My source code is not centralized. I want to put all of my objects into a single directory, ./build/obj.
Here is what I have so far
ROOT=.
BUILDDIR=$(ROOT)/build
BINDIR=$(BUILDDIR)/bin
OBJDIR=$(BUILDDIR)/obj
CC=$(XCOMPILE)gcc
BIN=my-reader
CFLAGS+=\
-Wall \
-Wextra \
-Werror \
-pedantic \
-std=gnu11 \
$(INCLUDE)
SRCDIRS+=\
$(ROOT)/src \
$(ROOT)/../../folder0/folder01/src \
$(ROOT)/../../folder0/folder02/src \
$(ROOT)/../../folder1/folder03/folder04/i2c/src \
$(ROOT)/../../folder1/folder03/folder04/spi/src \
$(ROOT)/../../folder1/folder03/folder04/system/src \
$(ROOT)/../../folder2/folder03/folder04/chip-1-api/src \
$(ROOT)/../../folder2/folder03/folder04/chip-2-api/src
DEPDIRS+=\
$(SRCDIRS)
SRC+=$(shell find $(SRCDIRS) -type f -name "*\.c")
DEP+=$(shell find $(DEPDIRS) -type f -name "*\.h")
OBJ=$(patsubst %.c, $(OBJDIR)/%.o, $(SRC))
INCLUDE=$(foreach d, $(DEP),-I $(dir $d))
test:
echo $(SRC)
all: CFLAGS+=-O3
all: _all
debug: CFLAGS+=-ggdb
debug: CPPFLAGS+=-DDEBUG
debug: _all
_all: $(BINDIR) $(BINDIR)/$(BIN)
$(BINDIR)/$(BIN): $(OBJ) | $(BINDIR)
$(CC) $(CPPFLAGS) $(CFLAGS) $^ -o $#
$(BINDIR):
mkdir -p $#
$(OBJDIR)/%.o: %.c $(DEP)
$(CC) $(CPPFLAGS) $(CFLAGS) -c $< -o $#
.PHONY: clean
clean:
rm -rf $(BUILDDIR)
This doesn't exactly work for me, since it creates some of the files and directories where makefile is located. What I really want is for all .o files to be in ./build/obj. I spend several days trying to figure out if there is a generic way of doing it, but it looks like there isn't one. As far as I understand, in order to put all of my files into ./build/obj directory I need to create a specific target for each of them, which defeats the purpose of using a generic makefile. Does anyone know if what I'm trying to do is possible? I've seen people generating .dep (which have custom targets in them) files and then including them into makefiles. Unfortunately I don't know how to do that. I'd appreciate any help on this.
This is very simple, using VPATH. First, you have to make sure your OBJS variable contains what you want to build. Currently you have this:
OBJ=$(patsubst %.c, $(OBJDIR)/%.o, $(SRC))
which is wrong, because SRC contains paths like ./../../folder0/folder02/src/foobar.c which means after the patsubst you'll get paths like ./build/obj/./../../folder0/folder02/src/foobar.o which is clearly not what you want. Use this instead:
OBJ = $(patsubst %.c, $(OBJDIR)/%.o, $(notdir $(SRC)))
which for every source file somepath/foobar.c, regardless of the value of somepath, will give you ./build/obj/foobar.o which is what you want.
Then, keep your rule that builds this .o from a .c file. Finally use VPATH to tell make where to look for source files if they don't exist in the local directory:
VPATH = $(SRCDIRS)
That's all you need to do.
I should point out that your INCLUDES is kind of broken: you'll have massive numbers of duplicate directories added with -I. Instead of this:
INCLUDE=$(foreach d, $(DEP),-I $(dir $d))
You should use:
INCLUDE = $(addprefix -I,$(sort $(dir $(DEP)))
The sort function will also uniquify, and you don't need the foreach because most functions in make take multiple words and operate on all of them.
As a final note, you should be using := rather than =, it will be much more efficient. The way you have it written here every single time these variables are expanded it will re-run the find operations etc. Stick an echo find 1>&2; in your shell function invocations before the find, and see how many times it's run...
