modifiers always expand to nothing, so if appearing
1061 in a rule line by themselves should be preceded with something to
1062 keep
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mhappy.
1064 The ‘
\e[1m::
\e[22m’ helps avoid false matches with the AT&T System V UNIX style
1065 \e[1m:=
\e[22mmodifier and since substitution always occurs the
\e[1m::=
\e[22mform is
1066 vaguely appropriate.
1068 \e[1m::?=
\e[4m
\e[22mstr
\e[0m
1069 As for
\e[1m::=
\e[22mbut only if the variable does not already have a value.
1071 \e[1m::+=
\e[4m
\e[22mstr
\e[0m
1072 Append
\e[4mstr
\e[24m to the variable.
1074 \e[1m::!=
\e[4m
\e[22mcmd
\e[0m
1075 Assign the output of
\e[4mcmd
\e[24m to the variable.
1077 \e[1m:[
\e[4m
\e[22mrange
\e[24m
\e[1m]
\e[0m
1078 Selects one or more words from the value, or performs other opera‐
1079 tions related to the way in which the value is divided into words.
1081 Ordinarily, a value is treated as a sequence of words delimited by
1082 white space. Some modifiers suppress this behavior, causing a value
1083 to be treated as a single word (possibly containing embedded white
1084 space). An empty value, or a value that consists entirely of white-
1085 space, is treated as a single word. For the purposes of the ‘
\e[1m:[]
\e[22m’
1086 modifier, the words are indexed both forwards using positive inte‐
1087 gers (where index 1 represents the first word), and backwards using
1088 negative integers (where index -1 represents the last word).
1090 The
\e[4mrange
\e[24m is subjected to variable expansion, and the expanded re‐
1091 sult is then interpreted as follows:
1093 \e[4mindex
\e[24m Selects a single word from the value.
1095 \e[4mstart
\e[24m
\e[1m..
\e[4m
\e[22mend
\e[0m
1096 Selects all words from
\e[4mstart
\e[24m to
\e[4mend
\e[24m, inclusive. For example,
1097 ‘
\e[1m:[2..-1]
\e[22m’ selects all words from the second word to the last
1098 word. If
\e[4mstart
\e[24m is greater than
\e[4mend
\e[24m, then the words are out‐
1099 put in reverse order. For example, ‘
\e[1m:[-1..1]
\e[22m’ selects all
1100 the words from last to first. If the list is already or‐
1101 dered, then this effectively reverses the list, but it is
1102 more efficient to use ‘
\e[1m:Or
\e[22m’ instead of ‘
\e[1m:O:[-1..1]
\e[22m’.
1104 \e[1m*
\e[22mCauses subsequent modifiers to treat the value as a single
1105 word (possibly containing embedded white space). Analogous
1106 to the effect of "$*" in Bourne shell.
1108 0 Means the same as ‘
\e[1m:[*]
\e[22m’.
1110 \e[1m@
\e[22mCauses subsequent modifiers to treat the value as a sequence
1111 of words delimited by white space. Analogous to the effect
1112 of "$@" in Bourne shell.
1114 \e[1m#
\e[22mReturns the number of words in the value.
1116 \e[1mINCLUDE STATEMENTS, CONDITIONALS AND FOR LOOPS
\e[0m
1117 Makefile inclusion, conditional structures and for loops reminiscent of
1118 the C programming language are provided in
\e[1mbmake
\e[22m. All such structures
1119 are identified by a line beginning with a single dot (‘.’) character.
1120 Files are included with either
\e[1m.include <
\e[4m
\e[22mfile
\e[24m
\e[1m>
\e[22mor
\e[1m.include "
\e[4m
\e[22mfile
\e[24m
\e[1m"
\e[22m. Vari‐
1121 ables between the angle brackets or double quotes are expanded to form
1122 the file name. If angle brackets are used, the included makefile is ex‐
1123 pected to be in the system makefile directory. If double quotes are
1124 used, the including makefile's directory and any directories specified
1125 using the
\e[1m-I
\e[22moption are searched before the system makefile directory.
1126 For compatibility with other versions of
\e[1mbmake
\e[22m‘include file ...’ is also
1129 If the include statement is written as
\e[1m.-include
\e[22mor as
\e[1m.sinclude
\e[22mthen er‐
1130 rors locating and/or opening include files are ignored.
