Why does make think the target is up to date

Question

This is my Makefile   REBAR   rebar REBAR COMPILE   REBAR  get-deps compile  all  compile  compile        REBAR COMPILE   test        REBAR COMPILE  skip deps true eunit  clean      -rm -rf deps ebin priv doc    docs        REBAR COMPILE  doc  ifeq    wildcard dialyzer sqlite3 plt    static        REBAR COMPILE  build plt analyze else static        REBAR COMPILE  analyze endif   I can run make compile multiple times and get   aromanov alexey-desktop   workspace gm-controller lib erlang-sqlite  make compile   rebar get-deps compile    gt  erlang-sqlite  get-deps     gt  erlang-sqlite  compile    However  for some reason running make test always gives  aromanov alexey-desktop   workspace gm-controller lib erlang-sqlite  make test make   test  is up to date    even if the files are not compiled  The question is  why    Running the same command directly works   aromanov alexey-desktop   workspace gm-controller lib erlang-sqlite    rebar get-deps compile skip deps true eunit    gt  erlang-sqlite  get-deps     gt  erlang-sqlite  compile  Compiled src sqlite3 lib erl Compiled src sqlite3 erl    gt  erlang-sqlite  eunit

User · Accepted Answer

Maybe you have a file directory named test in the directory  If this directory exists  and has no dependencies that are more recent  then this target is not rebuild  To force rebuild on these kind of not-file-related targets  you should make them phony as follows   PHONY  all test clean  Note that you can declare all of your phony targets there  A phony target is one that is not really the name of a file  rather it is just a name for a recipe to be executed when you make an explicit request

User · Answer

my mistake was making the target name  filename c   instead of just  filename

User · Answer

It happens when you have a file with the same name as Makefile target name in the directory where the Makefile is present

User · Answer

EDIT  This only applies to some versions of make - you should check your man page   You can also pass the -B flag to make  As per the man page  this does      -B  --always-make Unconditionally make all targets    So make -B test would solve your problem if you were in a situation where you don t want to edit the Makefile or change the name of your test folder

[makefile] Why does make think the target is up to date?

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