-b, -m

These options are ignored for compatibility with other versions of make.

-B, --always-make

Unconditionally make all targets.

-C dir, --directory=dir

Change to directory dir before reading the makefiles or doing anything else. If multiple -C options are specified, each is interpreted relative to the previous one: -C / -C etc is equivalent to -C /etc. This is typically used with recursive invocations of make.

-d

Print debugging information in addition to normal processing. The debugging information says which files are being considered for remaking, which file-times are being compared and with what results, which files actually need to be remade, which implicit rules are considered and which are applied---everything interesting about how make decides what to do.

--debug‌[=FLAGS]

Print debugging information in addition to normal processing. If the FLAGS are omitted, then the behavior is the same as if -d was specified. FLAGS may be any or all of the following names, comma- or space-separated. Only the first character is significant: the rest may be omitted: all for all debugging output (same as using -d), basic for basic debugging, verbose for more verbose basic debugging, implicit for showing implicit rule search operations, jobs for details on invocation of commands, makefile for debugging while remaking makefiles, print shows all recipes that are run even if they are silent, and why shows the reason make decided to rebuild each target. Use none to disable all previous debugging flags.

-e, --environment-overrides

Give variables taken from the environment precedence over variables from makefiles.

-E string, --eval string

Interpret string using the eval function, before parsing any makefiles.

-f file, --file=file, --makefile=FILE

Use file as a makefile.

-i, --ignore-errors

Ignore all errors in commands executed to remake files.

-I dir, --include-dir=dir

Specifies a directory dir to search for included makefiles. If several -I options are used to specify several directories, the directories are searched in the order specified. Unlike the arguments to other flags of make, directories given with -I flags may come directly after the flag: -I‌dir is allowed, as well as -I dir. This syntax is allowed for compatibility with the C preprocessor's -I flag.

-j [jobs], --jobs[=jobs]

Specifies the number of jobs (commands) to run simultaneously. If there is more than one -j option, the last one is effective. If the -j option is given without an argument, make will not limit the number of jobs that can run simultaneously.

--jobserver-style=‌style

The style of jobserver to use. The style may be one of fifo, pipe, or sem (Windows only).

-k, --keep-going

Continue as much as possible after an error. While the target that failed, and those that depend on it, cannot be remade, the other dependencies of these targets can be processed all the same.

-l [load], --load-average[=load]

Specifies that no new jobs (commands) should be started if there are others jobs running and the load average is at least load (a floating-point number). With no argument, removes a previous load limit.

-L, --check-symlink-times

Use the latest mtime between symlinks and target.

-n, --just-print, --dry-run, --recon

Print the commands that would be executed, but do not execute them (except in certain circumstances).

-o file, --old-file=file, --assume-old=file

Do not remake the file file even if it is older than its dependencies, and do not remake anything on account of changes in file. Essentially the file is treated as very old and its rules are ignored.

-O[type], --output-sync[=type]

When running multiple jobs in parallel with -j, ensure the output of each job is collected together rather than interspersed with output from other jobs. If type is not specified or is target the output from the entire recipe for each target is grouped together. If type is line the output from each command line within a recipe is grouped together. If type is recurse output from an entire recursive make is grouped together. If type is none output synchronization is disabled.

-p, --print-data-base

Print the data base (rules and variable values) that results from reading the makefiles; then execute as usual or as otherwise specified. This also prints the version information given by the -v switch (see below). To print the data base without trying to remake any files, use make -p -f/dev/null.

-q, --question

“Question mode”. Do not run any commands, or print anything; just return an exit status that is zero if the specified targets are already up to date, nonzero otherwise.

-r, --no-builtin-rules

Eliminate use of the built-in implicit rules. Also clear out the default list of suffixes for suffix rules.

-R, --no-builtin-variables

Don't define any built-in variables.

-s, --silent, --quiet

Silent operation; do not print the commands as they are executed.

--no-silent

Cancel the effect of the -s option.

-S, --no-keep-going, --stop

Cancel the effect of the -k option.

-t, --touch

Touch files (mark them up to date without really changing them) instead of running their commands. This is used to pretend that the commands were done, in order to fool future invocations of make.

--trace

Information about the disposition of each target is printed (why the target is being rebuilt and what commands are run to rebuild it).

-v, --version

Print the version of the make program plus a copyright, a list of authors and a notice that there is no warranty.

-w, --print-directory

Print a message containing the working directory before and after other processing. This may be useful for tracking down errors from complicated nests of recursive make commands.

--no-print-directory

Turn off -w, even if it was turned on implicitly.

--shuffle‌[=MODE]

Enable shuffling of goal and prerequisite ordering. MODE is one of none to disable shuffle mode, random to shuffle prerequisites in random order, reverse to consider prerequisites in reverse order, or an integer <seed> which enables random mode with a specific seed value. If MODE is omitted the default is random.

-W file, --what-if=file, --new-file=file, --assume-new=file

Pretend that the target file has just been modified. When used with the -n flag, this shows you what would happen if you were to modify that file. Without -n, it is almost the same as running a touch command on the given file before running make, except that the modification time is changed only in the imagination of make.

--warn-undefined-variables

Warn when an undefined variable is referenced.