Question

This is my makefile:

.SILENT:
latexargs = -output-directory=temp -interaction=batchmode -file-line-error-style
thesis: mktemp
    latex $(latexargs) thesis || make errors
    bibtex -terse temp/A || make errors
    bibtex -terse temp/B || make errors
    latex $(latexargs) thesis || make errors
    pdflatex $(latexargs) thesis || make errors
    cat temp/thesis.pdf > thesis.pdf

diff: mktemp
    latex $(latexargs) thesis-diff || make errors
    bibtex temp/A || make errors
    bibtex temp/B || make errors
    latex $(latexargs) thesis-diff || make errors
    pdflatex $(latexargs) thesis-diff || make errors
    rm thesis-diff.tex

clean:
    test -e temp
    rm -f temp/*

mktemp:
    mkdir -p temp

errors:
    grep  ":[^:]*:" temp/thesis.log
    false

Is there no better way to run something if a command exits with a non zero code?

I have looked at the manual but could not find any special targets for that purpose.

Answer 1

I don’t know of any way to set a flag so that any and all errors in recipes will trigger a certain action, but this is a little cleaner than what you have:

reportError = (grep  ":[^:]*:" temp/thesis.log && false)

thesis: mktemp
    latex $(latexargs) thesis || $(reportError)
    bibtex -terse temp/A || $(reportError)
    ...