Oh, then a really-final note: the way you have this set up now every single source file will rebuild whenever any header file changes (you have added $(DEPS) as a prerequisite of the $(OBJDIR)/%.o target). Maybe that's what you want, but it's unusual.
Related
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 a makefile that is trying to do the following: identify all files under the current directory (all sub-directories included) with .c and .s extensions, for each one compile a non-linked object file and put it into a directory. All C files end up in objects/c, all assembly files end up in objects/ass.
The makefile always works as expected on the first execution (all commands are called in the right order) and no errors are produced.
However if I call make again, half of the time i get "nothing to be done for 'all'.". Which is what you would expect, since no files have been modified. But the other half of the time, make is selecting a random assembly file and compiling that file. That is to say,if I keep doing "make" I sometimes compile file1.s sometimes file2.s. and it keeps randomly swapping between the assembly files add infinitum (it never reaches a "nothing to be done") state.
How is make exhibitting non deterministic behaviour?
This is the smallest makefile I could make that reproduces the error:
SRC_C = $(wildcard *.c) $(wildcard **/*.c)
SRC_ASS = $(wildcard *.s) $(wildcard **/*.s)
OBJECTS_C = $(addprefix $(OBJECT_DIR)c/, $(notdir $(SRC_C:.c=.o)))
OBJECTS_ASS = $(addprefix $(OBJECT_DIR)ass/, $(notdir $(SRC_ASS:.s=.o)))
OBJECTS = $(OBJECTS_C) $(OBJECTS_ASS)
OBJECT_DIR = objects/
all: $(OBJECTS)
%/:
mkdir $#
$(OBJECTS_C): $(OBJECT_DIR) $(OBJECT_DIR)c/
arm-none-eabi-gcc -O0 -march=armv8-a $(wildcard */$(#F:.o=.c)) -nostartfiles -c -o $#
$(OBJECTS_ASS): $(OBJECT_DIR) $(OBJECT_DIR)ass/
arm-none-eabi-as -march=armv8-a $(wildcard */$(#F:.o=.s)) -c -o $#
.PHONY: clean
clean:
rm -rf $(OBJECT_DIR)
You have many errors here.
The biggest is a conceptual one: By flattening all your object files into one directory, there's no way to express proper dependencies using pattern rules, so your object files do not really depend on their respective source files. I'd say: just don't do that! Having object directories is fine, but they should mirror the directory structure of the source tree.
Further errors:
directly depending on directories. This will not work as expected, directories should always be order-only dependencies, as already stated in the comments
Make doesn't support recursive wildcards -- if you really need that, you could write your own function or, assuming you're always building on *nix, just call find instead
Pattern rules for creating directories are not the best idea either -- I'd suggest to collect all needed directories in a variable and loop over that.
Stylistic improvements:
Assign variables that don't need deferred evaluation with :=
Assign variables influencing the build process with ?=, so the user can override them at the command line
Use "standard" variables like CC, AS, CROSS_COMPILE
declare all phony targets in .PHONY.
Your Makefile with these changes applied would look like this:
OBJECT_DIR ?= objects
C_OBJECT_DIR ?= $(OBJECT_DIR)/c
AS_OBJECT_DIR ?= $(OBJECT_DIR)/ass
SRC_C:= $(shell find -name \*.c)
SRC_ASS:= $(shell find -name \*.s)
OBJECTS_C:= $(addprefix $(C_OBJECT_DIR)/, $(SRC_C:.c=.o))
OBJECTS_ASS:= $(addprefix $(AS_OBJECT_DIR)/, $(SRC_ASS:.s=.o))
OBJECTS:= $(OBJECTS_C) $(OBJECTS_ASS)
OUTDIRS:= $(sort $(dir $(OBJECTS)))
CROSS_COMPILE ?= arm-none-eabi-
CC ?= gcc
AS ?= as
CFLAGS ?= -O0 -march=armv8-a -nostartfiles
ASFLAGS ?= -march=armv8-a
all: $(OBJECTS)
$(OUTDIRS):
$(foreach _dir,$#,mkdir -p $(_dir);)
$(C_OBJECT_DIR)/%.o: %.c | $(OUTDIRS)
$(CROSS_COMPILE)$(CC) -c -o $# $(CFLAGS) $<
$(AS_OBJECT_DIR)/%.o: %.s | $(OUTDIRS)
$(CROSS_COMPILE)$(AS) -c -o $# $(ASFLAGS) $<
clean:
rm -rf $(OBJECT_DIR)
.PHONY: all clean
Note there is one important thing missing: automatic dependencies. With this Makefile, each object file depends on its respective source file, but completely misses any headers included. For anything other than a simple toy, you should add that, google for "gnu make gcc automatic dependencies" or something similar (not the scope of this question).
