make prints each line of the recipe before it is
executed. We call this echoing because it gives the appearance
that you are typing the lines yourself.
When a line starts with ‘@’, the echoing of that line is suppressed.
The ‘@’ is discarded before the line is passed to the shell.
Typically you would use this for a command whose only effect is to print
something, such as an
echo command to indicate progress through
@echo About to make distribution files
make is given the flag ‘-n’ or ‘--just-print’ it
only echoes most recipes, without executing them. See Summary of Options. In this case even the recipe lines
starting with ‘@’ are printed. This flag is useful for finding
out which recipes
make thinks are necessary without actually
The ‘-s’ or ‘--silent’
make prevents all echoing, as if all recipes
started with ‘@’. A rule in the makefile for the special target
.SILENT without prerequisites has the same effect
(see Special Built-in Target Names).
.SILENT is essentially obsolete since ‘@’ is more flexible.