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Asked: 2026-05-11T05:33:19+00:00

If I have a makefile that calls another makefile, how to I get the

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If I have a makefile that calls another makefile, how to I get the master makefile to correctly check if the dependencies of the subordinate makefile have changed?

For example, if I have the rule

server:      @cd $(SERVERDIR) && $(MAKE)

That invokes make in the subdirectory in which I build an executable ‘server’. However, if I change one of the files that make up server, the parent make doesn’t see the changes and refuses to rebuild server – ‘make: `server’ is up to date.’

How can I get the master makefile to correctly detect when there’s a change in one of the dependent files (something like $(SERVERDIR)/server.c, for example?

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1 Answer

  1. It looks like you want to use a phony target

    .PHONY: server server:      @cd $(SERVERDIR) && $(MAKE)

    There’s a detailed description of the Phony target here, but the short description is you’re telling the makefile that there will never be a file that corresponds with this server target, and therefore it won’t consider server up to date if there is a file named server in the directory.

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