Is it possible to run make install from another directory?

[Alex_Baggott]

Hi all. I know that

make install

is run from inside the directory which contains the makefile. Is it possible to run make install on this directory from outside of it?

[sisco311]

Why?

[steeldriver]

You could use the -C flag, I think

       -C dir, --directory=dir
            Change to directory dir before reading the makefiles or doing any‐
            thing else.  If multiple -C options are specified, each is  inter‐
            preted  relative to the previous one: -C / -C etc is equivalent to
            -C /etc.  This is typically used  with  recursive  invocations  of
            make.

i.e.

make -C path/to/dir/containing/makefile install

e.g.

$ make -C forums/src/ hello
make: Entering directory `/home/steeldriver/Documents/forums/src'
g++ -Wall -g -o hello hello.cpp

[Alex_Baggott]

Thanks. That worked beautifully.

For any others wondering about this, it also works with "make install", i.e.:

make install -C  <directory_name>