checking if a.out exists then remove with make clean otherwise do try to remove -- Makefile-CodePudding

I have this simple makefile, after running make command I get output parser that I runs like #: ./parser but sometimes it also generate a.out So when make doesn't generate a.out with last make command then running make clean gives warning that rm: can not remove a.out, No such file or directory

So I like my make clean command also check if a.out exists then remove otherwise dont try to remove. How can I do it in makefile inside clean: ....

parser: header.h parser.c
    gcc header.h parser.c -o parser
    
clean:
    rm parser a.out

CodePudding user response：

The usual way of doing it is to remove by force:

clean:
    rm -f parser a.out

From rm manpage:

-f, --force
ignore nonexistent files and arguments, never prompt