Related
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
gcc -o abc/def.o def.c generates def.o file in a directory abc; only when there exists a directory abc.
Is there a way to make gcc to create a directory when the enclosing directory of the generated object file does not exist? If not, what could be the easiest way to make the directory in advance automatically, especially for Makefile?
From this post, it seems like that there is no way to create a directory from gcc.
For makefile, I can use this code snippet.
OBJDIR = obj
MODULES := src src2
...
OBJDIRS := $(patsubst %, $(OBJDIR)/%, $(MODULES))
build: $(OBJDIRS)
echo $^
$(OBJDIRS):
mkdir -p $#
make build will create directories, and echo the results.
We also can make the object files are created automatically without invoking the make build.
PROG := hellomake
LD := gcc
...
$(PROG): $(OBJDIRS) obj/src/hellofunc.o obj/src/hellomake.o
$(LD) $(filter %.o, $^) -o $(PROG)
The way I do it is I find out what the paths will be, and create the dirs for them:
SOURCES:=$(shell find $(SRC)/ -type f -name '*.c') #Get all the c files
#Get the files they're gonna be compiled to
OBJECTS:=$(patsubst $(SRC)/%.c, $(OBJ)/%.o, $(SOURCES))
#Get just the paths so you can create them in advance
OBJDIRS:=$(dir $(OBJECTS))
#call mkdir with the directories (using a dummy var because too much
#trouble to deal with priorities) someone could prob do better
#--parents ignores the repeated and already existing errors
DUMMY:=$(shell mkdir --parents $(OBJDIRS))
Sauce:
https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/File-Name-Functions.html
In addition to precedent solutions, you can create the directories in your rule for building your .o files
$(OBJ_DIR)/%.o: $(SRCS_DIR)/%.c
#mkdir -p $(shell dirname $#)
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(INC) -c $< -o $#
The "#" before mkdir silent the output of mkdir (we don't want a message for each directory created).
The "-p" option tell mkdir to create all intermediate directories in path if they do not exist.
The "dirname" method takes the file path ("$#") and keep only the file directory path.
I have a Makefile which generates JSON from several different Python scripts (the scripts print to stdout) in a single directory, e.g.
/src
scriptOne.py
scriptTwo.py
scriptThree.py
Which outputs the JSON to a folder:
/templates
scriptOne.json
scriptTwo.json
scriptThree.json
I'm trying to restructure so that, for example, each script is in its own subdirectory and the Makefile creates the JSON templates in their consequent subdirectories as follows:
/src
/importantTemplates
scriptOne.py
/notSoImportantTemplates
scriptTwo.py
scriptThree.py
And the output:
/templates
/importantTemplates
scriptOne.json
/notSoImportantTemplates
scriptTwo.json
scriptThree.json
The current Makefile is as follows:
SOURCES := $(shell echo src/*.py)
TARGETS := $(patsubst src/%.py,templates/%.json,$(SOURCES))
all: $(TARGETS)
clean:
rm -f $(TARGETS)
templates/%.json: src/%.py
python2 $< > $#
I've tried changing the wildcards to include a subdirectory for each line e.g. /src/*/*.py, although I just end up with the following:
make: Nothing to be done for `all'.
You want a static pattern rule (4.12 Static Pattern Rules) for this.
SOURCES := $(wildcard src/*/*.py)
TARGETS := $(patsubst src/%.py,templates/%.json,$(SOURCES))
all: $(TARGETS)
clean:
rm -rf templates
$(TARGETS) : templates/%.json: src/%.py
mkdir -p $(#D)
python2 $< > $#
You could avoid needing mkdir -p in that rule body if you wanted to (and go with an order-only prerequisite on the directory instead) but I'm not sure the effort is worth the savings in execution cost. You could avoid the extra shell by combining the two lines mkdir -p $(#D) && python2 $< > $# if you wanted to though.
Please note that the second time you run the make, it will give you the message (if there are no new files):
make: Nothing to be done for `all'.
Try to run make clean and see if you get the same message.
