SEE UPDATES BELOW
Research Done: I'm finding learning how to evolve Makefiles from one situation to another is difficult. There are a ton of questions and answers out there but few of them actually show how a Makefile can evolve as your project changes. They also all seem to use various different techniques and idioms of Makefiles so translating between one question and another can be tricky when you are learning Makefiles for the first time, as I am.
Problem: My problem is that I have a project that started at as a flat directory structure but then is migrating to a structure with sub-directories. What I can't do is get my Makefile to along for the ride.
First I'll show what I created that works and then I show how I want it to evolve and how that doesn't work.
Flat Directory Structure, Working Makefile
I have project directory that has all my C files and one header file plus my Makefile:
project
Makefile
c8_asm.c
c8_dasm.c
c8_terp.c
chip8.h
Here is my Makefile (which works just fine):
CC = gcc
CFLAGS += -c -Wall -std=c99
CFLAGS += -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=200809L
LDLIBS += -lm
# Targets
all: c8_dasm c8_asm c8_terp
c8_dasm: c8_dasm.o
$(CC) $(LDLIBS) c8_dasm.o -o $#
c8_asm: c8_asm.o
$(CC) $(LDLIBS) c8_asm.o -o $#
c8_terp: c8_terp.o
$(CC) $(LDLIBS) c8_terp.o -o $#
# Using implicit rules for updating an '.o' file from a correspondingly
# named '.c' file.
c8_dasm.o: chip8.h
c8_asm.o: chip8.h
c8_terp.o: chip8.h
.PHONY: clean
clean:
rm c8_dasm c8_asm c8_terp c8_dasm.o c8_asm.o c8_terp.o
I get all my .o files and my executables are created in the project directory.
Evolving The Project
But what I wanted to do is have my sources files (all .c and .h) in a src directory. I wanted to build into an obj directory and have the executables go in a bin directory. So my project would look like this:
project
src
c8_asm.c
c8_dasm.c
c8_terp.c
chip8.h
Makefile
Sub-Directory Structure, Makefile NOT Working
To accommodate the above, I changed my Makefile accordingly:
CC = gcc
CFLAGS += -c -Wall -std=c99
CFLAGS += -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=200809L
LDLIBS += -lm
SRC_DIR = src
OBJ_DIR = obj
BIN_DIR = bin
SOURCES := $(wildcard $(SRC_DIR)/*.c)
OBJECTS := $(SOURCES:$(SRC_DIR)/%.c=$(OBJ_DIR)/%.o)
MKDIR_P ?= mkdir -p
# Targets
all: $(BIN_DIR)/c8_dasm $(BIN_DIR)/c8_asm $(BIN_DIR)/c8_terp
$(BIN_DIR)/c8_dasm: $(OBJ_DIR)/c8_dasm.o
$(CC) $(LDLIBS) $(OBJ_DIR)/c8_dasm.o -o $#
$(BIN_DIR)/c8_asm: $(OBJ_DIR)/c8_asm.o
$(CC) $(LDLIBS) $(OBJ_DIR)/c8_asm.o -o $#
$(BIN_DIR)/c8_terp: $(OBJ_DIR)/c8_terp.o
$(MKDIR_P) $(dir $#)
$(CC) $(LDLIBS) $(OBJ_DIR)/c8_terp.o -o $#
$(OBJECTS): $(OBJ_DIR)/%.o : $(SRC_DIR)/%.c
$(MKDIR_P) $(dir $#)
$(CC) $< -o $(OBJ_DIR)/$#
# Using implicit rules for updating an '.o' file from a correspondingly
# named '.c' file.
$(OBJ_DIR)/c8_dasm.o: $(SRC_DIR)/chip8.h
$(OBJ_DIR)/c8_asm.o: $(SRC_DIR)/chip8.h
$(OBJ_DIR)/c8_terp.o: $(SRC_DIR)/chip8.h
.PHONY: clean
clean:
rm -r $(BUILD_DIR)
rm $(OBJECTS)
Upon running this I get the following:
mkdir -p obj/obj/
gcc src/c8_dasm.c -o obj/c8_dasm.o
gcc -lm obj/c8_dasm.o -o bin/c8_dasm
ld: can't link with a main executable file 'obj/c8_dasm.o' for architecture x86_64
clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)
make: *** [bin/c8_dasm] Error 1
I wanted to stop here and get some assistance because I fear I'm making this Makefile for complicated than it need be and I'm trying to avoid getting into bad habits.
