When running something like "make install", there is a lot of information displayed in the terminal window. Some lines start with make[1], make[2], make[3] or make[4]. What do these mean? Does this mean there is some kind of error?
+4
A:
When make is invoked recursively, each make distinguishes itself in output messages with a count. That is, messages beginning "make[3]" are from the third make that was invoked. It is not indicative of an error of any kind, but is intended to enable you to keep track of what is happening. In particular, you can tell in which directory make is being run to help debug the build if any errors do occur.
William Pursell
2010-07-30 07:59:57