"make clean" results in "No rule to make target `clean'"

Question

I am running Ubuntu 10.04. Whenever I run make clean, I get this:

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

Here is my makefile:

CC = gcc
CFLAGS = -g -pedantic -O0 -std=gnu99 -m32 -Wall
PROGRAMS = digitreversal
all : $(PROGRAMS)
digitreversal : digitreversal.o
       $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -o $@ $^ $(LDFLAGS)
.PHONY: clean
clean:
       @rm -f $(PROGRAMS) *.o core

Any ideas why its not working?

EDIT: It seems like doing:

make -f Makefile.txt clean

works. Now: is there any setting to change so I don't have to do the -f Makefile.txt every time?

Solution 1

It seems your makefile's name is not 'Makefile' or 'makefile'. In case it is different say 'abc' try running 'make -f abc clean'

Solution 2

I suppose you have figured it out by now. The answer is hidden in your first mail itself.

The make command by default looks for makefile, Makefile, and GNUMakefile as the input file and you are having Makefile.txt in your folder. Just remove the file extension (.txt) and it should work.

Solution 3

Check that the file is called GNUMakefile, makefile or Makefile.

If it is called anything else (and you don't want to rename it) then try:

make -f othermakefilename clean

Solution 4

You have fallen victim to the most common of errors in Makefiles. You always need to put a Tab at the beginning of each command. You've put spaces before the $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -o $@ $^ $(LDFLAGS) and @rm -f $(PROGRAMS) *.o core lines. If you replace them with a Tab, you'll be fine.

However, this error doesn't lead to a "No rule to make target ..." error. That probably means your issue lies beyond your Makefile. Have you checked this is the correct Makefile, as in the one you want to be specifying your commands? Try explicitly passing it as a parameter to make, make -f Makefile and let us know what happens.

Solution 5

This works for me. Are you sure you're indenting with tabs?

CC = gcc
CFLAGS = -g -pedantic -O0 -std=gnu99 -m32 -Wall
PROGRAMS = digitreversal
all : $(PROGRAMS)
digitreversal : digitreversal.o
    [tab]$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -o $@ $^ $(LDFLAGS)

.PHONY: clean
clean:
    [tab]@rm -f $(PROGRAMS) *.o core

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