I'm hoping to hear opinions about what I'm not conceptualizing correctly here.
FIRST UPDATE
I managed to take it bit by bit and get it mostly working. Here is what I ended up with:
CC = gcc
CFLAGS += -c -Wall -std=c99
CFLAGS += -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=200809L
LDLIBS += -lm
# Directories.
SRC_DIR = src
BIN_DIR = bin
$(shell mkdir -p $(BIN_DIR))
# Patterns for files.
SOURCES := $(wildcard $(SRC_DIR)/*.c)
OBJECTS := $(SOURCES:$(SRC_DIR)/%.c=$(SRC_DIR)/%.o)
EXECUTABLES := c8_dasm c8_asm c8_terp
# Targets
all: $(EXECUTABLES)
c8_dasm: $(SRC_DIR)/c8_dasm.o
$(CC) $^ $(LDLIBS) -o $(BIN_DIR)/$#
#echo "C8 Disassembler Built"
c8_asm: $(SRC_DIR)/c8_asm.o
$(CC) $^ $(LDLIBS) -o $(BIN_DIR)/$#
#echo "C8 Assembler Built"
c8_terp: $(SRC_DIR)/c8_terp.o
$(CC) $^ $(LDLIBS) -o $(BIN_DIR)/$#
#echo "C8 Interpreter Built"
# Using implicit rules for updating an '.o' file from a correspondingly
# named '.c' file.
c8_dasm.o: $(SRC_DIR)/chip8.h
c8_asm.o: $(SRC_DIR)/chip8.h
c8_terp.o: $(SRC_DIR)/chip8.h
.PHONY: clean
clean:
rm $(OBJECTS)
rm -r $(BIN_DIR)
Of course, as I'm finding with Make this leads to other obscure problems. For example doing this:
make
make clean
works fine. Meaning all files are generated and the files are cleaned, including the bin directory.
However, if I do this:
make c8_dasm
make clean
This builds fine. But the clean fails to delete the bin directory (although it does delete the object files). This happens regardless of what individual executable I try to build.
No amount of searching is helping me find out why that is.
SECOND UPDATE
I found that problem was solved as well. It just required using the "-f" for the rm statements in the clean target.
THIRD UPDATE
To get the object file directory part working, I tried (from this: path include and src directory makefile) to construct my Makefile as follows:
CC = gcc
CFLAGS += -c -Wall -std=c99
CFLAGS += -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=200809L
LDLIBS += -lm
SRC_DIR = src
OBJ_DIR = obj
BIN_DIR = bin
$(shell mkdir -p $(BIN_DIR))
$(shell mkdir -p $(OBJ_DIR))
SOURCES := $(wildcard $(SRC_DIR)/*.c)
OBJECTS := $(SOURCES:$(SRC_DIR)/%.c=$(OBJ_DIR)/%.o)
EXECUTABLES := c8_dasm c8_asm c8_terp
all: $(EXECUTABLES)
c8_dasm: $(SRC_DIR)/c8_dasm.o
$(CC) $^ $(LDLIBS) -o $(BIN_DIR)/$#
#echo "C8 Disassembler Built"
c8_asm: $(SRC_DIR)/c8_asm.o
$(CC) $^ $(LDLIBS) -o $(BIN_DIR)/$#
#echo "C8 Assembler Built"
c8_terp: $(SRC_DIR)/c8_terp.o
$(CC) $^ $(LDLIBS) -o $(BIN_DIR)/$#
#echo "C8 Interpreter Built"
$(OBJ_DIR)/%.o: $(SRC_DIR)/%.c
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c $< -o $(BIN_DIR)/$#
.PHONY: clean
clean:
rm -rf $(BIN_DIR)
rm -f $(OBJECTS)
I was able to condense the original three lines using chip8.h into one target but I have no way to know if that's correct. It compiles at least. I also changed the OBJECTS line to reflect the new OBJ_DIR I created.
However, this doesn't put the object files in the right place. It still puts them in the src directory rather than the obj directory.
This is why it makes sense to not do anything complicated with Makefiles. Just put the actual directory names in your commands. Never rely on wildcards.
