Related
I am new to Makefile.
I have a string of multiple directories and I want to compile all the .c files in them.
The number of paths in that string can change (it is received as an argument from a script).
For example:
DIRS = path1 path2...
I will be happy to receive help with building a mechanism that can go over DIRS and compile each and every .c file in each path.
I am not sure if this is the right way, but I got this so far:
DIRS = path1 path2
define generateRules
SOURCES := $(wildcard $(path)/*.c)
%.o: $(SOURCES)
echo "path is $(path)";
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) ${INCS} ${DEFS} -c $< -o ${BUILD}/$#
endef
$(foreach path,$(DIRS),$(info $(generateRules)))
Thank you
Let's start with generating a list of the source files.
DIRS = path1 path2
SOURCES := $(wildcard $(addsuffix /*.c,$(DIRS)))
From this we can generate a list of targets:
TARGETS = $(patsubst %.c,$(BUILD)/%.o,$(notdir $(SOURCES)))
The simplest way to get the effect you want is by use of the vpath directive and a static pattern rule:
vpath %.c $(DIRS)
$(TARGETS): $(BUILD)/%.o: %.c
#echo building $# from $<
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) ${INCS} ${DEFS} -c $< -o $#
If you want to generate a rule for each source directory -- or each source file -- you can, but that requires a few more advanced techniques. I advise you to get the simple approach working first.
I have this Makefile (abbreviated):
COMPILE = armcc
LINK = armlink
SRCDIR := ./src1 \
./src2
INCLUDES := -I ./inc
CSRC := $(wildcard $(SRCDIR)/*.c)
# CSRC := ./src1/*.c ./src2/*.c
OBJS := $(CSRC:.c=.o)
.PHONY: clean
clean:
#echo "Clean Finished"
%.o: %.c
#echo Compiling $<
#$(COMPILE) $(INCLUDES) $< -o $#
mktest: $(OBJS) Makefile
#echo $(CSRC)
#echo $(OBJS)
#echo building mktest
#$(LINK) -o mktest.axf
When I run it the wildcard only expanded for the last entry in the SRCDIR variable, which is ./src2. The output shown below.
c:> make mktest
./src1 ./src2/file2.c
./src1 ./src2/file2.o
building mktest
If I replace the line where CSRC defined, with the line below it. It works fine, and the output shown below.
c:> make mktest
./src1/*.c ./src2/*.c
./src1/*.o ./src2/*.o
building mktest
This is OK if I only have a few sub-directories I want to include. But if I want to include more, the Makefile will become ugly. Am I not using the wildcard function properly here?
What you would need your CSRC definition to be is:
CSRC:= $(foreach dir,$(SRCDIR),$(wildcard $(dir)/*))
If you look at the documentation:
$(wildcard pattern…)
This string, used anywhere in a makefile, is replaced by a space-separated list of names of existing files that match one of the given file name patterns…
This means your original line actually reads as:
CSRC := $(wildcard src1/ src2/*.c)
That is files whose names are matching against src1/ or src2/*.c.
I want to create a make file that takes all files in several src subdirectories and compiles them each directly into one single build directory.
I.e. i have e.g.
src/main.c
src/i2c/i2c.c
src/i2c/i2c.h
and as output i want the object files as well as the final binary
- build/main.o
- build/i2c.o
- build/release.elf
I manage to get all source files as a list with their respective subdirectory paths into a variable and I also manage to get a list of all output files but when i try to create a target to build all .o files in that build directory it does not match the corresponding .c files with the .o files. Here i am just not sure how to link these two.
It fails while trying to match main.o with i2c.c.
Here is "relevant" part of the Makefile:
TARGET = $(lastword $(subst /, ,$(CURDIR)))
BUILD_DIR := buildDir
SOURCES = $(wildcard src/*.c src/*/*.c)
BROKENOBJECTS = $(SOURCES:.c=.o)
LESSBROKEN = $(notdir $(BROKENOBJECTS))
OBJECT_FILES = $(addprefix $(BUILD_DIR)/, $(LESSBROKEN))
$(BUILD_DIR)/%.o: $(SOURCES) $(BUILD_DIR)
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) $(TARGET_ARCH) -c -o $# $<
$(BUILD_DIR)/$(TARGET).elf: $(OBJECT_FILES)
$(CC) $(LDFLAGS) $(TARGET_ARCH) $^ $(LDLIBS) -o $#
$(BUILD_DIR) :
mkdir -p $#
compile : $(BUILD_DIR)/$(TARGET).elf
How would I go about this, running the recipe for each .c file from $(SOURCES) and just create the corresponding .o file in buildDir/ ?
