Question

I am new to makefile, I am trying to add a make debug mode.

I have the following:

CXXFLAGS=-Wall -c

debug: $(EXECUTABLE)
     CXXFLAGS+=-pg

all:
....

for some reason it assigns it and when I put make debug it give me

CXXFLAGS+=-pg
/bin/sh: CXXFLAGS+=-pg: not found
make: *** [debug] Error 127

Is there any way to do and avoid writing the entire all command again in the debug except with -pg flags?

I tried to remove debug: target
and CXXFLAGS was concatenated with -pg flags successfully

Answer 1

If you are using gnumake, just add:

debug: CXXFLAGS += -pg
debug: $(EXECUTABLE)

Note that it is typical to define all first so that it is the default. If the rules for debug appear before all in the Makefile, debug becomes the default (if it is first).