People using C and C++ and using Makefiles spend too much time trying to get those to work rather than just actually getting things done. That's why you see so many of the questions that you see and why the answers vary so much.
In your specific case, your targets don't always have to contain the directory and that's part of the problem. The rules getting generated don't have an actual target in your file because of the directories you are prepending to everything. You have to think in terms of what is getting generated by each target: meaning, the output. So if c8_dasm is getting output, that's your target. The directory has nothing to do with that. So you need to remove all of your directory substitutions where they aren't needed.
But before doing that, ask yourself this: if your first solution was working, why change it? It's better to not even do directories when you're using Make. Just have everything in the same directory as you started off with. You can even see that this allows your Makefile to be much cleaner.
I believe I may have figured this out. Below is my Makefile. It seems to do what I want. It does the following:
Compiles all object files into the obj directory.
Compiles and links so that executables are generated in the bin directory.
Recognizes if any .c files are changed and recompiles accordingly.
Recognizes if the .h file is changed and recompiles all C files that reference it.
This seems to satisfy all the criteria but I can't tell if I've painted myself into some corner that I can't see yet.
CC = gcc
CFLAGS += -c -Wall -std=c99
CFLAGS += -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=200809L
LDLIBS += -lm
SRC_DIR = src
OBJ_DIR = obj
BIN_DIR = bin
$(shell mkdir -p $(BIN_DIR))
$(shell mkdir -p $(OBJ_DIR))
SOURCES := $(wildcard $(SRC_DIR)/*.c)
OBJECTS := $(SOURCES:$(SRC_DIR)/%.c=$(OBJ_DIR)/%.o)
EXECUTABLES := c8_dasm c8_asm c8_terp
all: $(EXECUTABLES)
c8_dasm: $(OBJ_DIR)/c8_dasm.o
$(CC) $^ $(LDLIBS) -o $(BIN_DIR)/$#
#echo "C8 Disassembler Built"
c8_asm: $(OBJ_DIR)/c8_asm.o
$(CC) $^ $(LDLIBS) -o $(BIN_DIR)/$#
#echo "C8 Assembler Built"
c8_terp: $(OBJ_DIR)/c8_terp.o
$(CC) $^ $(LDLIBS) -o $(BIN_DIR)/$#
#echo "C8 Interpreter Built"
$(OBJ_DIR)/%.o: $(SRC_DIR)/%.c $(SRC_DIR)/chip8.h
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c $< -o $#
.PHONY: clean
clean:
rm -rf $(BIN_DIR)
rm -rf $(OBJ_DIR)
Stackoverflow is whining about too many comments, so I'll make this another "answer." After our back-and-forth to my original comment, your last comment is correct. That's what I wanted you to see.
Understand that you can't use Make to do what you want to do exactly.
So here's really the answer: You can't create multiple executables AND with only some of the object files applying to each one AND while using a directory structure. Make is in no way capable of handling that.
Right now you're trying to use Make in a way that it wasn't intended for which is why you're running into so many problems. If you keep playing around you're going to run into is a series of errors that say "duplicate symbol" because you will be compiling each of your files multiple times for each executable, assuming you follow most of the advice you'll find.
Check out this How can I create a Makefile for C projects with SRC, OBJ, and BIN subdirectories? to see what I mean. That one works because all object files are being used to create a single executable. But as you've stated, that's not going to be the case for you. And that's what Make can't handle. That's why you're not finding an answer to that.
And while your chip8.h file is now not going to cause problems in terms of allowing you to compile, your Makefile with that third update would not recognize when the chip8.h file itself has changed. You would have to change a .c file to force a recompile so that changes to your .h were recognized. So you either have to stick with your second update or use something other than Make.
I have created a Makefile like this
CC = sdcc
SRCS = $(PNAME).c\
../../src/gpio.c
../../src/timers.c
../../src/i2c.c
$HDRS = -I../../headers
all:
mkdir -p ./output
$(CC) $(SRCS) -lstm8 -mstm8 $(HDRS)
The problem is, sdcc can only compile one source at a time. So I need to perform something like a foreach on each source I have defined in SRCS variable. How to do this in gnu-make?
