i'm trying to build a debug and release version of a library with a Makefile and copy those libraries to the relevant build directories, e.g. .PHONY: all clean distclean all: $(program_NAME_DEBUG) $(CP) $(program_NAME_DEBUG) $(BUILD_DIR)/debug/$(program_NAME_DEBUG) $(RM) $(program_NAME_DEBUG) $(RM) $(program_OBJS) $(program_NAME_RELEASE) $(CP) $(program_NAME_RELEASE) $(BUILD_DIR)/release/$(program_NAME_RELEASE) $(RM) $(program_NAME_RELEASE) $(RM) $(program_OBJS) $(program_NAME_DEBUG): $(program_OBJS) $(LINK_DEBUG.c) -shared -Wl,-soname,$(program_NAME_DEBUG) $(program_OBJS) -o $(program_NAME_DEBUG) $(program_NAME_RELEASE): $(program_OBJS) $(LINK_RELEASE.c) -shared -Wl,-soname,$(program_NAME_RELEASE) $(program_OBJS) -o $(program_NAME_RELEASE) The 1st target in all (program_NAME_DEBUG) compiles OK but the 2nd, (program_NAME_RELEASE) produces the following error: libGlamdring_rel.so make: libGlamdring_rel.so: Command not found make: *** [all] Error 127 libGlamdring_rel.so is the value of program_NAME_RELEASE It doesn't seem to be recognising the 2nd target as it does the 1st?