1132 If the include statement is written as
\e[1m.dinclude
\e[22mnot only are errors lo‐
1133 cating and/or opening include files ignored, but stale dependencies
1134 within the included file will be ignored just like
\e[4m.MAKE.DEPENDFILE
\e[24m.
1136 Conditional expressions are also preceded by a single dot as the first
1137 character of a line. The possible conditionals are as follows:
1139 \e[1m.error
\e[4m
\e[22mmessage
\e[0m
1140 The message is printed along with the name of the makefile and
1141 line number, then
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mwill exit immediately.
1143 \e[1m.export
\e[4m
\e[22mvariable
\e[24m
\e[4m...
\e[0m
1144 Export the specified global variable. If no variable list is
1145 provided, all globals are exported except for internal variables
1146 (those that start with ‘.’). This is not affected by the
\e[1m-X
\e[0m
1147 flag, so should be used with caution. For compatibility with
1148 other
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mprograms ‘export variable=value’ is also accepted.
1150 Appending a variable name to
\e[4m.MAKE.EXPORTED
\e[24m is equivalent to ex‐
1153 \e[1m.export-env
\e[4m
\e[22mvariable
\e[24m
\e[4m...
\e[0m
1154 The same as ‘.export’, except that the variable is not appended
1155 to
\e[4m.MAKE.EXPORTED
\e[24m. This allows exporting a value to the environ‐
1156 ment which is different from that used by
\e[1mbmake
\e[22minternally.
1158 \e[1m.export-literal
\e[4m
\e[22mvariable
\e[24m
\e[4m...
\e[0m
1159 The same as ‘.export-env’, except that variables in the value are
1162 \e[1m.info
\e[4m
\e[22mmessage
\e[0m
1163 The message is printed along with the name of the makefile and
1166 \e[1m.undef
\e[4m
\e[22mvariable
\e[24m
\e[4m...
\e[0m
1167 Un-define the specified global variables. Only global variables
1170 \e[1m.unexport
\e[4m
\e[22mvariable
\e[24m
\e[4m...
\e[0m
1171 The opposite of ‘.export’. The specified global
\e[4mvariable
\e[24m will be
1172 removed from
\e[4m.MAKE.EXPORTED
\e[24m. If no variable list is provided,
1173 all globals are unexported, and
\e[4m.MAKE.EXPORTED
\e[24m deleted.
1175 \e[1m.unexport-env
\e[0m
1176 Unexport all globals previously exported and clear the environ‐
1177 ment inherited from the parent. This operation will cause a mem‐
1178 ory leak of the original environment, so should be used spar‐
1179 ingly. Testing for
\e[4m.MAKE.LEVEL
\e[24m being 0, would make sense. Also
1180 note that any variables which originated in the parent environ‐
1181 ment should be explicitly preserved if desired. For example:
1183 .if ${.MAKE.LEVEL} == 0
1189 Would result in an environment containing only ‘PATH’, which is
1190 the minimal useful environment. Actually ‘.MAKE.LEVEL’ will also
1191 be pushed into the new environment.
1193 \e[1m.warning
\e[4m
\e[22mmessage
\e[0m
1194 The message prefixed by ‘
\e[4mwarning:
\e[24m’ is printed along with the name
1195 of the makefile and line number.
1197 \e[1m.if
\e[22m[!]
\e[4mexpression
\e[24m [
\e[4moperator
\e[24m
\e[4mexpression
\e[24m
\e[4m...
\e[24m]
1198 Test the value of an expression.
1200 \e[1m.ifdef
\e[22m[!]
\e[4mvariable
\e[24m [
\e[4moperator
\e[24m
\e[4mvariable
\e[24m
\e[4m...
\e[24m]
1201 Test the value of a variable.
1203 \e[1m.ifndef
\e[22m[!]
\e[4mvariable
\e[24m [
\e[4moperator
\e[24m
\e[4mvariable
\e[24m
\e[4m...
\e[24m]
1204 Test the value of a variable.
1206 \e[1m.ifmake
\e[22m[!]
\e[4mtarget
\e[24m [
\e[4moperator
\e[24m
\e[4mtarget
\e[24m
\e[4m...
\e[24m]
1207 Test the target being built.
1209 \e[1m.ifnmake
\e[22m[!]
\e[4mtarget
\e[24m [
\e[4moperator
\e[24m
\e[4mtarget
\e[24m
\e[4m...
