Hi, I'm in the middle of re-compiling my kernel (rt) for audio recording and came across a note I left for myself, make all.

Anybody tell me what this command covers.
eg. make clean, make bzImage, make modules, etc.

Thanks in advance, Glenn

It's OK! I got it, I think.

After make all, I did, make modules_install, make install.

And here I am.

Thanks anyway.

May just help someone else.

cheers, Glenn

If you ever cared to read the README plaintext file that comes along the sources, you wouldn't have asked - it's all covered there. I recall there used to be a "make all" target, but nowadays if I'm right it's just "make" (no "all"). Referring to the README file of 2.6.23.1:

As you see, no "make all" there. But like I said, I think the older kernels had that option (along with the other 'make's). Anyway when compiling something from source you haven't written yourself (maybe even then), always read the documentation first to get a picture of how it should be done. Especially for a kernel, which is more or less crucial to get your system up, there is no sane reason to check out at least the most common of documentation files, README (and/or INSTALL), to see what should be done. It really doesn't take that much time, and because things can change (you don't compile Linux kernel nowadays the way you used to do it with version 1) it's a good idea to have your information up to date.

Read the README and/or INSTALL files always, and any other documentation present.

...and besides that, in a more generic way, you can always run 'make -n all', which will run make but only show what it would do, not actually do things.

Well, thank you very much.

I have been trying to install 2.6.2x.x versions for the last 6 months and none of them would recognise my sata controllers.

I felt I had read the same readme that comes with every package and did not notice ANY difference between them.

But now you have told me, I will recheck the documents.

Elitism will not prevail, and to RTFM (when it is upto date) is what I always do, at first. Then I ask.

Thank you for your responses, I do appreciate it.

Regards, Glenn

If you want a kind of “quick-help” guide/reference for the kernel makefile targets, you could use:
(but it’s no substitute for reading the documentation)