According to the docs, you must compile the files other than the one containing main() separately, to produce .rel files, then include those in the compilation command for the main file. There are several variations on how you could do that. The following avoids features specific to GNU make:
# We're assuming POSIX conformance
.POSIX:
CC = sdcc
# In case you ever want a different name for the main source file
MAINSRC = $(PMAIN).c
# These are the sources that must be compiled to .rel files:
EXTRASRCS = \
../../src/gpio.c \
../../src/timers.c \
../../src/i2c.c
# The list of .rel files can be derived from the list of their source files
RELS = $(EXTRASRCS:.c=.rel)
INCLUDES = -I../../headers
CFLAGS = -mstm8
LIBS = -lstm8
# This just provides the conventional target name "all"; it is optional
# Note: I assume you set PNAME via some means not exhibited in your original file
all: $(PNAME)
# How to build the overall program
$(PNAME): $(MAINSRC) $(RELS)
$(CC) $(INCLUDES) $(CFLAGS) $(MAINSRC) $(RELS) $(LIBS)
# How to build any .rel file from its corresponding .c file
# GNU would have you use a pattern rule for this, but that's GNU-specific
.c.rel:
$(CC) -c $(INCLUDES) $(CFLAGS) $<
# Suffixes appearing in suffix rules we care about.
# Necessary because .rel is not one of the standard suffixes.
.SUFFIXES: .c .rel
If you look carefully, by the way, you will see that the file does not explicitly perform any looping over the source files, or any such thing. It just describes how to build each target, including intermediate targets. make figures out on its own how to combine those rules to go from sources to final program (or to any other target you specify from among those you've taught it to build).
Use patsubst. Typically it is something like:
SOURCES := $(wildcard *.c)
OBJECTS := $(patsubst %.c,%.o,${SOURCES})
prog: ${OBJECTS}
cc $^ -o $#
%.o: %.c
cc $< -c -o $#
I would like to build a C-project for my microcontroller with the GNU make tool. I would like to do it in a clean way, such that my source code is not cluttered with object files and other stuff after the build. So imagine that I have a project folder, called "myProject" with two folders in it:
- myProject
|
|---+ source
|
'---+ build
The build folder only contains a makefile. The figure below shows what should happen when I run the GNU make tool:
So GNU make should create an object file for each .c source file it can find in the source folder. The object files should be structured in a directory tree that is similar to the structure in the source folder.
GNU make should also make a .d dependency file (in fact, a dependency file is some sort of makefile itself) for each .c source file. The dependency file is described in the GNU make manual chapter 4.14 "Generating Prerequisites Automatically":
For each source file name.c there is a makefile name.d which lists
what files the object file name.o depends on.
From the following Stackoverflow question About the GNU make dependency files *.d, I learned that adding the options -MMD and -MP to the CFLAGS of the GNU gcc compiler can help to automate that.
So now comes the question. Has anyone a sample makefile that performs such out-of-source build? Or some good advices on how to get started?
I'm pretty sure that most people who have written such a makefile, are Linux-people. But the microcontroller project should build also on a Windows machine. Anyway, even if your makefile is Linux-only, it provides a good starting point ;-)
PS: I would like to avoid extra tools like CMake, Autotools, or anything that has to do with an IDE. Just pure GNU make.
I would be very grateful :-)
Updating the dependency files
Please have a look at this question: What is the exact chain of events when GNU make updates the .d files?
Here's the Makefile I've added to the documentation (currently in review so I'll post it here) :
# Set project directory one level above the Makefile directory. $(CURDIR) is a GNU make variable containing the path to the current working directory
PROJDIR := $(realpath $(CURDIR)/..)