\e[24m]
1210 Test the target being built.
1212 \e[1m.else
\e[22mReverse the sense of the last conditional.
1214 \e[1m.elif
\e[22m[!]
\e[4mexpression
\e[24m [
\e[4moperator
\e[24m
\e[4mexpression
\e[24m
\e[4m...
\e[24m]
1215 A combination of ‘
\e[1m.else
\e[22m’ followed by ‘
\e[1m.if
\e[22m’.
1217 \e[1m.elifdef
\e[22m[!]
\e[4mvariable
\e[24m [
\e[4moperator
\e[24m
\e[4mvariable
\e[24m
\e[4m...
\e[24m]
1218 A combination of ‘
\e[1m.else
\e[22m’ followed by ‘
\e[1m.ifdef
\e[22m’.
1220 \e[1m.elifndef
\e[22m[!]
\e[4mvariable
\e[24m [
\e[4moperator
\e[24m
\e[4mvariable
\e[24m
\e[4m...
\e[24m]
1221 A combination of ‘
\e[1m.else
\e[22m’ followed by ‘
\e[1m.ifndef
\e[22m’.
1223 \e[1m.elifmake
\e[22m[!]
\e[4mtarget
\e[24m [
\e[4moperator
\e[24m
\e[4mtarget
\e[24m
\e[4m...
\e[24m]
1224 A combination of ‘
\e[1m.else
\e[22m’ followed by ‘
\e[1m.ifmake
\e[22m’.
1226 \e[1m.elifnmake
\e[22m[!]
\e[4mtarget
\e[24m [
\e[4moperator
\e[24m
\e[4mtarget
\e[24m
\e[4m...
\e[24m]
1227 A combination of ‘
\e[1m.else
\e[22m’ followed by ‘
\e[1m.ifnmake
\e[22m’.
1229 \e[1m.endif
\e[22mEnd the body of the conditional.
1231 The
\e[4moperator
\e[24m may be any one of the following:
1233 \e[1m||
\e[22mLogical OR.
1235 \e[1m&&
\e[22mLogical AND; of higher precedence than “||”.
1237 As in C,
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mwill only evaluate a conditional as far as is necessary to
1238 determine its value. Parentheses may be used to change the order of
1239 evaluation. The boolean operator ‘
\e[1m!
\e[22m’ may be used to logically negate an
1240 entire conditional. It is of higher precedence than ‘
\e[1m&&
\e[22m’.
1242 The value of
\e[4mexpression
\e[24m may be any of the following:
1244 \e[1mdefined
\e[22mTakes a variable name as an argument and evaluates to true if
1245 the variable has been defined.
1247 \e[1mmake
\e[22mTakes a target name as an argument and evaluates to true if the
1248 target was specified as part of
\e[1mbmake
\e[22m's command line or was de‐
1249 clared the default target (either implicitly or explicitly, see
1250 \e[4m.MAIN
\e[24m) before the line containing the conditional.
1252 \e[1mempty
\e[22mTakes a variable, with possible modifiers, and evaluates to true
1253 if the expansion of the variable would result in an empty
1256 \e[1mexists
\e[22mTakes a file name as an argument and evaluates to true if the
1257 file exists. The file is searched for on the system search path
1258 (see
\e[4m.PATH
\e[24m).
1260 \e[1mtarget
\e[22mTakes a target name as an argument and evaluates to true if the
1261 target has been defined.
1264 Takes a target name as an argument and evaluates to true if the
1265 target has been defined and has commands associated with it.
1267 \e[4mExpression
\e[24m may also be an arithmetic or string comparison. Variable ex‐
1268 pansion is performed on both sides of the comparison, after which the nu‐
1269 merical values are compared. A value is interpreted as hexadecimal if it
1270 is preceded by 0x, otherwise it is decimal; octal numbers are not sup‐
1271 ported. The standard C relational operators are all supported. If after
1272 variable expansion, either the left or right hand side of a ‘
\e[1m==
\e[22m’ or ‘
\e[1m!=
\e[22m’
1273 operator is not a numerical value, then string comparison is performed
1274 between the expanded variables. If no relational operator is given, it
1275 is assumed that the expanded variable is being compared against 0, or an
1276 empty string in the case of a string comparison.
