title: How to avoid "No such file or directory" Error for `make clean` Makefile target
body: <p>I have a Makefile that defines a .PHONY clean target for cleaning up .o files and executables, that target looks like:</p>
  
  <pre><code>...
  .PHONY : clean
  clean:
      rm $(addprefix $(vq_DIR),$(vq_OBJS)) \
         $(addprefix $(vq_DIR),vq) \
         $(addprefix $(covq_DIR),$(covq_OBJS)) \
         $(addprefix $(covq_DIR),covq) \
         $(addprefix $(covq_2_DIR),$(covq_2_OBJS)) \
         $(addprefix $(covq_2_DIR),covq_2) \
         $(addprefix $(covq_2_DIR),$(test_OBJS)) \
         $(addprefix $(covq_2_DIR),test)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Everything works as it should, but when some of these files do not exist, <code>rm</code> raises an Error (No such file or directory), and the output says that the Makefile target failed, when it clearly did what I wanted.</p>
  
  <p>Is there a good way to basically tell the <code>rm</code> command to "remove these files if they exist, and don't complain if they don't"? I looked up the manpage for <code>rm</code>, and found no such flag.</p>
  
  <p>Edit: I actually didn't notice the description of the <code>-f</code> flag in the manpage, this is the solution.</p>