Most linux apps are compiled with:
make
make install clean
As I understood it, make takes names of build targets as arguments. So install is a target that copies some files and after that clean is a target that removes temporary files.
But what target will make build if no arguments are specified (e.g. first command in my example)?
By default, it begins by processing the first target that does not begin with a . aka the default goal; to do that, it may have to process other targets - specifically, ones the first target depends on.
The GNU Make Manual covers all this stuff, and is a surprisingly easy and informative read.
To save others a few seconds, and to save them from having to read the manual, here's the short answer. Add this to the top of your make file:
.DEFAULT_GOAL := mytarget
mytarget will now be the target that is run if "make" is executed and no target is specified.
If you have an older version of make (<= 3.80), this won't work. If this is the case, then you can do what anon mentions, simply add this to the top of your make file:
.PHONY: default
default: mytarget ;
References: https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/How-Make-Works.html
bmake's equivalent of GNU Make's .DEFAULT_GOAL is .MAIN:
$ cat Makefile
.MAIN: foo
all:
@echo all
foo:
@echo foo
$ bmake
foo
See the bmake(1) manual page.
