Linux Kernel in a Nutshell

Build Targets

These targets build the kernel itself in a variety of ways.

Table 10-4. 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).

You can also pass a number of environment variables to make that will change the build. These can be specified for almost any target.

Table 10-5. Environment variables

Variable	Value	Description
V	0	This tells the build system to run ...