phony target in make

When you execute make clean, you are using phony target. phony target is a target that doesn't have the dependencies, but only the actions.

# Naming our phony targets
.PHONY: clean install

# Removing the executable and the object files
clean: 
		rm sample main.o example.o
		echo clean: make complete

# Installing the final product
install:
		cp sample /usr/local
		echo install: make complete

• What is the purpose of .PHONY in a makefile?
• Phony Targets