Kernel Compiletion (make target)

Informational Targets

Target	Description
kernelrelease	Displays the current kernel version, as determined by the build system.
kernelversion	Displays the current kernel version, as told by the main Makefile. This differs from the kernelrelease target in that it doesn’t use any additional version information based on configuration options or localversion files.

Cleaning Targets

Target	Description
clean	Removes most of the files generated by the kernel build system, but keeps the kernel configuration.
mrproper	Removes all of the generated files by the kernel build system, including the configuration and some various backup files.
distclean	Does everything mrproper does and removes some editor backup and patch leftover files.

Configuration Targets

Target	Description
config	Updates the current kernel configuration by using a line-oriented program.
menuconfig	Updates the current kernel configuration by using a text-based menu program.
xconfig	Updates the current kernel configuration by using a QT-based graphical program.
gconfig	Updates the current kernel configuration by using a GTK+-based graphical program.
oldconfig	Updates the current kernel configuration by using the current .config file and prompting for any new options that have been added to the kernel.
silentoldconfig	Just like oldconfig, but prints nothing to the screen except when a question needs to be answered.
randconfig	Generates a new kernel configuration with random answers to all of the different options.
defconfig	Generates a new kernel configuration with the default answer being used for all options. The default values are taken from a file located in the arch/$ARCH/defconfig file, where $ARCH refers to the specific architecture for which the kernel is being built.
allmodconfig	Generates a new kernel configuration in which modules are enabled whenever possible.

allyesconfig	Generates a new kernel configuration with all options set to yes.
allnoconfig	Generates a new kernel configuration with all options set to no.

Build Targets

Target	Description
all	Builds all of the different targets needed for this kernel to be able to be used. This includes both the modules and the static portion of the kernel.
vmlinux	Builds just the static portion of the kernel, not any loadable modules.
modules	Builds all of the loadable kernel modules for this configuration.
modules_install	Installs all of the modules into the specified location. If no location is specified with the INSTALL_MODULE_PATH environment variable, they are installed in the default root directory of the machine.
dir/	Builds all of the files in the specified directory and in all subdirectories below it.
dir/file.[o|i|s]	Builds only the specified file.
dir/file.ko	Builds all of the needed files and links them together to form the specified module.
tags	Builds all of the needed tags that most common text editors can use while editing the source code.
TAGS	Builds all of the needed tags that most common text editors can use while editing the source code.
cscope	Builds a cscope image, useful in source tree searches, of the source tree for the architecture specified by the configuration file (not all of the kernel source files).

Environment variables

Variable	Value	Description
V	0	This tells the build system to run in a quiet manner, showing only the file that is currently being built, and not the entire command that is running in order to build that file. This is the default option for the build system.
V	1	This tells the build system to operate in a verbose way, showing the full command that is being used to generate each of the specific files.
O	dir	This tells the build system to locate all output files in the dir directory, including the kernel configuration files. This allows the kernel to be built from a read-only filesystem and have the output placed in another location.
C	1	This checks all C files that are about to be built with the sparse tool, which detects common programming errors in the kernel source files. sparse can be downloaded using git from git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/devel/sparse/sparse.git. Nightly snapshots can be found at http://www.codemonkey.org.uk/projects/git-snapshots/sparse/. More information on how to use sparse can be found in the Documentation/sparse.txt file in the kernel source tree.
C	2	This forces all C files to be checked with the sparse tool, even if they did not need to be built.

Packaging Targets

Target	Description
rpm	Builds the kernel first and then packages it up as a RPM package that can be installed.
rpm-pkg	Builds a source RPM package containing the base kernel.
binrpm-pkg	Builds a RPM package that contains a compiled kernel and modules.
deb-pkg	Builds a Debian package that contains the compiled kernel and modules.
tar-pkg	Builds a tarball that contains the compiled kernel and modules.
targz-pkg	Builds a gzip-compressed tarball that contains the compiled kernel and modules.
tarbz2-pkg	Builds a bzip2-compressed tarball that contains the compiled kernel and modules.

Documentation Targets

Target	Description
xmldocs	Builds the kernel documentation as XML DocBook files.
psdocs	Builds the kernel documentation as PostScript files.
pdfdocs	Builds the kernel documentation as PDF files.
htmldocs	Builds the kernel documentation as HTML files.
mandocs	Builds the kernel documentation as a set of manpages, which can then be installed with the installmandocs target.

Architecture-Specific Targets

Target	Description
bzImage	Creates a compressed kernel image and places it in the arch/i386/boot/bzImage file. This is the default target for the i386 kernel build.
install	Installs the kernel image using the distribution-specific /sbin/installkernel program. Note that this does not install the kernel modules; that must be done with the modules_install target.
bzdisk	Creates a boot floppy image and writes it to the /dev/fd0 device.
fdimage	Creates a boot floppy image and places it in the file arch/i386/boot/fdimage. The mtools package must be present on your system in order for this to work properly.
isoimage	Creates a CD-ROM boot image and places it in the file arch/i396/boot/image.iso. The syslinux package must be present on your system in order for this to work properly.

Analysis Targets

Target	Description
checkstack	Generate a list of the functions that use the most of the kernel stack space.
namespacecheck	Generate a list of all of the kernel symbols and their namespaces. This will be a large list.