Override target in makefile to add more commands?

Question

At work we use a common makefile that other makefiles include (via the include statement) and it has a generic \"clean\" target that kills some common files. I want to add

Answer 1

You can write your own clean and make it a preq of the common clean.

clean: myclean

myclean:
    rm whatever

Yours will run first. If for some reason you want the common clean to run first then the solution will be more complicated.

EDIT:

Here is the best solution I can see which runs the common rule before the local one:

include Makefile.common

clean:
    $(MAKE) -f Makefile.common $@
    rm whatever additional things

The include directive is necessary because the local makefile relies on the common one for things other than clean. The local clean rule overrides the common clean rule, but invokes the common clean rule before doing the additional work. (This overriding will cause some warnings, which is a nuisance; I don't know a good way to silence them.)