GNU Make cheatsheet

GNU-Make.md

GNU Make Cheatsheet

Based on https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/Quick-Reference.html

Directives

Directive	Description
define variable define variable = define variable := define variable ::= define variable += define variable ?= endef	Define multi-line variables.
undefine variable	Undefining variables.
ifdef variable ifndef variable ifeq (a,b) ifeq "a" "b" ifeq 'a' 'b' ifneq (a,b) ifneq "a" "b" ifneq 'a' 'b' else endif	Conditionally evaluate part of the makefile.
include file -include file sinclude file	Include another makefile.
override variable-assignment	Define a variable, overriding any previous definition, even one from the command line.
export	Tell make to export all variables to child processes by default.
export variable export variable-assignment unexport variable	Tell make whether or not to export a particular variable to child processes.
private variable-assignment	Do not allow this variable assignment to be inherited by prerequisites.
vpath pattern path	Specify a search path for files matching a '%' pattern.
vpath pattern	Remove all search paths previously specified for pattern.
vpath	Remove all search paths previously specified in any vpath directive.

Built-in Functions

Function	Description
$(subst from,to,text)	Replace from with to in text.
$(patsubst pattern,replacement,text)	Replace words matching pattern with replacement in text.
$(strip string)	Remove excess whitespace characters from string.
$(findstring find,text)	Locate find in text.
$(filter pattern…,text)	Select words in text that match one of the pattern words.
$(filter-out pattern…,text)	Select words in text that do not match any of the pattern words.
$(sort list)	Sort the words in list lexicographically, removing duplicates.
$(word n,text)	Extract the n-th word (one-origin) of text.
$(words text)	Count the number of words in text.
$(wordlist s,e,text)	Returns the list of words in text from s to e.
$(firstword names…)	Extract the first word of names.
$(lastword names…)	Extract the last word of names.
$(dir names…)	Extract the directory part of each file name.
$(notdir names…)	Extract the non-directory part of each file name.
$(suffix names…)	Extract the suffix (the last '.' and following characters) of each file name.
$(basename names…)	Extract the base name (name without suffix) of each file name.
$(addsuffix suffix,names…)	Append suffix to each word in names.
$(addprefix prefix,names…)	Prepend prefix to each word in names.
$(join list1,list2)	Join two parallel lists of words.
$(wildcard pattern…)	Find file names matching a shell file name pattern (not a '%' pattern).
$(realpath names…)	For each file name in names, expand to an absolute name that does not contain any ., .., nor symlinks.
$(abspath names…)	For each file name in names, expand to an absolute name that does not contain any . or .. components, but preserves symlinks.
$(error text…)	When this function is evaluated, make generates a fatal error with the message text.
$(warning text…)	When this function is evaluated, make generates a warning with the message text.
$(shell command)	Execute a shell command and return its output.
$(origin variable)	Return a string describing how the make variable variable was defined.
$(flavor variable)	Return a string describing the flavor of the make variable variable.
$(foreach var,words,text)	Evaluate text with var bound to each word in words, and concatenate the results.
$(if cond,then-part[,else-part])	Evaluate cond; if it’s non-empty substitute the expansion of the then-part otherwise substitute the expansion of the else-part.
$(or cond1[,cond2[,cond3…]])	Evaluate condN one at a time; substitute the first non-empty expansion. If all expansions are empty, substitute the empty string.
$(and cond1[,cond2[,cond3…]])	Evaluate condN one at a time; if any results in empty string substitute the empty string. Otherwise substitute the expansion of the last condN.
$(call var,param,…)	Evaluate the variable var replacing any references to $(1), $(2) with the first, second, etc. param values.
$(eval text)	Evaluate text then read the results as makefile commands; expands to the empty string.
$(file op filename,text)	Expand the arguments, then open the file filename using mode op and write text to that file.
$(value var)	Evaluates to the contents of the variable var, with no expansion performed on it.

Automatic Variables

Variable	Description
$@	The file name of the target.
$%	The target member name, when the target is an archive member.
$<	The name of the first prerequisite.
$?	The names of all the prerequisites newer than the target, with spaces between them. For prerequisites which are archive members, only the named member is used (see Archives).
$^ $+	The names of all the prerequisites, with spaces between them. For prerequisites which are archive members, only the named member is used (see Archives). The value of $^ omits duplicate prerequisites, while $+ retains them and preserves their order.
$*	The stem with which an implicit rule matches (see How Patterns Match).
$(@D) $(@F)	The directory part and the file-within-directory part of $@.
$(*D) $(*F)	The directory part and the file-within-directory part of $*.
$(%D) $(%F)	The directory part and the file-within-directory part of $%.
$(<D) $(<F)	The directory part and the file-within-directory part of $<.
$(^D) $(^F)	The directory part and the file-within-directory part of $^.
$(+D) $(+F)	The directory part and the file-within-directory part of $+.
$(?D) $(?F)	The directory part and the file-within-directory part of $?.

Special Variables

Variables	Description
MAKEFILES	Makefiles to be read on every invocation of make.
VPATH	Directory search path for files not found in the current directory.
SHELL	The name of the system default command interpreter, usually /bin/sh.
MAKESHELL	The name of the command interpreter that is to be used by make, taking precedence over SHELL (MS-DOS only).
MAKE	The name with which make was invoked (using this variable in recipes has special meaning).
MAKE_VERSION	The built-in variable MAKE_VERSION expands to the version number of the GNU make program.
MAKE_HOST	The built-in variable MAKE_HOST expands to a string representing the host that GNU make was built to run on.
MAKELEVEL	The number of levels of recursion (sub-makes).
MAKEFLAGS	The flags given to make. You can set this in the environment or a makefile to set flags. It is never appropriate to use MAKEFLAGS directly in a recipe line: its contents may not be quoted correctly for use in the shell. Always allow recursive make’s to obtain these values through the environment from its parent.
GNUMAKEFLAGS	Other flags parsed by make. You can set this in the environment or a makefile to set make command-line flags. GNU make never sets this variable itself. This variable is only needed if you’d like to set GNU make-specific flags in a POSIX-compliant makefile. This variable will be seen by GNU make and ignored by other make implementations. It’s not needed if you only use GNU make; just use MAKEFLAGS directly. See Communicating Options to a Sub-make.
MAKECMDGOALS	The targets given to make on the command line. Setting this variable has no effect on the operation of make.
CURDIR	Set to the absolute pathname of the current working directory (after all -C options are processed, if any). Setting this variable has no effect on the operation of make.
SUFFIXES	The default list of suffixes before make reads any makefiles.
.LIBPATTERNS	Defines the naming of the libraries make searches for, and their order.