Can GNU make execute a rule whenever an error occurs?

Question

This is slightly different from Can a Makefile execute code ONLY when an error has occurred?.

I\'d like a rule or special target that is made whenever an error occurs (i

Answer 1

Gnu doesn't support it explicitly, but there's ways to hack almost anything. Make returns 1 if any of the makes fail. This means that you could, on the command line, rerun make with your error rule if the first make failed:

make || make error_targ

Of course, I'll assume you just want to put the added complexity within the makefile itself. If this is the case, you can create a recursive make file:

all: 
     $(MAKE) normal_targ || $(MAKE) error_targ

normal_targ:
      ... normal make rules ...

error_targ:
      ... other make rules ...

This will cause the makefile to try to build normal_targ, and iff it fails, it will run error_targ. It makes it a bit harder to read the makefile for the inexperienced, but it puts all the logic in one place.