SOURCEDIR := $(PROJDIR)/Sources
BUILDDIR := $(PROJDIR)/Build
# Name of the final executable
TARGET = myApp.exe
# Decide whether the commands will be shown or not
VERBOSE = TRUE
# Create the list of directories
DIRS = Folder0 Folder1 Folder2
SOURCEDIRS = $(foreach dir, $(DIRS), $(addprefix $(SOURCEDIR)/, $(dir)))
TARGETDIRS = $(foreach dir, $(DIRS), $(addprefix $(BUILDDIR)/, $(dir)))
# Generate the GCC includes parameters by adding -I before each source folder
INCLUDES = $(foreach dir, $(SOURCEDIRS), $(addprefix -I, $(dir)))
# Add this list to VPATH, the place make will look for the source files
VPATH = $(SOURCEDIRS)
# Create a list of *.c sources in DIRS
SOURCES = $(foreach dir,$(SOURCEDIRS),$(wildcard $(dir)/*.c))
# Define objects for all sources
OBJS := $(subst $(SOURCEDIR),$(BUILDDIR),$(SOURCES:.c=.o))
# Define dependencies files for all objects
DEPS = $(OBJS:.o=.d)
# Name the compiler
CC = gcc
# OS specific part
ifeq ($(OS),Windows_NT)
RM = del /F /Q
RMDIR = -RMDIR /S /Q
MKDIR = -mkdir
ERRIGNORE = 2>NUL || true
SEP=\\
else
RM = rm -rf
RMDIR = rm -rf
MKDIR = mkdir -p
ERRIGNORE = 2>/dev/null
SEP=/
endif
# Remove space after separator
PSEP = $(strip $(SEP))
# Hide or not the calls depending of VERBOSE
ifeq ($(VERBOSE),TRUE)
HIDE =
else
HIDE = #
endif
# Define the function that will generate each rule
define generateRules
$(1)/%.o: %.c
#echo Building $$#
$(HIDE)$(CC) -c $$(INCLUDES) -o $$(subst /,$$(PSEP),$$#) $$(subst /,$$(PSEP),$$<) -MMD
endef
# Indicate to make which targets are not files
.PHONY: all clean directories
all: directories $(TARGET)
$(TARGET): $(OBJS)
$(HIDE)echo Linking $#
$(HIDE)$(CC) $(OBJS) -o $(TARGET)
# Include dependencies
-include $(DEPS)
# Generate rules
$(foreach targetdir, $(TARGETDIRS), $(eval $(call generateRules, $(targetdir))))
directories:
$(HIDE)$(MKDIR) $(subst /,$(PSEP),$(TARGETDIRS)) $(ERRIGNORE)
# Remove all objects, dependencies and executable files generated during the build
clean:
$(HIDE)$(RMDIR) $(subst /,$(PSEP),$(TARGETDIRS)) $(ERRIGNORE)
$(HIDE)$(RM) $(TARGET) $(ERRIGNORE)
#echo Cleaning done !
Main features
Automatic detection of C sources in specified folders
Multiple source folders
Multiple corresponding target folders for object and dependency files
Automatic rule generation for each target folder
Creation of target folders when they don't exist
Dependency management with gcc : Build only what is necessary
Works on Unix and DOS systems
Written for GNU Make
How to use this Makefile
To adapt this Makefile to your project you have to :
Change the TARGET variable to match your target name
Change the name of the Sources and Build folders in SOURCEDIR and BUILDDIR
Change the verbosity level of the Makefile in the Makefile itself or in make call (make all VERBOSE=FALSE)
Change the name of the folders in DIRS to match your sources and build folders
If required, change the compiler and the flags
In this Makefile Folder0, Folder1 and Folder2 are the equivalent to your FolderA, FolderB and FolderC.
Note that I have not had the opportunity to test it on a Unix system at the moment but it works correctly on Windows.
Explanation of a few tricky parts :
Ignoring Windows mkdir errors
ERRIGNORE = 2>NUL || true
This has two effects :
The first one, 2>NUL is to redirect the error output to NUL, so as it does not comes in the console.
The second one, || true prevents the command from rising the error level. This is Windows stuff unrelated with the Makefile, it's here because Windows' mkdir command rises the error level if we try to create an already-existing folder, whereas we don't really care, if it does exist that's fine. The common solution is to use the if not exist structure, but that's not UNIX-compatible so even if it's tricky, I consider my solution more clear.
Creation of OBJS containing all object files with their correct path
OBJS := $(subst $(SOURCEDIR),$(BUILDDIR),$(SOURCES:.c=.o))
Here we want OBJS to contain all the object files with their paths, and we already have SOURCES which contains all the source files with their paths.
$(SOURCES:.c=.o) changes *.c in *.o for all sources, but the path is still the one of the sources.
$(subst $(SOURCEDIR),$(BUILDDIR), ...) will simply subtract the whole source path with the build path, so we finally have a variable that contains the .o files with their paths.
Dealing with Windows and Unix-style path separators
SEP=\\
SEP = /
PSEP = $(strip $(SEP))
This only exist to allow the Makefile to work on Unix and Windows, since Windows uses backslashes in path whereas everyone else uses slashes.