1278 When
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mis evaluating one of these conditional expressions, and it en‐
1279 counters a (white-space separated) word it doesn't recognize, either the
1280 “make” or “defined” expression is applied to it, depending on the form of
1281 the conditional. If the form is ‘
\e[1m.ifdef
\e[22m’, ‘
\e[1m.ifndef
\e[22m’, or ‘
\e[1m.if
\e[22m’ the
1282 “defined” expression is applied. Similarly, if the form is ‘
\e[1m.ifmake
\e[22m’ or
1283 ‘
\e[1m.ifnmake
\e[22m’, the “make” expression is applied.
1285 If the conditional evaluates to true the parsing of the makefile contin‐
1286 ues as before. If it evaluates to false, the following lines are
1287 skipped. In both cases this continues until a ‘
\e[1m.else
\e[22m’ or ‘
\e[1m.endif
\e[22m’ is
1290 For loops are typically used to apply a set of rules to a list of files.
1291 The syntax of a for loop is:
1293 \e[1m.for
\e[4m
\e[22mvariable
\e[24m [
\e[4mvariable
\e[24m
\e[4m...
\e[24m]
\e[1min
\e[4m
\e[22mexpression
\e[0m
1297 After the for
\e[1mexpression
\e[22mis evaluated, it is split into words. On each
1298 iteration of the loop, one word is taken and assigned to each
\e[1mvariable
\e[22m,
1299 in order, and these
\e[1mvariables
\e[22mare substituted into the
\e[1mmake-lines
\e[22minside
1300 the body of the for loop. The number of words must come out even; that
1301 is, if there are three iteration variables, the number of words provided
1302 must be a multiple of three.
1305 Comments begin with a hash (‘#’) character, anywhere but in a shell com‐
1306 mand line, and continue to the end of an unescaped new line.
1308 \e[1mSPECIAL SOURCES (ATTRIBUTES)
\e[0m
1309 \e[1m.EXEC
\e[22mTarget is never out of date, but always execute commands any‐
1312 \e[1m.IGNORE
\e[22mIgnore any errors from the commands associated with this tar‐
1313 get, exactly as if they all were preceded by a dash (‘-’).
1315 \e[1m.MADE
\e[22mMark all sources of this target as being up-to-date.
1317 \e[1m.MAKE
\e[22mExecute the commands associated with this target even if the
\e[1m-n
\e[0m
1318 or
\e[1m-t
\e[22moptions were specified. Normally used to mark recursive
1321 \e[1m.META
\e[22mCreate a meta file for the target, even if it is flagged as
1322 \e[1m.PHONY
\e[22m,
\e[1m.MAKE
\e[22m, or
\e[1m.SPECIAL
\e[22m. Usage in conjunction with
\e[1m.MAKE
\e[22mis
1323 the most likely case. In "meta" mode, the target is out-of-
1324 date if the meta file is missing.
1326 \e[1m.NOMETA
\e[22mDo not create a meta file for the target. Meta files are also
1327 not created for
\e[1m.PHONY
\e[22m,
\e[1m.MAKE
\e[22m, or
\e[1m.SPECIAL
\e[22mtargets.
1329 \e[1m.NOMETA_CMP
\e[0m
1330 Ignore differences in commands when deciding if target is out
1331 of date. This is useful if the command contains a value which
1332 always changes. If the number of commands change, though, the
1333 target will still be out of date. The same effect applies to
1334 any command line that uses the variable
\e[4m.OODATE
\e[24m, which can be
1335 used for that purpose even when not otherwise needed or de‐
1339 skip-compare-for-some:
1340 @echo this will be compared
1341 @echo this will not ${.OODATE:M.NOMETA_CMP}
1342 @echo this will also be compared
1344 The
\e[1m:M
\e[22mpattern suppresses any expansion of the unwanted vari‐
1347 \e[1m.NOPATH
\e[22mDo not search for the target in the directories specified by
1350 \e[1m.NOTMAIN
\e[22mNormally
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mselects the first target it encounters as the
1351 default target to be built if no target was specified. This
1352 source prevents this target from being selected.
1355 If a target is marked with this attribute and
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mcan't fig‐
1356 ure out how to create it, it will ignore this fact and assume
1357 the file isn't needed or already exists.
