CODEWITHSUNDEEP
makefilegnu-make
The Fool
The Fool

Reputation: 20547

make runs target even though file already exists

I have a Makefile like this

bin:
    mkdir -p bin

bin/kustomize: bin
    curl -fsSL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/master/hack/install_kustomize.sh" | bash -s bin

When I run make bin/kustomize it tries to download it, every time, even though it is already there. I would expect that make doesn't want to run that target.

When I remove the dependency to bin, it works as I expect.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 175

Answers (1)

peterh
peterh

Reputation: 1

Generally, using a directory as a build target, is a bad practice. Best if you use only files as target (or phony targets).

Reason is very simple: any time a new entry is created in the directory, that updates the modification time of the directory. Thus, if you create bin/kustomize from "bin", then make will always see that the directory is newer as the kustomize binary in it. Thus, it will always re-create.

Things are yet more worse: if anything creates or deletes a file in "bin", all what you have there, will be re-downloaded again.

I think, the rule what best qualifies your expectation is:

bin/kustomize:
  mkdir -v bin && curl ...<long-url>...

Sometimes I have also such a construction:

work/.stamp:
  mkdir -v work && touch .stamp

work/anything: work/.stamp
  ...things...

work/other: work/.stamp
  ...things...

Upvotes: -1

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