File: make.info,  Node: Goals,  Next: Instead of Execution,  Prev: Makefile Arguments,  Up: Running

9.2 Arguments to Specify the Goals
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The "goals" are the targets that 'make' should strive ultimately to
update.  Other targets are updated as well if they appear as
prerequisites of goals, or prerequisites of prerequisites of goals, etc.

   By default, the goal is the first target in the makefile (not
counting targets that start with a period).  Therefore, makefiles are
usually written so that the first target is for compiling the entire
program or programs they describe.  If the first rule in the makefile
has several targets, only the first target in the rule becomes the
default goal, not the whole list.  You can manage the selection of the
default goal from within your makefile using the '.DEFAULT_GOAL'
variable (*note Other Special Variables: Special Variables.).

   You can also specify a different goal or goals with command line
arguments to 'make'.  Use the name of the goal as an argument.  If you
specify several goals, 'make' processes each of them in turn, in the
order you name them.

   Any target in the makefile may be specified as a goal (unless it
starts with '-' or contains an '=', in which case it will be parsed as a
switch or variable definition, respectively).  Even targets not in the
makefile may be specified, if 'make' can find implicit rules that say
how to make them.

   'Make' will set the special variable 'MAKECMDGOALS' to the list of
goals you specified on the command line.  If no goals were given on the
command line, this variable is empty.  Note that this variable should be
used only in special circumstances.

   An example of appropriate use is to avoid including '.d' files during
'clean' rules (*note Automatic Prerequisites::), so 'make' won't create
them only to immediately remove them again:

     sources = foo.c bar.c

     ifeq (,$(filter clean,$(MAKECMDGOALS))
     include $(sources:.c=.d)
     endif

   One use of specifying a goal is if you want to compile only a part of
the program, or only one of several programs.  Specify as a goal each
file that you wish to remake.  For example, consider a directory
containing several programs, with a makefile that starts like this:

     .PHONY: all
     all: size nm ld ar as

   If you are working on the program 'size', you might want to say
'make size' so that only the files of that program are recompiled.

   Another use of specifying a goal is to make files that are not
normally made.  For example, there may be a file of debugging output, or
a version of the program that is compiled specially for testing, which
has a rule in the makefile but is not a prerequisite of the default
goal.

   Another use of specifying a goal is to run the recipe associated with
a phony target (*note Phony Targets::) or empty target (*note Empty
Target Files to Record Events: Empty Targets.).  Many makefiles contain
a phony target named 'clean' which deletes everything except source
files.  Naturally, this is done only if you request it explicitly with
'make clean'.  Following is a list of typical phony and empty target
names.  *Note Standard Targets::, for a detailed list of all the
standard target names which GNU software packages use.

'all'
     Make all the top-level targets the makefile knows about.

'clean'
     Delete all files that are normally created by running 'make'.

'mostlyclean'
     Like 'clean', but may refrain from deleting a few files that people
     normally don't want to recompile.  For example, the 'mostlyclean'
     target for GCC does not delete 'libgcc.a', because recompiling it
     is rarely necessary and takes a lot of time.

'distclean'
'realclean'
'clobber'
     Any of these targets might be defined to delete _more_ files than
     'clean' does.  For example, this would delete configuration files
     or links that you would normally create as preparation for
     compilation, even if the makefile itself cannot create these files.

'install'
     Copy the executable file into a directory that users typically
     search for commands; copy any auxiliary files that the executable
     uses into the directories where it will look for them.

'print'
     Print listings of the source files that have changed.

'tar'
     Create a tar file of the source files.

'shar'
     Create a shell archive (shar file) of the source files.

'dist'
     Create a distribution file of the source files.  This might be a
     tar file, or a shar file, or a compressed version of one of the
     above, or even more than one of the above.

'TAGS'
     Update a tags table for this program.

'check'
'test'
     Perform self tests on the program this makefile builds.