Q:

Make install causes recompiles

I am writing a master makefile to compile and install multiple autoconf based libraries, which depend on each other. All works well for the first go. The issue is: if I am working on one of these libraries individually and do "make && make install" header files in the prefix folder are overwritten (even if they are untouched). This causes all dependent libraries to compile from scratch. 
Is there a way to avoid the unnecessary recompiles without hacking into the makefiles? 

A:

Maybe the solution is a little late, but
./configure INSTALL="install -p"

fixes the recompilation problem. This flag makes GNU install set the timestamps of the installed files to the timestamps of the built files.

