trouble cleaning the right files ..

[sharan basappa]

** sorry for such a long post, but I dont know how else to explain this **

I am having trouble cleaning up the right set of files. Basically the make 
is divided into a
a top make file which includes module level makes. Top make has a target 
called clean_all
which has module level clean targets as prereqs as follows :
clean_all : $(clean)

Each module make appends its clean target to clean variable as :
clean     += clean_dir1 .. so eventually clean_all looks like
clean_all : clean_dir1 clean_dir2

clean_dir1 (for example) rule is :

clean_dir1 :
       \rm $(local_objs)

Each module make has the following common lines at the beginning ..
local_dir  := dir1
local_src  := $(addprefix $(local_dir)/,print1dir1.c)
local_src  += $(addprefix $(local_dir)/,print2dir1.c)
local_objs := $(subst .c,.o,$(local_src))

When I try cleaning with clean_all target, make throws out the following :

Reading makefile `SmallPrjMain.mk'...
Reading makefile `dir1/dir1.mk' (search path) (no ~ expansion)...
Reading makefile `dir2/dir2.mk' (search path) (no ~ expansion)...
Updating goal targets....
Considering target file `clean_all'.
File `clean_all' does not exist.
 Considering target file `clean_dir1'.
  File `clean_dir1' does not exist.
  Finished prerequisites of target file `clean_dir1'.
 Must remake target `clean_dir1'.
\rm dir2/print1dir2.o dir2/print2dir2.o
rm: cannot lstat `dir2/print1dir2.o': No such file or directory
rm: cannot lstat `dir2/print2dir2.o': No such file or directory
make: *** [clean_dir1] Error 1

I expect that clean_all should lead to clean_dir1 and clean_dir2.
This should result in \rm dir1/print1dir1.o dir1/print2dir1 and
                           \rm dir2/print1dir2.o dir2/print2dir2

But clean_all always leads to dir2/print1dir2.o dir2/print2dir2.o

I can see that make has the right rule and has proper prereqs.
But it seems defered variable substitution for local_objs in the
command is causing this issue. I know that this is how make
is expected to work, but given a problem of my kind, what
is the way out.

I can think of appending all objects to a variable and use it,
but if I want to clean objects relating to a particular target alone
then I am stuck ..

I am pasting all the 3 make file I am using

top make file

programs :=
sources  :=
clean    :=
objects  :=

dependencies  = $(subst .c,.d,$(sources));

include_dirs := lib include

CPPFLAGS     += $(addprefix -I,$(include_dirs))

programs     += main.c

vpath %.h $(include_dirs)
VPATH = dir1:dir2

MV  := mv -f
RM  := rm -f
SED := sed

all:
include dir1/dir1.mk
include dir2/dir2.mk

objects  := $(subst .c,.o,$(sources))

.PHONY : all

all :  main

main : main.o $(objects)

.PHONY : clean_all

clean_all : $(clean)
       echo clean

dir1.mk

local_dir  := dir1
local_src  := $(addprefix $(local_dir)/,print1dir1.c)
local_src  += $(addprefix $(local_dir)/,print2dir1.c)
local_objs := $(subst .c,.o,$(local_src))

libraries += $(local_lib)
sources   += $(local_src)

programs  += dir1
clean     += clean_dir1

dir1 : $(local_objs)

.PHONY : clean_dir1
clean_dir1 :
       \rm $(local_objs)
~
dir2.mk

local_dir  := dir2
local_src  := $(addprefix $(local_dir)/,print1dir2.c)
local_src  += $(addprefix $(local_dir)/,print2dir2.c)
local_objs := $(subst .c,.o,$(local_src))

libraries += $(local_lib)
sources   += $(local_src)

programs  += dir2
clean     += clean_dir2

dir2 : $(local_objs)

.PHONY : clean_dir2
clean_dir2 :
       \rm $(local_objs)


Shell command

make -f SmallPrjMain.mk clean_all --debug=verbose

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