SEP=\\ Here the double backslash is used to escape the backslash character, which make usually treats as an "ignore newline character" to allow writing on multiple lines.
PSEP = $(strip $(SEP)) This will remove the space char of the SEP variable, which has been added automatically.
Automatic generation of rules for each target folder
define generateRules
$(1)/%.o: %.c
#echo Building $$#
$(HIDE)$(CC) -c $$(INCLUDES) -o $$(subst /,$$(PSEP),$$#) $$(subst /,$$(PSEP),$$<) -MMD
endef
That's maybe the trick that is the most related with your usecase. It's a rule template that can be generated with $(eval $(call generateRules, param)) where param is what you can find in the template as $(1).
This will basically fill the Makefile with rules like this for each target folder :
path/to/target/%.o: %.c
#echo Building $#
$(HIDE)$(CC) -c $(INCLUDES) -o $(subst /,$(PSEP),$#) $(subst /,$(PSEP),$<) -MMD
This fairly minimal makefile should do the trick:
VPATH = ../source
OBJS = FolderA/fileA1.o FolderA/fileA2.o FolderB/fileB1.o
CPPFLAGS = -MMD -MP
all: init myProgram
myProgram: $(OBJS)
$(CC) $(LDFLAGS) -o $# $(OBJS) $(LDLIBS)
.PHONY: all init
init:
mkdir -p FolderA
mkdir -p FolderB
-include $(OBJS:%.o=%.d)
The main tricky part is ensuring that FolderA and FolderB exist in the build directory bfore trying to run the compiler that will write into them. The above code will work sequential for builds, but might fail with -j2 the first time it is run, as the compiler in one thread might try to open an output file before the other thread creates the directory. Its also somewhat unclean. Usually with GNU tools you have a configure script that will create those directories (and the makefile) for you before you even try to run make. autoconf and automake can build that for you.
An alternate way that should work for parallel builds would be to redefine the standard rule for compiling C files:
VPATH = ../source
OBJS = FolderA/fileA1.o FolderA/fileA2.o FolderB/fileB1.o
CPPFLAGS = -MMD -MP
myProgram: $(OBJS)
$(CC) $(LDFLAGS) -o $# $(OBJS) $(LDLIBS)
%.o: %.c
mkdir -p $(dir $#)
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) -c -o $# $<
-include $(OBJS:%.o=%.d)
Which has the disadvantage that you'll also need to redefine the builtin rules for any other kind of sourcefile you want to compile
Here's a basic one I use all the time, it's pretty much a skeleton as it is but works perfectly fine for simple projects. For more complex projects it certainly needs to be adapted, but I always use this one as a starting point.
APP=app
SRC_DIR=src
INC_DIR=inc
OBJ_DIR=obj
BIN_DIR=bin
CC=gcc
LD=gcc
CFLAGS=-O2 -c -Wall -pedantic -ansi
LFLGAS=
DFLAGS=-g3 -O0 -DDEBUG
INCFLAGS=-I$(INC_DIR)
SOURCES=$(wildcard $(SRC_DIR)/*.c)
HEADERS=$(wildcard $(INC_DIR)/*.h)
OBJECTS=$(SOURCES:$(SRC_DIR)/%.c=$(OBJ_DIR)/%.o)
DEPENDS=$(OBJ_DIR)/.depends
.PHONY: all
all: $(BIN_DIR)/$(APP)
.PHONY: debug
debug: CFLAGS+=$(DFLAGS)
debug: all
$(BIN_DIR)/$(APP): $(OBJECTS) | $(BIN_DIR)
$(LD) $(LFLGAS) -o $# $^
$(OBJ_DIR)/%.o: | $(OBJ_DIR)
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(INCFLAGS) -o $# $<
$(DEPENDS): $(SOURCES) | $(OBJ_DIR)
$(CC) $(INCFLAGS) -MM $(SOURCES) | sed -e 's!^!$(OBJ_DIR)/!' >$#
ifneq ($(MAKECMDGOALS),clean)
-include $(DEPENDS)
endif
$(BIN_DIR):
mkdir -p $#
$(OBJ_DIR):
mkdir -p $#
.PHONY: clean
clean:
rm -rf $(BIN_DIR) $(OBJ_DIR)
I would avoid manipulating Makefile directly, and use CMake instead.
