Questions on the Make command
 

I know what make, and make install do, but I am confused as to what the following commands do:

make dep
make dist
make all

Any help is appreciated, thanks.

Robert

the "make" program simply executes a script (aka a Makefile). The Makefile ultimately determines what the targets mean (dep, all, ect. are targets).

Typically, make dep will build any dependencies involved in the project. The all target designates that everything should be built, and the dist probably means to build a binary distribution of the software.

However, the only way to be sure exactly what a target does is to read the Makefile and find out.