Why does my target always recompile executable, even if nothing has changed in code?

Question

I'm almost new in writing Makefiles, so sorry for possible trivial mistakes.

My Makefile keeps recompiling the executable file (.out) even if nothing has changed in source code. The target has some dependencies on other objects, but they don't recompile their source files (as expected). So, why does the target recompile the .out file instead?

Any other advice would be really appreciated.

# -*- Makefile -*-

CC:= nvcc
CFLAGS:= -std=c++14 -g -DMEASURES
ALLFLAGS:= $(CFLAGS) -Iinclude/ 
LOWPAR:= $(ALLFLAGS) -DLOWPAR


BIN:=bin/
SRC:=src/
INCLUDE:=include/


.PHONY: future managed stream clean

####DEVICE####
#cos future, stream, managed
future: $(BIN)main_cos.o $(BIN)farmkernels.o $(BIN)cudaUtils.o
    $(CC) $(ALLFLAGS) $(BIN)main_cos.o $(BIN)farmkernels.o $(BIN)cudaUtils.o -o $(BIN)future.out

managed: $(BIN)main_cos.o $(BIN)farmkernels.o $(BIN)cudaUtils.o
    $(CC) $(ALLFLAGS) $(BIN)main_cos.o $(BIN)farmkernels.o $(BIN)cudaUtils.o -o $(BIN)managed.out

stream: $(BIN)main_cos.o $(BIN)farmkernels.o $(BIN)cudaUtils.o
    $(CC) $(ALLFLAGS) $(BIN)main_cos.o $(BIN)farmkernels.o $(BIN)cudaUtils.o -o $(BIN)stream.out


$(BIN)main_cos.o: $(SRC)main_cos.cpp $(INCLUDE)cosFutStr.h $(INCLUDE)cudaUtils.h
    $(CC) $(ALLFLAGS) -c $(SRC)main_cos.cpp -D$(shell echo $(MAKECMDGOALS) | tr a-z A-Z) -o $(BIN)main_cos.o

$(BIN)farmkernels.o:  $(SRC)farmkernels.cu $(INCLUDE)cosFutStr.h $(INCLUDE)cudaUtils.h
    $(CC) $(ALLFLAGS) -c $(SRC)farmkernels.cu -o $(BIN)farmkernels.o

$(BIN)cudaUtils.o: $(SRC)cudaUtils.cpp  $(INCLUDE)cudaUtils.h
    $(CC) $(ALLFLAGS) -c $(SRC)cudaUtils.cpp -o $(BIN)cudaUtils.o

####clean####
clean:
    rm -f $(BIN)*.o 
    rm -f $(BIN)*.out

For example when I type

make future

the first time I get everything compiled:

nvcc -std=c++14 -g -DMEASURES -Iinclude/  -c src/main_cos.cpp -DFUTURE -o bin/main_cos.o
nvcc -std=c++14 -g -DMEASURES -Iinclude/  -c src/farmkernels.cu -o bin/farmkernels.o
nvcc -std=c++14 -g -DMEASURES -Iinclude/  -c src/cudaUtils.cpp -o bin/cudaUtils.o
nvcc -std=c++14 -g -DMEASURES -Iinclude/  bin/main_cos.o bin/farmkernels.o bin/cudaUtils.o -o bin/future.out

If I don't change the code and immediately re-type make future, I expect something like "nothing to be done for...". What I get instead is:

nvcc -std=c++14 -g -DMEASURES -Iinclude/  bin/main_cos.o bin/farmkernels.o bin/cudaUtils.o -o bin/future.out

Answer 1

You specifically told make to always rebuild without considering dependency timestamps:

.PHONY: future managed stream clean

make is doing what you asked.

---

If you want nice named targets without causing a rebuild, don't write rules for the named targets. Instead, give them dependencies. As you've already noticed, .PHONY doesn't force rebuild all the dependencies, it only runs the direct rule.

.PHONY: future managed stream clean

future: $(BIN)future.out

$(BIN)future.out: $(BIN)main_cos.o $(BIN)farmkernels.o $(BIN)cudaUtils.o
    $(CC) $(ALLFLAGS) $+ -o $@

(Also used automatic variables according to "Don't Repeat Yourself" principle)