help with make needed

[Erik Baalbergen]

In article <19308 at adm.BRL.MIL> dpaulso at relay.nswc.navy.mil writes:
>In several makefiles I've seen the prerequisite `FRC' used, as in
>>Makefile:	FRC
>>	- at if echo "Makefile: $(TARGET) ; @/bin/false" | make -qf - ; \
>>	then rm -f $(TARGET) ; fi
>I've also seen `FRC' used as the ultimate prerequisite for a group of
>dependencies that are .RECURSIVE
>but i've not seen any reference to `FRC' in TFM.  any hints as to what
>it means and/or does?
>Dave Paulson	dpaulso at relay.nswc.navy.mil	(703)663-2137
>"I've upped my standards; now up yours" -- Pat Paulsen

``FRC'' stands for `Forced ReCompilation''.  It occurs as a dummy dependent
for the targets that need to be rebuilt in every ``make.''
FRC should be specified as a target, without dependents and command block,
in the make prelude or in the Makefile itself.
Be sure that no file FRC exists; ``make'' assumes any non-file target
be out-of-date.  The Makefile below demonstrates the use of FRC.

--8<------8<------8<------8<------8<------8<------8<------8<------8<------
	# Demonstrate the behavior of a fake target
	just-a-target: FRC
		touch just-a-target
	
	FRC:		# This is the fake target
--8<------8<------8<------8<------8<------8<------8<------8<------8<------

(Of course, the fake target may have another name!)  At every
``make (just-a-target)'', the touch command is executed.

Erik Baalbergen
-- 
Erik H. Baalbergen				    <erikb at cs.vu.nl>
Vrije Universiteit / Dept. of Maths. & Comp. Sc.
De Boelelaan 1081
1081 HV Amsterdam / The Netherlands		tel. +31 20 548 8080