title: What does $< (dollar sign + left trianglular bracket) mean in a makefile?
body: <p>I am trying to understand a simple command-line string that executes Javac and passes it some simple arguments.  The complete command line is:</p>
  
  <pre><code>javac -d $(OUTPATH) -sourcepath $(SOURCEPATH) $&lt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Everything in this line is straightforward and understandable to me except for the final tokens: <code>$&lt;</code>.</p>
  
  <p>What do these tokens mean?</p>
  
  <p>ADDENDUM:  Indeed, the commenters are correct.  This line occurs within a makefile.  It is obvious to me now, but not when I wrote this question, that a makefile is passed to <code>make</code> and is not a shell script.</p>
  
  <p>Please note: <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/924652/what-do-and-represent-in-a-makefile">What do $&lt; and $@ represent in a Makefile?</a> also discusses this (I did not see it when I looked for previous questions about this).</p>