In Unix, can I run 'make' in a directory without cd'ing to that directory first?

Question

In Unix, can I run make in a directory without cd'ing to that directory first?

score 389 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 17 '09 at 16:14

389

make -C /path/to/dir

edited Jan 17 '09 at 16:14

Svante

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answered Jan 17 '09 at 15:33

bmotmans

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Grump - that isn't in standard make; it must be a GNU extension. Since you say Linux and Unix, it isn't clear which you want, but the -C option won't work on Solaris 10 (/usr/ccs/bin/make), AIX (/usr/bin/make), or HP-UX 11.23 (/usr/bin/make). Still, 1 out of 4 isn't too bad. – Jonathan Leffler Jan 24 '09 at 04:17
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It works in BSD make as well, so its not just a GNU extension. – Chris Dodd Jun 28 '13 at 17:00
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make sure 'C' is in upper case. – Rezaeimh7 Sep 25 '16 at 06:56
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Or use `--directory=` which does the same. – Melroy van den Berg Oct 16 '20 at 23:54

score 106 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 17 '09 at 15:44

As noted in other answers, make(1) has a -C option for this; several commands have similar options (e.g. tar). It is useful to note that for other commands which lack such options the following can be used:

(cd /dir/path && command-to-run)

This runs the command in a sub-shell which first has its working directory changed (while leaving the working directory of the parent shell alone). Here && is used instead of ; to catch error cases where the directory can not be changed.

score 23 · Answer 3 · edited May 18 '15 at 09:43

23

If the reason you don't want to cd to a directory is because you need to stay in the current directory for a later task, you can use pushd and popd:

pushd ProjectDir ; make ; popd

That goes into the ProjectDir, runs make, and goes back to where you were.

edited May 18 '15 at 09:43

Robert Siemer

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answered Jan 19 '09 at 05:25

EnigmaCurry

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score 11 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 15 '16 at 10:24

11

Also you may use:

make --directory /path/to/dir

answered Sep 15 '16 at 10:24

korst1k

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score -4 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 23 '18 at 22:56

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makefile:

all:
    gcc -Wall -Wpedantic -std=gnu99 -g src/test.c -o build/test

run:
    ./build/test

or

run:
    ./../build/test

etc.

answered Sep 23 '18 at 22:56

oldpilsbury

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The answer completely missed the question - it is about how to invoke make, not how to write makefile. – Petr Jan 15 '19 at 09:42

In Unix, can I run 'make' in a directory without cd'ing to that directory first?

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