1359 \e[1m.PHONY
\e[22mThe target does not correspond to an actual file; it is always
1360 considered to be out of date, and will not be created with the
1361 \e[1m-t
\e[22moption. Suffix-transformation rules are not applied to
1362 \e[1m.PHONY
\e[22mtargets.
1365 When
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mis interrupted, it normally removes any partially
1366 made targets. This source prevents the target from being re‐
1369 \e[1m.RECURSIVE
\e[0m
1370 Synonym for
\e[1m.MAKE
\e[22m.
1372 \e[1m.SILENT
\e[22mDo not echo any of the commands associated with this target,
1373 exactly as if they all were preceded by an at sign (‘@’).
1375 \e[1m.USE
\e[22mTurn the target into
\e[1mbmake
\e[22m's version of a macro. When the tar‐
1376 get is used as a source for another target, the other target
1377 acquires the commands, sources, and attributes (except for
1378 \e[1m.USE
\e[22m) of the source. If the target already has commands, the
1379 \e[1m.USE
\e[22mtarget's commands are appended to them.
1381 \e[1m.USEBEFORE
\e[0m
1382 Exactly like
\e[1m.USE
\e[22m, but prepend the
\e[1m.USEBEFORE
\e[22mtarget commands
1385 \e[1m.WAIT
\e[22mIf
\e[1m.WAIT
\e[22mappears in a dependency line, the sources that precede
1386 it are made before the sources that succeed it in the line.
1387 Since the dependents of files are not made until the file it‐
1388 self could be made, this also stops the dependents being built
1389 unless they are needed for another branch of the dependency
1401 the output is always ‘a’, ‘b1’, ‘b’, ‘x’.
1402 The ordering imposed by
\e[1m.WAIT
\e[22mis only relevant for parallel
1405 \e[1mSPECIAL TARGETS
\e[0m
1406 Special targets may not be included with other targets, i.e. they must be
1407 the only target specified.
1409 \e[1m.BEGIN
\e[22mAny command lines attached to this target are executed before
1410 anything else is done.
1413 This is sort of a
\e[1m.USE
\e[22mrule for any target (that was used only
1414 as a source) that
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mcan't figure out any other way to cre‐
1415 ate. Only the shell script is used. The
\e[1m.IMPSRC
\e[22mvariable of a
1416 target that inherits
\e[1m.DEFAULT
\e[22m's commands is set to the target's
1419 \e[1m.DELETE_ON_ERROR
\e[0m
1420 If this target is present in the makefile, it globally causes
1421 make to delete targets whose commands fail. (By default, only
1422 targets whose commands are interrupted during execution are
1423 deleted. This is the historical behavior.) This setting can be
1424 used to help prevent half-finished or malformed targets from be‐
1425 ing left around and corrupting future rebuilds.
1427 \e[1m.END
\e[22mAny command lines attached to this target are executed after ev‐
1428 erything else is done.
1430 \e[1m.ERROR
\e[22mAny command lines attached to this target are executed when an‐
1431 other target fails. The
\e[1m.ERROR_TARGET
\e[22mvariable is set to the
1432 target that failed. See also
\e[1mMAKE_PRINT_VAR_ON_ERROR
\e[22m.
1434 \e[1m.IGNORE
\e[22mMark each of the sources with the
\e[1m.IGNORE
\e[22mattribute. If no
1435 sources are specified, this is the equivalent of specifying the
1436 \e[1m-i
\e[22moption.
1438 \e[1m.INTERRUPT
\e[0m
1439 If
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mis interrupted, the commands for this target will be
1442 \e[1m.MAIN
\e[22mIf no target is specified when
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mis invoked, this target
1445 \e[1m.MAKEFLAGS
\e[0m
1446 This target provides a way to specify flags for
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mwhen the
1447 makefile is used. The flags are as if typed to the shell,
1448 though the
\e[1m-f
\e[22moption will have no effect.
1450 \e[1m.NOPATH
\e[22mApply the
\e[1m.NOPATH
\e[22mattribute to any specified sources.
1452 \e[1m.NOTPARALLEL
\e[0m
1453 Disable parallel mode.
1455 \e[1m.NO_PARALLEL
\e[0m
1456 Synonym for
\e[1m.NOTPARALLEL
\e[22m, for compatibility with other pmake
1459 \e[1m.OBJDIR
\e[22mThe source is a new value for ‘
\e[4m.OBJDIR
\e[24m’. If it exists,
\e[1mbmake
\e[0m
1460 will chdir(2) to it and update the value of ‘
\e[4m.OBJDIR
\e[24m’.
