Ex2: 'No rule to make target 'clean'. Stop.'

C
#1

I’m working through exercise 2 in the C tutorial. My directory looks like this:

lucass-MacBook-Pro:learn_c_the_hard_way amodeo$ ls
ex1		ex1.c		ex2.1.mak

My .mak:

CFLAGS=-Wall -g

clean:
    rm -f ex1

The ex1 executable works fine. Also, the .mak is using tabs, not spaces.

When I go to -

make clean

I get -

make: *** No rule to make target `clean'.  Stop.

What am I doing wrong? Thanks a ton for reading this far.

#2

That’s not how it works. Delve into Makefile’s. The short: you have to create a Makefile. Every entry has to start with a tab. Starting with space will lead to weirdness.

The file is called literally Makefile.

That’s your problem for this issue.

EDIT: the file has no extension.
EDIT2: Not every entry has to start with a tab. Only the ones that are indented. :slight_smile:

#3

I was going to learn C next, just sounds like a pain in the back side.

#4

Hey m8,

This is not about C. It’s about make utilities. You can use that in every language that is machine compilable.
It has nothing to do with C other than that it supports building your program. It does so in a lot of other languages.

Managed languages like java and C# and interpreted languages often have different utilites with same goal. This is out of my area though.

What I am trying to say is this:

Do not let this stop you from learning any language. It has nothing to do with C.

On the other hand, if you think C is a PITA, it is. Still, I like it’s elegance and I am working hard to improve my attitude toward coding, using C. As the course shows, you need the attitude in every language.

Kind regards, Guus, lcthw student.

2 Likes
#5

You just have to run it like this:

make -f ex.1.mak clean

If you don’t specify a makefile with -f then Make assumes you mean a file actually named Makefile.

2 Likes
#6

Yes! I was just coming here to mention this. Worked like a charm when I did it that way:

One other thing I did not see was the output as described in the example:

$ make -f ex1.mak clean
rm -f ex1

$ make ex1
cc ex1.c -o ex1

What I don’t see (and I don’t know if it matters - I guess it’s cause I’m using gcc?) are the flags in the output:
cc -Wall -g

I’m guessing there’s probably some switch / other flag / something that will show me the flags when I run make.

1 Like
#7

Yes, I believe you set CFLAGS to what you want for options.