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The pages on this site contain documentation for very old MS-DOS software, purely for historical purposes. If you're looking for up-to-date documentation, particularly for programming, you should not rely on the information found here, as it will be woefully out of date.

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─────NMAKE──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
     A description block tells NMAKE which files are to be updated and
     commands to use when updating them. Description blocks contain:
          ◄Dependencies►
          ◄Targets►
          ◄Dependents►
          ◄Commands►
 
     A description block appears approximately as follows:
 
          targets : [dependents]
            [commands block]
 
     The description block begins with a dependency line that specifies
     one or more targets to be built and zero or more dependent files
     on which the targets depend. If a commands block is not specified,
     NMAKE uses an inference rule to provide the commands.
     See: ◄Inference Rules►
 
     Before executing any commands, NMAKE reads all dependencies and
     applicable inference rules. It builds a dependency tree that
     specifies all the steps required to fully update the target. NMAKE
     checks recursively to see if dependents are targets in other
     dependencies. After it builds the dependency tree, NMAKE checks
     time stamps. If it finds any dependents in the tree that are newer
     than the target, NMAKE builds the target.
 
     To tell NMAKE to build a target, specify it on the NMAKE command
     line. If a command-line target is not specified, NMAKE builds only
     the first target in the first dependency in the makefile.
     See: ◄Running NMAKE►
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