1462 \e[1m.ORDER
\e[22mIn parallel mode, the named targets are made in sequence. This
1463 ordering does not add targets to the list of targets to be made.
1465 Since the dependents of a target do not get built until the tar‐
1466 get itself could be built, unless ‘a’ is built by another part
1467 of the dependency graph, the following is a dependency loop:
1472 \e[1m.PATH
\e[22mThe sources are directories which are to be searched for files
1473 not found in the current directory. If no sources are speci‐
1474 fied, any previously specified directories are deleted. If the
1475 source is the special
\e[1m.DOTLAST
\e[22mtarget, then the current working
1476 directory is searched last.
1478 \e[1m.PATH.
\e[4m
\e[22msuffix
\e[0m
1479 Like
\e[1m.PATH
\e[22mbut applies only to files with a particular suffix.
1480 The suffix must have been previously declared with
\e[1m.SUFFIXES
\e[22m.
1482 \e[1m.PHONY
\e[22mApply the
\e[1m.PHONY
\e[22mattribute to any specified sources.
1484 \e[1m.POSIX
\e[22mIf this is the first non-comment line in the main makefile, the
1485 variable
\e[4m%POSIX
\e[24m is set to the value ‘1003.2’ and the makefile
1486 ‘<posix.mk>’ is included if it exists, to provide POSIX-compati‐
1487 ble default rules. If
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mis run with the
\e[1m-r
\e[22mflag, then only
1488 ‘posix.mk’ will contribute to the default rules.
1491 Apply the
\e[1m.PRECIOUS
\e[22mattribute to any specified sources. If no
1492 sources are specified, the
\e[1m.PRECIOUS
\e[22mattribute is applied to ev‐
1493 ery target in the file.
1495 \e[1m.SHELL
\e[22mSets the shell that
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mwill use to execute commands. The
1496 sources are a set of
\e[4mfield=value
\e[24m pairs.
1498 \e[4mname
\e[24m This is the minimal specification, used to select
1499 one of the built-in shell specs;
\e[4msh
\e[24m,
\e[4mksh
\e[24m, and
\e[4mcsh
\e[24m.
1501 \e[4mpath
\e[24m Specifies the path to the shell.
1503 \e[4mhasErrCtl
\e[24m Indicates whether the shell supports exit on error.
1505 \e[4mcheck
\e[24m The command to turn on error checking.
1507 \e[4mignore
\e[24m The command to disable error checking.
1509 \e[4mecho
\e[24m The command to turn on echoing of commands executed.
1511 \e[4mquiet
\e[24m The command to turn off echoing of commands exe‐
1514 \e[4mfilter
\e[24m The output to filter after issuing the
\e[4mquiet
\e[24m com‐
1515 mand. It is typically identical to
\e[4mquiet
\e[24m.
1517 \e[4merrFlag
\e[24m The flag to pass the shell to enable error checking.
1519 \e[4mechoFlag
\e[24m The flag to pass the shell to enable command echo‐
1522 \e[4mnewline
\e[24m The string literal to pass the shell that results in
1523 a single newline character when used outside of any
1527 .SHELL: name=ksh path=/bin/ksh hasErrCtl=true \
1528 check="set -e" ignore="set +e" \
1529 echo="set -v" quiet="set +v" filter="set +v" \
1530 echoFlag=v errFlag=e newline="'\n'"
1532 \e[1m.SILENT
\e[22mApply the
\e[1m.SILENT
\e[22mattribute to any specified sources. If no
1533 sources are specified, the
\e[1m.SILENT
\e[22mattribute is applied to every
1534 command in the file.
1536 \e[1m.STALE
\e[22mThis target gets run when a dependency file contains stale en‐
1537 tries, having
\e[4m.ALLSRC
\e[24m set to the name of that dependency file.
1540 Each source specifies a suffix to
\e[1mbmake
\e[22m. If no sources are
1541 specified, any previously specified suffixes are deleted. It
1542 allows the creation of suffix-transformation rules.