This question is different from the one at makefiles - compile all c files at once in the sense that I have one extra requirement: I want to redirect all the object files in a separate directory.
Here is the setup:
I have multiple sources in a directory say src/mylib.
I want the objects files to end up in build/mylib.
Please note also that under mylib there are subdirectories.
The first attempt was as follows:
sources = $(shell find src/ -name ".c")
objects_dirs = $(subst src/, build/, $(dir $(sources)) # This variable is used by the build rule to create directories for objects files prior to compilation
objects = $(subst src/, build/, $(patsubst %.c, %.o, $(sources))) # This variable has the paths to the objects files that will be generated in the build directory
# This is where things aren't working as expected
$(objects): build $(sources)
$(cc) $(cflags) -o $# $(word 2, $^))
build:
$(foreach dir, $(objects_dirs), $(shell mkdir -p $(dir)))
For the makefile above, only one object file was being generated. I guessed this might have something to do with GCC only being able to generate one object file at a time. Regardless of that, checking the values of $# and $(word 2, $^) in the $(objects) target shows that only one file is being considered even though I have multiple files.
So I changed my makefile to the following:
sources = $(shell find src/ -name ".c")
objects = $(subst src/, build/, $(patsubst %.c, %.o, $(sources))) # This variable has the paths to the objects files that will be generated in the build directory
# This works as expected but it appears to me like make is generating all the objects files even though source files did not change. This can be seen by checking the timestamps on new object files after running make again.
$(objects): build $(sources)
$(foreach source, $(sources), $(shell $(cc) $(cflags) -o $(subst src/,build/, $(patsubst %.o,%.c,$(source))) $(source)))
build:
$(foreach dir, $(objects_dirs), $(shell mkdir -p $(dir)))
The second makefile works as expected but objects files are being rebuilt again which defeats another purpose of using make: only recompile those source files that changed from the last compilation.
Hence my question: how does one generate all object files in a separate directory at once (by this I mean perform the compilation of all sources files in one rule) while making sure that if a source file didn't change the associated object file should not be regenerated.
I am not after speeding up compilation. What I seek is one rule that will generate all objects files such that only updated source files should be recompiled.
The last makefile does the job but there is a recompiling of all source files which defeats another purpose of using make: only changed source files should be recompiled.
EDIT
After reading comments, it appears I have not phrased my question properly. As the details of what I have are already present, I leave the question as it is with additional details below.
The second makefile in the source code above does work. But it does only half the job. The build directory effectively mirrors the src directory.
So if I have say a file as src/mylib/point/point.c, I get build/mylib/point/point.o generated. This is the first part.
The second part is that if point.c does not changes, point.o in the build/mylib/point/ directory must not be regenerated. But after checking timestamps on the object file, I can tell that a new object file replaced the old one after running make again. This is not good because for large projects, compilation time remains O(n) with n being the number of source files to compile.
So this question is about how to preserve the second makefile without make regenerating object files.
From what I can gather from comments, I am asking too much from make. But if anyone knows how to make this happen, I leave the question open.