You could make use of make's vpath mechanism. So, rather than specifying possible source paths using...
SOURCES = $(wildcard src/*.c src/*/*.c)
you would have...
# Build a list of directories under src
#
SOURCE_DIRS := $(shell find src -type d)
# Use the list in $(SOURCE_DIRS) as a search path for .c files.
#
vpath %.c $(SOURCE_DIRS)
Now, when attempting to update i2c.o (for example), the rule...
$(BUILD_DIR)/%.o: %.c $(BUILD_DIR)
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) $(TARGET_ARCH) -c -o $# $<
will cause make to automatically search through the list of source directories for the dependency i2c.c.
Note: For obvious reasons multiple files with the same name under different source directories will cause problems here. Hence my original question (in the comments) regarding the uniqueness of source file names under different directories.
Assuming you use GNU make and your C source files are all *.c that can be found in the current directory and all its subdirectories (up to any depth), this should be close to what you want:
BUILDDIR := build
SRC := $(shell find . -type f -name '*.c')
# Convert C source file name(s) to object file name(s)
# $(1): C source file name(s)
define c2o
$(patsubst %.c,$(BUILDDIR)/%.o,$(notdir $(1)))
endef
OBJ := $(call c2o,$(SRC))
.PHONY: all
all: $(OBJ)
# Compilation rule for a C source file (use echo for testing)
# $(1): C source file name
define MY_rule
$$(call c2o,$(1)): $(1)
#echo $$(CC) $$(CFLAGS) $$(CPPFLAGS) $$(TARGET_ARCH) -c -o $$# $$<
endef
# Instantiate compilation rules for all C source files
$(foreach s,$(SRC),$(eval $(call MY_rule,$(s))))
Demo:
host> tree .
.
├── Makefile
├── a.c
├── b
│ └── b.c
└── c
└── c
└── c.c
host> make
cc -c -o build/a.o a.c
cc -c -o build/c.o c/c/c.c
cc -c -o build/b.o b/b.c
Note the use of $$ in the definition of MY_rule. It is needed because it gets expanded twice: one time when expanding the parameters of the eval function and a second time when make parses the result as regular make syntax.
As explained in other comments and answers this works only if you don't have several C source files with the same base name. There is a way to detect this situation and issue an error if it is encountered. The make sort function sorts its word list parameter but it also removes duplicates. So, if the word count before and after sorting differ, you have duplicates. Add the following just after the definition of OBJ:
SOBJ := $(sort $(OBJ))
ifneq ($(words $(OBJ)),$(words $(SOBJ)))
$(error Found multiple C source files with same base name)
endif
Demo:
host> touch c/c/a.c
host> make
Makefile:13: *** Found multiple C source files with same base name. Stop.
Here is a modified snippet that should do what you want, though I didn't find a solution without specifying each subdirectory in src/ manually.
SOURCES = $(wildcard src/*.c)
SUBSOURCES = $(wildcard src/*/*.c)
OBJECTS = $(addprefix $(BUILD_DIR)/, $(notdir $(SOURCES:.c=.o)))
SUBOBJECTS = $(addprefix $(BUILD_DIR)/, $(notdir $(SUBSOURCES:.c=.o)))
compile : $(BUILD_DIR)/$(TARGET).elf
$(BUILD_DIR)/$(TARGET).elf: $(OBJECTS) $(SUBOBJECTS)
$(CC) $(LDFLAGS) $(TARGET_ARCH) $^ $(LDLIBS) -o $#
# save some typing for the rules below
COMPILE = $(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) $(TARGET_ARCH) -c -o $# $<
$(OBJECTS): $(BUILD_DIR)/%.o: src/%.c | $(BUILD_DIR)
$(COMPILE)
$(BUILD_DIR)/%.o: src/i2c/%.c | $(BUILD_DIR)
$(COMPILE)
$(BUILD_DIR)/%.o: src/someOtherSubdir/%.c | $(BUILD_DIR)
$(COMPILE)
As #G.M. suggested in the comments, you must make sure that source file names are unique across subdirectories. Note also that I turned $(BUILD_DIR) into an order only prerequisite, which should reflect your intention more precisely.
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 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