1548 cc -o ${.TARGET} -c ${.IMPSRC}
1550 \e[1mENVIRONMENT
\e[0m
1551 \e[1mbmake
\e[22muses the following environment variables, if they exist: MACHINE,
1552 MACHINE_ARCH, MAKE, MAKEFLAGS, MAKEOBJDIR, MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX, MAKESYSPATH,
1555 MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX and MAKEOBJDIR may only be set in the environment or on
1556 the command line to
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mand not as makefile variables; see the descrip‐
1557 tion of ‘
\e[4m.OBJDIR
\e[24m’ for more details.
1560 .depend list of dependencies
1561 Makefile list of dependencies
1562 makefile list of dependencies
1563 sys.mk system makefile
1564 /usr/share/mk system makefile directory
1566 \e[1mCOMPATIBILITY
\e[0m
1567 The basic make syntax is compatible between different versions of make;
1568 however the special variables, variable modifiers and conditionals are
1571 \e[1mOlder versions
\e[0m
1572 An incomplete list of changes in older versions of
\e[1mbmake
\e[22m:
1574 The way that .for loop variables are substituted changed after NetBSD 5.0
1575 so that they still appear to be variable expansions. In particular this
1576 stops them being treated as syntax, and removes some obscure problems us‐
1577 ing them in .if statements.
1579 The way that parallel makes are scheduled changed in NetBSD 4.0 so that
1580 .ORDER and .WAIT apply recursively to the dependent nodes. The algo‐
1581 rithms used may change again in the future.
1583 \e[1mOther make dialects
\e[0m
1584 Other make dialects (GNU make, SVR4 make, POSIX make, etc.) do not sup‐
1585 port most of the features of
\e[1mbmake
\e[22mas described in this manual. Most no‐
1588 \e[1m•
\e[22mThe
\e[1m.WAIT
\e[22mand
\e[1m.ORDER
\e[22mdeclarations and most functionality per‐
1589 taining to parallelization. (GNU make supports parallelization
1590 but lacks these features needed to control it effectively.)
1592 \e[1m•
\e[22mDirectives, including for loops and conditionals and most of
1593 the forms of include files. (GNU make has its own incompatible
1594 and less powerful syntax for conditionals.)
1596 \e[1m•
\e[22mAll built-in variables that begin with a dot.
1598 \e[1m•
\e[22mMost of the special sources and targets that begin with a dot,
1599 with the notable exception of
\e[1m.PHONY
\e[22m,
\e[1m.PRECIOUS
\e[22m, and
\e[1m.SUFFIXES
\e[22m.
1601 \e[1m•
\e[22mVariable modifiers, except for the
1603 string substitution, which does not portably support globbing
1604 with ‘%’ and historically only works on declared suffixes.
1606 \e[1m•
\e[22mThe
\e[1m$>
\e[22mvariable even in its short form; most makes support this
1607 functionality but its name varies.
1609 Some features are somewhat more portable, such as assignment with
\e[1m+=
\e[22m,
\e[1m?=
\e[22m,
1610 and
\e[1m!=
\e[22m. The
\e[1m.PATH
\e[22mfunctionality is based on an older feature
\e[1mVPATH
\e[22mfound
1611 in GNU make and many versions of SVR4 make; however, historically its be‐
1612 havior is too ill-defined (and too buggy) to rely upon.
1614 The
\e[1m$@
\e[22mand
\e[1m$<
\e[22mvariables are more or less universally portable, as is the
1615 \e[1m$(MAKE)
\e[22mvariable. Basic use of suffix rules (for files only in the cur‐
1616 rent directory, not trying to chain transformations together, etc.) is
1617 also reasonably portable.
1623 \e[1mbmake
\e[22mis derived from NetBSD make(1). It uses autoconf to facilitate
1624 portability to other platforms.
1626 A make command appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX. This make implementation
1627 is based on Adam De Boor's pmake program which was written for Sprite at
1628 Berkeley. It was designed to be a parallel distributed make running jobs
1629 on different machines using a daemon called “customs”.
1631 Historically the target/dependency “FRC” has been used to FoRCe rebuild‐
1632 ing (since the target/dependency does not exist... unless someone creates
1636 The make syntax is difficult to parse without actually acting on the
1637 data. For instance, finding the end of a variable's use should involve
1638 scanning each of the modifiers, using the correct terminator for each
1639 field. In many places make just counts {} and () in order to find the
1640 end of a variable expansion.
1642 There is no way of escaping a space character in a filename.
1644 FreeBSD 13.0 July 12, 2022 FreeBSD 13.0