start and stop a program by make

[Martin Mensch]

Hello,

 

I would like to start a program by using a make rule. I know that compilers and so on are all programs. The ones that I want to start do not finish and so don't send an error code back and as much as I have seen make then just waits for the error code to come. Here is an example:

 

my_rule:

    program1.exe arg1 arg2

    program2.exe arg1 arg2

 

This should start program1 and leave it running and then start program2 and leave it running.

But what I see is this:

program1 starts and nothing else happens. When I manually stop program1 then program2 starts.

 

Another very good thing would be to have a rule like this:

 

my_rule:

    stop program1

    stop program2

 

If they are not running it should do nothing, maybe the '-' prefix will do this?

 

(using make 3.81 under WinXP)

 

Thank you for any help

 

Martin