/usr/bin/bmake --help — Chainguard OS Manuals

From bmake 20260912-r0 (os), captured 2026-11-05 by running bmake --help (exit 2). permalink

usage: bmake [-BeikNnqrSstWwX]
            [-C directory] [-D variable] [-d flags] [-f makefile]
            [-I directory] [-J private] [-j max_jobs] [-m directory]
            [-T file] [-V variable] [-v variable]
            [variable=value ...] [target ...]

Options (25)

Option	Description	Source
`-B`	Try to be backwards compatible by executing a single shell per command and by making the sources of a dependency line in sequence.	man
`-C` directory	Change to directory before reading the makefiles or doing anything else.	man
`-D` variable	Define variable to be 1, in the global scope.	man
`-d` -]flags	Turn on debugging, and specify which portions of bmake are to print debugging information.	man
`-e`	Let environment variables override global variables within makefiles.	man
`-f` makefile	Specify a makefile to read instead of one of the defaults listed in .MAKE.MAKEFILE_PREFERENCE.	man
`-I` directory	Specify a directory in which to search for makefiles and included makefiles.	man
`-i`	Ignore non-zero exit of shell commands in the makefile.	man
`-J` private	This option should not be specified by the user.	man
`-j` max_jobs	Specify the maximum number of jobs that bmake may have running at any one time.	man
`-k`	Continue processing after errors are encountered, but only on those targets that do not depend on the target whose creation caused the error.	man
`-m` directory	Specify a directory in which to search for sys.mk and makefiles included via the <file>-style include statement.	man
`-n`	Display the commands that would have been executed, but do not actually execute them unless the target depends on the .MAKE special source (see below) or the command is prefixed with ‘+’.	man
`-N`	Display the commands that would have been executed, but do not actually execute any of them;	man
`-q`	Do not execute any commands, instead exit 0 if the specified targets are up to date, and 1 otherwise.	man
`-r`	Do not use the built-in rules specified in the system makefile.	man
`-S`	Stop processing if an error is encountered.	man
`-s`	Do not echo any commands as they are executed.	man
`-T` tracefile	When used with the -j flag, append a trace record to tracefile for each job started and completed.	man
`-t`	Rather than re-building a target as specified in the makefile, create it or update its modification time to make it appear up-to-date.	man
`-V` variable	Print the value of variable.	man
`-v` variable	Like -V, but all printed variables are always expanded to their complete value.	man
`-W`	Treat any warnings during makefile parsing as errors.	man
`-w`	Print entering and leaving directory messages, pre and post processing.	man
`-X`	Don't export variables passed on the command line to the environment individually.	man

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