Using Makefile to clean subdirectories

Question

Is it possible to perform a make clean from the parent directory which also recursively cleans all sub-directories without having to include a makefile in each sub-directory?

Answer 1

ALL_MOD = $(shell find . -maxdepth 1 -type d )
ALL_MOD_CLEAN = $(addsuffix .clean, $(ALL_MOD))

.PHONY: $(ALL_MOD_CLEAN) $(ALL_MOD) default all clean

$(ALL_MOD_CLEAN): 
    $(E) "cleaning $(basename $@)"
    if [ -e $(basename $@)/Makefile ] ; then \
            $(MAKE) -C $(basename $@) clean ;\
    fi 

clean: $(ALL_MOD_CLEAN)
    $(E) "cleaning complete: " $(ALL_MOD)

add '.' to the suffix and use $(basename ...) instead of original target otherwise will be re-making all files every time need just to clean the project