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I have to run this cryptic block of code.

git clone https://github.com/OpenICC/xcalib.git cd xcalib cmake CMakeLists.txt sudo make install

The procedure I'm following mentions the uninstall process.

sudo make uninstall

Why do the make install and uninstall commands lack any file or program name? In my mind they should be done like this.

sudo make install program_name sudo make uninstall program_name

the same as 

sudo apt-get install program_name

sudo make install begs the question "install what?"

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    For the commands that are executed, see the Makefile in that directory, also see man make. Commented Nov 20, 2018 at 19:22
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    You can use make -n ...... to see what will be execured Commented Nov 20, 2018 at 19:49
  • @RalfFriedl That's the answer to the question; you might as well write it up and post it as an answer. Commented Nov 20, 2018 at 19:50

2 Answers 2

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The commands that are executed by make install (or any invocation of make) are defined in the Makefile (and files included by the Makefile). For simple programs, you can just look for a line install: and see the commands in the lines below. But makefiles can also be quite complicated and scattered across various subdirectories. For details, see the manual for make, or an introduction to make.

As @Romeo Ninov wrote, you can also use the command make -n install so see what commands would be executed. Beware that for larger makefiles this output may not be accurate, and if you haven't built the program yet it will likely show you all the commands to build before showing the commands to install.

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  • What happens if there are multiple make files in the directory when you issue this command sudo make install. Not requiring a filename argument seems strange. Maybe I'll issue a pull request if I only knew what that meant. Commented Nov 20, 2018 at 21:06
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    The default is called Makefile, with capital M. There are not multiple files in one directory named Makefile. You can pass an alternate make file with -f, again for options see the man page. Commented Nov 20, 2018 at 22:58
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If no file arg ist passed to make , make looks for a file named Makefile in current dir. With the switch -f an alternative file can be passed to make. See man make for more information. By the way: make is one of these such good old Unix tools so try to get familiar with it ...

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