How do I fix DWM "make clean install" command error?

Question

I was setting up DWM window manager on debian, but when conpiling it, it came up with an error.

I installed it, then tried to run it with make clean install, but it did not have the make command. I installed it with sudo apt-get install -y make. I tried to run make clean install, but it came up with the error:

make: cc: No such file or directory
make: *** [Makefile:18: drw.o] Error 127

Help?

Answer 1

Doing just make install (sudo if required) the first time should fix the error.

As to why it happens — you probably have a custom Makefile or your rm binary does not understand the -f flag. The upstream Makefile has the following under the clean target:

clean:
    rm -f dwm ${OBJ} dwm-${VERSION}.tar.gz

Ensure that your Makefile also passes the -f flag to rm (which means "ignore nonexistent files").