Makefile:
all:
clean:
src_root := src
src_subdirs := foo foo/bar foo/bar/buz
build_root := build
o_suffix := .o
# Build list of sources. Iterate every subfolder from $(src_subdirs) list
# and fetch all existing files with suffixes matching the list.
source_suffixes := .c .cpp .cxx
sources := $(foreach d,$(addprefix $(src_root)/,$(src_subdirs)),$(wildcard $(addprefix $d/*,$(source_suffixes))))
# If src_subdirs make variable is unset, use 'find' command to build list of sources.
# Note that we use the same list of suffixes but tweak them for use with 'find'
ifeq ($(src_subdirs),)
sources := $(shell find $(src_root) -type f $(foreach s,$(source_suffixes),$(if $(findstring $s,$(firstword $(source_suffixes))),,-o) -name '*$s'))
endif
$(info sources=$(sources))
# Build source -> object file mapping.
# We want map $(src_root) -> $(build_root) and copy directory structure
# of source tree but populated with object files.
objects := $(addsuffix $(o_suffix),$(basename $(patsubst $(src_root)%,$(build_root)%,$(sources))))
$(info objects=$(objects))
# Generate rules for every .o file to depend exactly on corresponding source file.
$(foreach s,$(sources),$(foreach o,$(filter %$(basename $(notdir $s)).o,$(objects)),$(info New rule: $o: $s)$(eval $o: $s)))
# This is how we compile sources:
# First check if directory for the target file exists.
# If it doesn't run 'mkdir' command.
$(objects): ; $(if $(wildcard $(#D)),,mkdir -p $(#D) &&) g++ -c $< -o $#
# Compile all sources.
all: $(objects)
clean: ; rm -rf $(build_root)
.PHONY: clean all
Environment:
$ find
.
./src
./src/foo
./src/foo/bar
./src/foo/bar/bar.cxx
./src/foo/bar/buz
./src/foo/bar/buz/buz.c
./src/foo/bar/foo.c
./src/foo/foo.cpp
Run makefile:
$ make -f /cygdrive/c/stackoverflow/Makefile.sample -j
sources=src/foo/bar/bar.cxx src/foo/bar/buz/buz.c src/foo/bar/foo.c src/foo/foo.cpp
objects=build/foo/bar/bar.o build/foo/bar/buz/buz.o build/foo/bar/foo.o build/foo/foo.o
New rule: build/foo/bar/bar.o: src/foo/bar/bar.cxx
New rule: build/foo/bar/buz/buz.o: src/foo/bar/buz/buz.c
New rule: build/foo/bar/foo.o: src/foo/bar/foo.c
New rule: build/foo/foo.o: src/foo/bar/foo.c
New rule: build/foo/bar/foo.o: src/foo/foo.cpp
New rule: build/foo/foo.o: src/foo/foo.cpp
mkdir -p build/foo/bar && g++ -c src/foo/bar/bar.cxx -o build/foo/bar/bar.o
mkdir -p build/foo/bar/buz && g++ -c src/foo/bar/buz/buz.c -o build/foo/bar/buz/buz.o
mkdir -p build/foo/bar && g++ -c src/foo/bar/foo.c -o build/foo/bar/foo.o
mkdir -p build/foo && g++ -c src/foo/bar/foo.c -o build/foo/foo.o
Environment again:
$ find
.
./build
./build/foo
./build/foo/bar
./build/foo/bar/bar.o
./build/foo/bar/buz
./build/foo/bar/buz/buz.o
./build/foo/bar/foo.o
./build/foo/foo.o
./src
./src/foo
./src/foo/bar
./src/foo/bar/bar.cxx
./src/foo/bar/buz
./src/foo/bar/buz/buz.c
./src/foo/bar/foo.c
./src/foo/foo.cpp
Try running this Makefile with 'src_subdirs=' to exercise another approach to locate sources. Output should be the same.
I finally had some time to experiment with this, so here is what I came up with:
BUILD_DIR = build
SRC_DIR = src
SOURCES = $(shell find $(SRC_DIR)/ -name "*.c")
TARGET = program
OBJECTS = $(SOURCES:$(SRC_DIR)/%.c=$(BUILD_DIR)/%.o)
default: $(TARGET)
.SECONDEXPANSION:
$(OBJECTS) : $$(patsubst $(BUILD_DIR)/%.o,$(SRC_DIR)/%.c,$$#)
mkdir -p $(#D)
$(CC) -c -o $# $(CFLAGS) $<
$(TARGET): $(OBJECTS)
$(CC) -o $# $(CFLAGS) $^
.PHONY: default
Points of interest:
I had to change the sources find pattern from ".c" to "*.c", I'm not sure if it depends on the exact shell used, but if you want to stay portable, be sure to use a widely accepted pattern.
