Question

thanks. The below is part of a gnu makefile. I can understand most except the backslash in the row “$(MODULES): \”. This line means the four libraries depend on …what?
Thanks a lot. 🙂

MODULES     = diskfree.so issue.so processes.so time.so

$(MODULES): \
%.so:           %.c server.h
    $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -fPIC -shared -o $@ $<

Answer 1

It is the same as if there would be no backslash and new line:

$(MODULES): %.so: %.c server.h
    $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -fPIC -shared -o $@ $<

That is, it’s a static pattern rule. Each target listed in $(MODULES) is made using %.so: %.c pattern rule and also depends on server.h.