Here is the Makefile which will do what you want:
SOURCES := $(wildcard src/*/*.py)
TARGETS := $(patsubst src/%.py,templates/%.json,$(SOURCES))
FOLDERS := $(sort $(dir $(TARGETS)))
all: $(TARGETS)
clean:
rm -rf $(TARGETS) $(FOLDERS)
$(FOLDERS):
mkdir -p $#
$(TARGETS): $(SOURCES) $(FOLDERS)
python2 $< > $#
The FOLDERS variable will contain the folders you need to create in the template directory. (sort will remove duplicates, so each folder will be there only once)
The $(FOLDERS) rule will create the folders.
The clean rule will remove the folders also.
If you need to add more sources, just do it like this:
SOURCES := $(wildcard src/*/*.py)
SOURCES += $(wildcard src/*.py)
...
I want to create directories using makefile. My project directory is like this
+--Project
+--output
+--source
+Testfile.cpp
+Makefile
I want to put all the objects and output into the respective output folder. I want to create folder structure which would be like this after compiling.
+--Project
+--output
+--debug (or release)
+--objs
+Testfile.o
+Testfile (my executable file)
+--source
+Testfile.cpp
+Makefile
I tried with several options, but could not succeed. Please help me to make directories using make file. I'm posting my Makefile for your consideration.
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
# Input dirs, names, files
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
OUTPUT_ROOT := output/
TITLE_NAME := TestProj
ifdef DEBUG
TITLE_NAME += _DEBUG
else
ifdef RELEASE
TITLE_NAME += _RELEASE
endif
endif
# Include all the source files here with the directory tree
SOURCES := \
source/TestFile.cpp \
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
# configs
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
ifdef DEBUG
OUT_DIR := $(OUTPUT_ROOT)debug
CC_FLAGS := -c -Wall
else
ifdef RELEASE
OUT_DIR := $(OUTPUT_ROOT)release
CC_FLAGS := -c -Wall
else
$(error no build type defined)
endif
endif
# Put objects in the output directory.
OUT_O_DIR := $(OUT_DIR)/objs
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
# settings
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
OBJS = $(SOURCES:.cpp=.o)
DIRS = $(subst /,/,$(sort $(dir $(OBJS))))
DIR_TARGET = $(OUT_DIR)
OUTPUT_TARGET = $(OUT_DIR)/$(TITLE_NAME)
CC_FLAGS +=
LCF_FLAGS :=
LD_FLAGS :=
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
# executables
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
MD := mkdir
RM := rm
CC := g++
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
# rules
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
.PHONY: all clean title
all: title
clean:
$(RM) -rf $(OUT_DIR)
$(DIR_TARGET):
$(MD) -p $(DIRS)
.cpp.o:
#$(CC) -c $< -o $#
$(OBJS): $(OUT_O_DIR)/%.o: %.cpp
#$(CC) -c $< -o $#
title: $(DIR_TARGET) $(OBJS)
In my opinion, directories should not be considered targets of your makefile, either in technical or in design sense. You should create files and if a file creation needs a new directory then quietly create the directory within the rule for the relevant file.
If you're targeting a usual or "patterned" file, just use make's internal variable $(#D), that means "the directory the current target resides in" (cmp. with $# for the target). For example,
$(OUT_O_DIR)/%.o: %.cpp
#mkdir -p $(#D)
#$(CC) -c $< -o $#
title: $(OBJS)
Then, you're effectively doing the same: create directories for all $(OBJS), but you'll do it in a less complicated way.
The same policy (files are targets, directories never are) is used in various applications. For example, git revision control system doesn't store directories.
Note: If you're going to use it, it might be useful to introduce a convenience variable and utilize make's expansion rules.
dir_guard=#mkdir -p $(#D)
$(OUT_O_DIR)/%.o: %.cpp
$(dir_guard)
#$(CC) -c $< -o $#
$(OUT_O_DIR_DEBUG)/%.o: %.cpp
$(dir_guard)
#$(CC) -g -c $< -o $#
title: $(OBJS)
This would do it - assuming a Unix-like environment.
MKDIR_P = mkdir -p
.PHONY: directories
all: directories program
directories: ${OUT_DIR}
${OUT_DIR}:
${MKDIR_P} ${OUT_DIR}
This would have to be run in the top-level directory - or the definition of ${OUT_DIR} would have to be correct relative to where it is run. Of course, if you follow the edicts of Peter Miller's "Recursive Make Considered Harmful" paper, then you'll be running make in the top-level directory anyway.
