It shouldn't say that because that's not true. The "How to Run `make'" page describes the exit status of make and it's true of "make -n" as well. In particular, it will have exit status 2 if something fails, such as the processing to update a Makefile, and "make -nq" will return 1 if something wasn't up to date.
Philip Guenther On Wed, Nov 4, 2026 at 6:14 PM Dan Jacobson <[email protected]> wrote: > > On (info "(make) Instead of Execution") at > > ‘-n’ > ‘--just-print’ > ‘--dry-run’ > ‘--recon’ > > "No-op". Causes ‘make’ to print the recipes that are needed to > make the targets up to date, but not actually execute them. Note > that some recipes are still executed, even with this flag (*note > How the ‘MAKE’ Variable Works: MAKE Variable.). Also any recipes > needed to update included makefiles are still executed (*note How > Makefiles Are Remade: Remaking Makefiles.). > > also mention that the return value to the shell is apparently always > "success" (0), no matter what. >
