make CLI cheat-sheet

make is a task runner for targets described in Makefile. Mostly used to control the compilation of an executable from source code.

More information: https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/make.html .

Call the first target specified in the Makefile (usually named “all”):

make

Call a specific target:

make target

Call a specific target, executing 4 jobs at a time in parallel:

make [-j|--jobs] 4 target

Use a specific Makefile:

make [-f|--file] path/to/file

Execute make from another directory:

make [-C|--directory] path/to/directory

Force making of a target, even if source files are unchanged:

make [-B|--always-make] target

Override a variable defined in the Makefile:

make target variable=new_value

Override variables defined in the Makefile by the environment:

make [-e|--environment-overrides] target

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