The .SECONDEXPANSION: is needed to enable the $$ rules for GNU Make. It is needed to allow target based substitution rules in the prerequisites for the $(OBJECTS).
The prerequisite $$(patsubst $(BUILD_DIR)/%.o,$(SRC_DIR)/%.c,$$#) is saying, that the current target depends on a specific source file with the same folder structure and name.
The command mkdir -p $(#D) is ensuring, that the path of the current target is created if it's missing.
If all you want is a single rule to handle all object files, without necessarily needing to "compile all at once" then you could have something like this:
BUILD_DIR = build
SOURCES = ...
TARGET = ...
OBJECTS = $(SOURCES:%.c=$(BUILD_DIR)/%.o)
default: target
target: $(TARGET)
$(TARGET): $(OBJECTS)
$(LD) -o $# $(LDFLAGS) $^ $(LIBS)
$(BUILD_DIR)/%.o: %.c
$(CC) -c -o $# $< $(CFLAGS)
$(BUILD_DIR):
-mkdir $#
[Note: This is written from memory and without testing.]
After reading the GNU make manual again, here is a solution that solves the second problem.
The first attempt was the correct path. And the second attempt has the $(sources) in the prerequisites but does not use it in the commands and this is silly.
So the working makefile follows. It puts object files in a separate directory and it only compiles files that have changed.
sources = $(shell find src/ -name ".c")
$objects_dirs = $(subst src/, build/, $(dir $(sources)) # This variable is used by the build rule to create directories for objects files prior to compilation
objects = $(subst src/, build/, $(patsubst %.c, %.o, $(sources))) # This variable has the paths to the objects files that will be generated in the build directory
# This should now work as expected: object files go into their designated directories under "build/" and only updated files will be recompiled.
$(objects): build $(sources)
# After running say "make clean", make will figure out the need to run the first prerequisite.
# If we are doing a clean build, the number of prerequisites will equal the number of new prerequisites.
ifeq ($(words $?), $(words $^))
# Note the use of "$?" instead of "$^". $? is used since it holds prerequisites that are newer than the target while $^ will holds all prerequisites whether they are new or not.
$(foreach source, $(wordlist 2, $(words $?), $?), $(shell $(cc) $(cflags) -o $(subst src/,build, $(patsubst %.c,%.o, $(source))) $(source)))
else
# If we have a few new targets, no need to exclude "build" from prerequisites because the first prerequisite will be a file that changed.
$(foreach source, $?, $(shell $(cc) $(cflags) -o $(subst src/,build, $(patsubst %.c,%.o, $(source))) $(source)))
endif
.PHONY: build
build:
$(foreach dir, $(objects_dirs), $(shell mkdir -p $(dir)))
.PHONY: clean
clean:
#rm -rf build/
The makefile is heavily commented with changes that made it work. The most important changes were:
Use of $(foreach) to compile each file individually as required by GCC
Use of $? to work only with prerequisites that are newer than the target
Use of conditional to detected whether the first prerequisite has changed depending on circumstances. If we have a clean build (running make for the first time or after running make clean), the number of updated prerequisites will be the same as the number of newer prerequisites compared to the target. In other words $(words $?) == $(words $^) will be true. So we use this fact to exclude the firs prerequisite listed (build in our case) from the list of files to pass to GCC.
Also, when building the executable from the objects files, make sure to use $^ and not $? when selecting prerequisites else you will end up with only newer files in the executable and it will not run.
target = bin/mylib.a
.PHONY: all
all: $(target)
$(target): $(objects)
ar -cvq $# $^ # Notice that we're not using $? else only updated object files will end up in the archive.
I have a set of .cpp files that I want to compile. These .cpp files are in a hierarchical directory structure. I want the corresponding .o files to all end up in one build folder.