Just describe your source files in CMakeLists.txt, as below:
Create file MyProject/source/CMakeLists.txt containing;
project(myProject)
add_executable(myExec FolderA/fileA1.c FolderA/fileA2.c FolderB/fileB1.c)
Under MyProject/build, run
cmake ../source/
You'll get a Makefile now. To build, under the same build/ directory,
make
You may also want to switch to a lightning fast build tool, ninja, simply by adding a switch as following.
cmake -GNinja ..
ninja
My question is a real simple one I just want to export everything that is not source code to a bin folder but all the answers that I find seem to have either loose chunks of complex makefile code without any indication to where to place it or very complex makefiles in general. I have no experience with make files and the documentation seems extremely poor so if one can give me the simplest answer to this problem I'd be very happy.
#
# Makefile for 2INC0 Interprocess Communication
#
# (c) Fontys 2010, Joris Geurts
#
BIN=./bin/
BINARIES = $(BIN)prime
CC = gcc
CFLAGS = -Wall -g -c
LDLIBS = -lrt -lX11
%.o: %.c
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c $< -o $(BIN)$#
all: $(BINARIES)
clean:
rm -f *.o $(BINARIES)
prime: prime.o
prime.o: prime.c prime.h
Try this modification:
$(BIN)%.o: %.c
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c $< -o $#
$(BIN)prime: $(BIN)prime.o
$(BIN)prime.o: prime.h
The (almost universally followed) convention is to have a special target install that unconditionally copies all of the required files from the build tree into place. That place is usually configurable with a variable.
That way, you can always just remove the build tree after you're done building and installing.
So if all of the files you need to copy are executables, you get something like this:
DESTDIR = /usr/local
OBJS = $(*.c:%c=%.o)
EXES = $(OBJS:%.o=)
install: $(EXES)
cp -p $+ $(DESTDIR/bin/
(beware: untested). Which version of which make are you using?
I am new to make files and I put this together with a bit of trial & error. This code is used to compile my c++ program.
My main.cpp file in the same folder as the makefile. I have a lib/ folder that contains the headers main depends on.
The following makefile results in a correct and complete compilation of my code. But I was expecting that I would find *.o objects left behind. (Note that I've tried to make both with and without the "clean" rule, and I get the same results both times.)
#
# Makefile
#
CXX = g++
CCFLAGS = -O3 -I/sw/include -L/sw/lib
## /sw/include and /sw/lib contain dependencies for files in my lib/
LDFLAGS = -lpng
OPTS = $(CCFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS)
SOURCES = $(wildcard lib/*.cpp) main.cpp
OBJECTS = $(SOURCES: .cpp = .o)
TARGET = spirals
$(TARGET): $(OBJECTS)
$(CXX) $(OPTS) $^ -o $#
.PHONY: depend
depend:
g++ -MM $(SOURCES) > depend
## generate dependencies list
include depend
.PHONY: clean
clean:
rm -f *.o lib/*.o $(TARGET)
Also, in case it matters, I'm on MacOSX and my program is designed in xcode. (I know that xcode has its own build flow, but I'm designing a command-line program for a linux system and I'd like to test compilation & linking in a bash environment instead of only going through xcode.)
Questions:
Am I correct to expect makefiles to produce *.o files that stick around once the main target has been created?
If so, why doesn't my makefile do this?
If you observe what command your $(TARGET) rule causes to be run:
g++ -O3 -I/sw/include -L/sw/lib -lpng lib/bar.cpp lib/foo.cpp main.cpp -o spirals
you'll see that $(OBJECTS) in fact contains *.cpp files, and there are no *.o files sticking around because you haven't asked for any.
The problem is here:
OBJECTS = $(SOURCES:.cpp=.o)
In your GNU makefile as written, this substitution reference is written with excess spaces, so never matches anything and $(OBJECTS) ends up the same as $(SOURCES). Rewrite it as above and it'll do what you expect.
(Other notes: -lpng needs to go at the end of the link command to work in general, so you should introduce another make variable (traditionally called $(LDLIBS)) so as to arrange that. Especially as someone new to makefiles, you would do better to spell out your dependencies explicitly rather than playing games with $(wildcard) and a computed $(OBJECTS). -I options are needed during compilation while -L options are used during linking, so it would be good to arrange separate $(CXXFLAGS)/$(LDFLAGS) variables used in separate rules so they are only added when required.)