Indent recipe commands with a tab character.
Section: Recipe portability
Use tabs for recipe lines
makefile
makefile
target:
printf 'hello\n'Explanation
Traditional make syntax requires tabs unless you explicitly use GNU `.RECIPEPREFIX`.
Learn the surrounding workflow
Compare similar commands or jump into common fixes when this command is part of a bigger troubleshooting path.
Related commands
Same sheet · prioritizing Recipe portability
Use shell short-circuit safely
Stop on failure explicitly within one recipe line.
POSIX-style portable rule
Write simple, explicit file rules compatible with standard make.
Avoid eval for POSIX portability
Prefer explicit rules over GNU metaprogramming.
Use standard macros
Honor user-overridable standard compiler variables.