I'm playing with this (RMCH) at the moment. It needed a bit of adaptation to the suite of software that I am using as a test ground. The suite has a dozen separate programs built with source spread across 15 directories, some of it shared. But with a bit of care, it can be done. OTOH, it might not be appropriate for a newbie.
As noted in the comments, listing the 'mkdir' command as the action for 'directories' is wrong. As also noted in the comments, there are other ways to fix the 'do not know how to make output/debug' error that results. One is to remove the dependency on the the 'directories' line. This works because 'mkdir -p' does not generate errors if all the directories it is asked to create already exist. The other is the mechanism shown, which will only attempt to create the directory if it does not exist. The 'as amended' version is what I had in mind last night - but both techniques work (and both have problems if output/debug exists but is a file rather than a directory).
Or, KISS.
DIRS=build build/bins
...
$(shell mkdir -p $(DIRS))
This will create all the directories after the Makefile is parsed.
make in, and off itself, handles directory targets just the same as file targets. So, it's easy to write rules like this:
outDir/someTarget: Makefile outDir
touch outDir/someTarget
outDir:
mkdir -p outDir
The only problem with that is, that the directories timestamp depends on what is done to the files inside. For the rules above, this leads to the following result:
$ make
mkdir -p outDir
touch outDir/someTarget
$ make
touch outDir/someTarget
$ make
touch outDir/someTarget
$ make
touch outDir/someTarget
This is most definitely not what you want. Whenever you touch the file, you also touch the directory. And since the file depends on the directory, the file consequently appears to be out of date, forcing it to be rebuilt.
However, you can easily break this loop by telling make to ignore the timestamp of the directory. This is done by declaring the directory as an order-only prerequsite:
# The pipe symbol tells make that the following prerequisites are order-only
# |
# v
outDir/someTarget: Makefile | outDir
touch outDir/someTarget
outDir:
mkdir -p outDir
This correctly yields:
$ make
mkdir -p outDir
touch outDir/someTarget
$ make
make: 'outDir/someTarget' is up to date.
TL;DR:
Write a rule to create the directory:
$(OUT_DIR):
mkdir -p $(OUT_DIR)
And have the targets for the stuff inside depend on the directory order-only:
$(OUT_DIR)/someTarget: ... | $(OUT_DIR)
All solutions including the accepted one have some issues as stated in their respective comments. The accepted answer by #jonathan-leffler is already quite good but does not take into effect that prerequisites are not necessarily to be built in order (during make -j for example). However simply moving the directories prerequisite from all to program provokes rebuilds on every run AFAICT.
The following solution does not have that problem and AFAICS works as intended.
MKDIR_P := mkdir -p
OUT_DIR := build
.PHONY: directories all clean
all: $(OUT_DIR)/program
directories: $(OUT_DIR)
$(OUT_DIR):
${MKDIR_P} $(OUT_DIR)
$(OUT_DIR)/program: | directories
touch $(OUT_DIR)/program
clean:
rm -rf $(OUT_DIR)
I've just come up with a fairly reasonable solution that lets you define the files to build and have directories be automatically created. First, define a variable ALL_TARGET_FILES that holds the file name of every file that your makefile will be build. Then use the following code:
define depend_on_dir
$(1): | $(dir $(1))
ifndef $(dir $(1))_DIRECTORY_RULE_IS_DEFINED
$(dir $(1)):
mkdir -p $$#
$(dir $(1))_DIRECTORY_RULE_IS_DEFINED := 1
endif
endef
$(foreach file,$(ALL_TARGET_FILES),$(eval $(call depend_on_dir,$(file))))
Here's how it works. I define a function depend_on_dir which takes a file name and generates a rule that makes the file depend on the directory that contains it and then defines a rule to create that directory if necessary. Then I use foreach to call this function on each file name and eval the result.
Note that you'll need a version of GNU make that supports eval, which I think is versions 3.81 and higher.
given that you're a newbie, I'd say don't try to do this yet. it's definitely possible, but will needlessly complicate your Makefile. stick to the simple ways until you're more comfortable with make.
that said, one way to build in a directory different from the source directory is VPATH; i prefer pattern rules
OS independence is critical for me, so mkdir -p is not an option. I created this series of functions that use eval to create directory targets with the prerequisite on the parent directory. This has the benefit that make -j 2 will work without issue since the dependencies are correctly determined.
