automake-1.16: Standard Targets

 
 2.2.2 Standard ‘Makefile’ Targets
 ---------------------------------
 
 So far we have come across four ways to run ‘make’ in the GNU Build
 System: ‘make’, ‘make check’, ‘make install’, and ‘make installcheck’.
 The words ‘check’, ‘install’, and ‘installcheck’, passed as arguments to
 ‘make’, are called “targets”.  ‘make’ is a shorthand for ‘make all’,
 ‘all’ being the default target in the GNU Build System.
 
    Here is a list of the most useful targets that the GNU Coding
 Standards specify.
 
 ‘make all’
      Build programs, libraries, documentation, etc. (same as ‘make’).
 ‘make install’
      Install what needs to be installed, copying the files from the
      package’s tree to system-wide directories.
 ‘make install-strip’
      Same as ‘make install’, then strip debugging symbols.  Some users
      like to trade space for useful bug reports...
 ‘make uninstall’
      The opposite of ‘make install’: erase the installed files.  (This
      needs to be run from the same build tree that was installed.)
 ‘make clean’
      Erase from the build tree the files built by ‘make all’.
 ‘make distclean’
      Additionally erase anything ‘./configure’ created.
 ‘make check’
      Run the test suite, if any.
 ‘make installcheck’
      Check the installed programs or libraries, if supported.
 ‘make dist’
      Recreate ‘PACKAGE-VERSION.tar.gz’ from all the source files.