6 Makefile functionality

Automake generates Makefiles which provide a variety of targets. Some of these are:

‘make’

Equivalent to ‘make all’. Compile all programs and libraries.

‘make clean’

Delete the files that were created by running ‘make’.

‘make install’

Copy all programs and libraries to the directories where they will be used.

‘make dist’

Create a distribution file.

‘make check’

Run a test suite. See Test suites.

See Standard Targets for Users in GNU Coding Standards.

These targets are discussed in more detail in the following sections, including what files they each affect.