zsh-make-completion

March 19, 2026 · View on GitHub

Correct, fast make tab completion for zsh.

The built-in zsh make completion parses Makefile text directly, which misses targets generated at eval time via patterns like $(eval $(call ...)). It also surfaces internal make variables as spurious completions. This plugin fixes both.

How it works

Tab completion runs make -qp to fully expand the makefile database, then filters the output with awk to extract only real targets. Results are cached per-directory and invalidated automatically when Makefile or any *.mk file changes, so repeated tab presses are instant.

Filtered from results

Pattern rules containing %
Make variables leaking through as targets (VAR :=, VAR ?=, etc.)
Special targets beginning with .
Unexpanded template bodies containing $
Targets containing whitespace

Installation

oh-my-zsh (recommended)

Clone into your oh-my-zsh custom plugins directory:

   git clone https://github.com/pksublime/zsh-make-completion \
     ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-make-completion

Add zsh-make-completion to the plugins array in your .zshrc:

   plugins=(... zsh-make-completion)

Reload your shell:

   exec zsh

Manual

Copy zsh-make-completion.plugin.zsh to ~/.zsh/make-completion.zsh (or any path you prefer).
Add the following to your .zshrc after the compinit call:

   [[ -f ~/.zsh/make-completion.zsh ]] && source ~/.zsh/make-completion.zsh

Reload your shell:

   exec zsh

Cache

Completion results are cached in ${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/zsh-make-completion/, keyed by a checksum of $PWD. The cache is invalidated when Makefile, makefile, GNUmakefile, or any *.mk file in the project root or mk/ subdirectory is newer than the cached result.

To manually clear the cache:

rm ${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/zsh-make-completion/*

Requirements

zsh with compinit loaded
make (GNU Make)
awk, sort, cksum (standard on macOS and Linux)