# convenience function for getting parent directory, will eventually return ./
# $(call get_parent_dir,somewhere/on/earth/) -> somewhere/on/
get_parent_dir=$(dir $(patsubst %/,%,$1))
# function to create directory targets.
# All directories have order-only-prerequisites on their parent directories
# https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/Prerequisite-Types.html#Prerequisite-Types
TARGET_DIRS:=
define make_dirs_recursively
TARGET_DIRS+=$1
$1: | $(if $(subst ./,,$(call get_parent_dir,$1)),$(call get_parent_dir,$1))
mkdir $1
endef
# function to recursively get all directories
# $(call get_all_dirs,things/and/places/) -> things/ things/and/ things/and/places/
# $(call get_all_dirs,things/and/places) -> things/ things/and/
get_all_dirs=$(if $(subst ./,,$(dir $1)),$(call get_all_dirs,$(call get_parent_dir,$1)) $1)
# function to turn all targets into directories
# $(call get_all_target_dirs,obj/a.o obj/three/b.o) -> obj/ obj/three/
get_all_target_dirs=$(sort $(foreach target,$1,$(call get_all_dirs,$(dir $(target)))))
# create target dirs
create_dirs=$(foreach dirname,$(call get_all_target_dirs,$1),$(eval $(call make_dirs_recursively,$(dirname))))
TARGETS := w/h/a/t/e/v/e/r/things.dat w/h/a/t/things.dat
all: $(TARGETS)
# this must be placed after your .DEFAULT_GOAL, or you can manually state what it is
# https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/Special-Variables.html
$(call create_dirs,$(TARGETS))
# $(TARGET_DIRS) needs to be an order-only-prerequisite
w/h/a/t/e/v/e/r/things.dat: w/h/a/t/things.dat | $(TARGET_DIRS)
echo whatever happens > $#
w/h/a/t/things.dat: | $(TARGET_DIRS)
echo whatever happens > $#
For example, running the above will create:
$ make
mkdir w/
mkdir w/h/
mkdir w/h/a/
mkdir w/h/a/t/
mkdir w/h/a/t/e/
mkdir w/h/a/t/e/v/
mkdir w/h/a/t/e/v/e/
mkdir w/h/a/t/e/v/e/r/
echo whatever happens > w/h/a/t/things.dat
echo whatever happens > w/h/a/t/e/v/e/r/things.dat
See https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/managing-projects-with/0596006101/ch12.html
REQUIRED_DIRS = ...
_MKDIRS := $(shell for d in $(REQUIRED_DIRS); \
do \
[[ -d $$d ]] || mkdir -p $$d; \
done)
$(objects) : $(sources)
As I use Ubuntu, I also needed add this at the top of my Makefile:
SHELL := /bin/bash # Use bash syntax
I use the makefiles in windows environment and my simple solution is as follows,
Create a target makedir and add it as a prerequisites to where ever it is required.
# Default goal
all: gccversion makedir build finalize list sizeafter completed
The makedir target is (applicable only in windows environment)
makedir:
#IF NOT EXIST $(subst /,\,$(BUILD_DIR)) mkdir $(subst /,\,$(BUILD_DIR)) 2> NULL
#IF NOT EXIST $(subst /,\,$(OUTPUT_DIR)) mkdir $(subst /,\,$(OUTPUT_DIR)) 2> NULL
#IF NOT EXIST $(subst /,\,$(DEP_DIR)) mkdir $(subst /,\,$(DEP_DIR)) 2> NUL
#IF NOT EXIST $(subst /,\,$(OBJ_DIR)) mkdir $(subst /,\,$(OBJ_DIR)) 2> NUL
$(subst /,\,$(BUILD_DIR)) converts the directory separator / to \ and
mkdir $(subst /,\,$(BUILD_DIR)) 2> NUL redirects the error if any.
src_dir := src
obj_dir := obj
build_dir := build
dirs := $(src_dir) $(obj_dir) $(build_dir) # new variable
all: $(dirs) $(other_dependencies) # added dependency (*before* any others)
$(dirs): # rule which makes missing directories
mkdir $#
Won't clutter your terminal with "cannot create directory" error messages. If the directories exist, they don't need to be built.
Works like any other dependency, only requires one rule and one variable.