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2.2.2 Standard Makefile Targets

So far we have come across four ways to run make in the GNU Build System: make, make check, make install, and make installcheck. The words check, install, and installcheck, passed as arguments to make, are called targets. make is a shorthand for make all, all being the default target in the GNU Build System.

Here is a list of the most useful targets that the GNU Coding Standards specify.

make all ¶

Build programs, libraries, documentation, etc. (same as make).

make install ¶

Install what needs to be installed, copying the files from the package’s tree to system-wide directories.

make install-strip ¶

Same as make install, then strip debugging symbols. Some users like to trade space for useful bug reports...

make uninstall ¶

The opposite of make install: erase the installed files. (This needs to be run from the same build tree that was installed.)

make clean ¶

Erase from the build tree the files built by make all.

make distclean ¶

Additionally erase anything ./configure created.

make check ¶

Run the test suite, if any.

make installcheck ¶

Check the installed programs or libraries, if supported.

make dist ¶

Recreate package-version.tar.gz from all the source files.