Here's how I get GNU make to enumerate the files:
SRCS = \
$(wildcard $(CODE)/**/*.cpp) \
$(wildcard $(CODE)/AlgebraLibraries/**/*.cpp) \
$(wildcard $(CODE)/Calculator/Environments/**/*.cpp)
BARE_SRCS = $(notdir $(SRCS))
BARE_OBJS = $(BARE_SRCS:.cpp=.o)
OBJS = $(addprefix $(BUILD)/, $(BARE_OBJS))
Having done this, I have no idea how to create the rules that will create the .o files from the .cpp files. Intuitively, what I want to do is the following pseudocode:
for i=0, N do # <-- a for-loop!
$(OBJS)[i]: $(SRCS)[i] # <-- the rule!
$(CPP) -c $(SRCS)[i] -o $(OBJS)[i] # <-- the recipe
end
Of course, this is not valid GNU make code, but I trust you understand what it is here that I'm trying to do. The following will not work.
%.o: %.cpp
$(CPP) -c $< -o $#
This doesn't work, because GNU make is matching up the % signs, assuming that the .o files live along-side the .cpp files.
The alternative to all of this, which I know will work, but will be extremely tedious, is to enumerate all of the rules by-hand as explicit rules. There has to be a better way!
I've been researching GNU make's ability to generate rules, but there appears to be no way to do it without the built-in logic. It would be really nice if I could utilize some flow-control statements to generate the rules that I want to make. Is this asking too much of GNU-make?
In any case, is there a way to do what it is I'm trying to do with GNU make? If so, how?
This looks like a job for... several advanced Make tricks:
all: $(OBJS)
define ruletemp
$(patsubst %.cpp, $(BUILD)/%.o, $(notdir $(1))): $(1)
$$(CPP) -c $$< -o $$#
endef
$(foreach src,$(SRCS),$(eval $(call ruletemp, $(src))))
If $(BUILD) is constant, you can always just do:
$(BUILD)/%.o: %.cpp
$(CPP) -c $< -o $#
I am doing some Makefile refactoring and trying to figure out the most concise way to implement a Makefile that does the following:
Has one variable that has all the source files listed (can be both C and C++ files)
All object files are generated in OBJ_DIR
The object directory is created if it does not exist
Here is what I have so far:
...
OBJ_DIR = obj/
BIN_DIR = bin/
PROGRAM = program
SRCS = test1.cpp test2.c
OBJS = $(addprefix $(OBJ_DIR), \
$(patsubst %.cpp, %.o, \
$(patsubst %.c, %.o, $(SRCS))))
$(BIN_DIR)$(PROGRAM) : $(OBJS)
$(CREATE_OUT_DIR)
$(LINK)
$(OBJ_DIR)%.o : %.c
$(CREATE_OBJ_DIR)
$(CCOMPILE)
$(OBJ_DIR)%.o : %.cpp
$(CREATE_OBJ_DIR)
$(CPPCOMPILE)
...
I'd like to eliminate the call to $(CREATE_OBJ_DIR) for every .o compile. Anyone know how to do this? I tried adding this, but then it would not build the object files:
$(OBJS): | $(OBJ_DIR)
$(OBJ_DIR):
$(CREATE_OBJ_DIR)
You already seem to have solved your first point: Have them all in one variable (I shouldn't think you actually need to to separate them into TEMP1 and TEMP2 like you have, just have different build rules)
For the second point, you can tell the compiler where to output the object files (for g++ its like this:
g++ -c MySourceFile.cpp -o obj/MySourceFile.o
The make rule for this would look like:
obj/%.o: %.cpp
g++ -c $*.cpp -o obj/$*.o
And your third point is also easily solved, as you can have a build rule for it (Just put the directory name in the dependency list for the target, before all of the objects are listed), and the build rule would look like this
obj:
mkdir obj
Edit: or following your code examples:
$(BIN_DIR)$(PROGRAM) : $(BIN_DIR) $(OBJS)
$(LINK)
$(BIN_DIR):
$(CREATE_OUT_DIR)
As for your 3rd point: This question has been asked here before. Unfortunately there is no really good answer for this, and you need to find the least ugly hack from the answer. Personally, I vote for the marker file solution.
This is what I do:
$(OBJ_LOC)/%.o: $(SRC_LOC)/%.c
#[ -d $(OBJ_LOC) ] || mkdir -p $(OBJ_LOC)
g++ ...
But, I am looking at these other answers with great interest.