What does $ <(dollar sign + left triangular bracket) mean in the makefile?

Question

I am trying to understand a simple command line that Javac executes and passes some simple arguments to it. Full command line:

 javac -d $(OUTPATH) -sourcepath $(SOURCEPATH) $< 

Everything in this line is clear and understandable to me, with the exception of the final tokens: $< .

What do these tokens mean?

ADD: Indeed, the commentators are correct. This line is found in the makefile. This is obvious to me now, but not when I wrote this question that the make file is passed to make and is not a shell script.

Note: What do $ <and [email protected] represent in the Makefile? also discusses this (I did not see this when I was looking for previous questions about this).

Answer 1

It looks like something from a makefile, not a command line. In this case, $< expands to the first precondition of the current target. That is, the .java file that the .class target depends on.