The oritinal page is http://www.hsrl.rutgers.edu/ug/make_help.html
How to write a Makefile

How to write a Makefile

Introduction

Make is one of the original Unix tools for Software Engineering. By
S.I. Feldman of AT&T Bell Labs circa 1975. But there are public
domain versions (eg. GNU) and versions for other systems
(eg. Vax/VMS).

Related tools are the language compilers (cc, f77, lex, yacc, etc.)
and shell programming tools (eg. awk, sed, cp, rm, etc.). You need to
know how to use these.

Important adjuncts are lint (source code checking for obvious errors)
ctags (locate functions, etc. in source code) and mkdepend. These are
nice, and good programmers use them.

Important, and related tools, are the software revision systems SCCS (Source Code Control System) and RCS (Revision Control System -- the recommended choice)

The idea is to automate and optimize the construction of
programs/files -- ie. to leave enough foot prints so that others can
follow.

Makefile Naming

make is going to look for a file called Makefile, if not found then a
file called makefile. Use the first (so the name stands out in
listings).

You can get away without any Makefile (but shouldn't)! Make has
default rules it knows about.

Makefile Components

Comments

Comments are any text beginning with the pound (#) sign. A
comment can start anywhere on a line and continue until the end of the
line. For example:
```
# $Id: slides,v 1.2 1992/02/14 21:00:58 reggers Exp $
```
Macros
Make has a simple macro definition and substitution mechanism. Macros are defined in a Makefile as = pairs. For example:
```
MACROS=  -me

PSROFF=  groff -Tps

DITROFF= groff -Tdvi

CFLAGS= -O -systype bsd43
```
There are lots of default macros -- you should honor the existing naming conventions. To find out what rules/macros make is using type:
```
% make -p
```
NOTE: That your environment variables are exported into the make as macros. They will override the defaults.

You can set macros on the make command line:
```
% make "CFLAGS= -O" "LDFLAGS=-s" printenv

   cc -O printenv.c -s -o printenv
```
Targets
You make a particular target (eg. make all), in none specified then the first target found:
```
paper.dvi: $(SRCS)

       $(DITROFF) $(MACROS) $(SRCS) >paper.dvi
```
NOTE: The the line beginning with $(DITROFF) begins with TAB not spaces.

The target is made if any of the dependent files have changed. The dependent files in this case are represented by the $(SRCS) statement.
Continuation of Lines
Use a back slash (\). This is important for long macros and/or rules.

Conventional Macros

There are lots of default macros (type "make -p" to print out the defaults). Most are pretty obvious from the rules in which they are used:


AR = ar

GFLAGS =

GET = get

ASFLAGS =

MAS = mas

AS = as

FC = f77

CFLAGS =

CC = cc

LDFLAGS =

LD = ld

LFLAGS =

LEX = lex

YFLAGS =

YACC = yacc

LOADLIBS =

MAKE = make

MAKEARGS = 'SHELL=/bin/sh'

SHELL = /bin/sh

MAKEFLAGS = b

Special Macros

Before issuing any command in a target rule set there are certain special macros predefined.
1. $@ is the name of the file to be made.
2. $? is the names of the changed dependents.
So, for example, we could use a rule
```
printenv: printenv.c

        $(CC) $(CFLAGS) $? $(LDFLAGS) -o $@
```
alternatively:
```
printenv: printenv.c

        $(CC) $(CFLAGS) $@.c $(LDFLAGS) -o $@
```
There are two more special macros used in implicit rules. They are:
1. $< the name of the related file that caused the action.
2. $* the prefix shared by target and dependent files.
Makefile Target Rules

The general syntax of a Makefile Target Rule is
```
    target [target...] : [dependent ....]

    [ command ...]
```
Items in brackets are optional, ellipsis means one or more.
Note the tab to preface each command is required.

The semantics is pretty simple. When you say "make target"
make finds the target rule that applies and, if any of the
dependents are newer than the target, make executes the com-
mands one at a time (after macro substitution). If any
dependents have to be made, that happens first (so you have
a recursion).

A make will terminate if any command returns a failure sta-
tus. That's why you see rules like:
```
clean:

        -rm *.o *~ core paper
```
Make ignores the returned status on command lines that begin
with a dash. eg. who cares if there is no core file?

Make will echo the commands, after macro substition to show
you what's happening as it happens. Sometimes you might want
to turn that off. For example:
```
install:

        @echo You must be root to install
```
Example Target Rules

For example, to manage sources stored within RCS (sometimes
you'll need to "check out" a source file):
```
SRCS=x.c y.c z.c



$(SRCS):

        co $@
```
To manage sources stored within SCCS (sometimes you'll need
to "get" a source file):
```
$(SRCS):

        sccs get $@
```
Alternativley, to manage sources stored within SCCS or RCS
let's generalize with a macro that we can set as required.
```
SRCS=x.c y.c z.c

# GET= sccs get

GET= co



$(SRCS):

        $(GET) $@
```
For example, to construct a library of object files
```
lib.a: x.o y.o z.o

        ar rvu lib.a x.o y.o z.o

        ranlib lib.a
```
Alternatively, to be a bit more fancy you could use:
```
OBJ=x.o y.o z.o

AR=ar



lib.a: $(OBJ)

        $(AR) rvu $@ $(OBJ)

        ranlib $@
```
Since AR is a default macro already assigned to "ar" you can
get away without defining it (but shouldn't).

If you get used to using macros you'll be able to make a few
rules that you can use over and over again.

For example, to construct a library in some other directory
```
INC=../misc

OTHERS=../misc/lib.a



$(OTHERS):

        cd $(INC); make lib.a
```
Beware:, the following will not work (but you'd think it
should)
```
INC=../misc

OTHERS=../misc/lib.a



$(OTHERS):

        cd $(INC)

        make lib.a
```
Each command in the target rule is executed in a separate
shell. This makes for some interesting constructs and long
continuation lines.

To generate a tags file
```
SRCS=x.c y.c z.c

CTAGS=ctags -x >tags



tags:   $(SRCS)

        ${CTAGS} $(SRCS)
```
On large projects a tags file, that lists all functions and
their invocations is a handy tool.

To generate a listing of likely bugs in your problems
```
lint:

        lint $(CFLAGS) $(SRCS)
```
Lint is a really good tool for finding those obvious
bugs that slip into programs -- eg. type classes, bad argu-
ment list, etc.
Some Basic Make Rule

People have come to expect certain targets in Makefiles. You
should always browse first, but it's reasonable to expect
that the targets all (or just make), install, and clean will
be found.
1. make all -- should compile everything so that you can do local testing before installing things.
2. make install -- should install things in the right places. But watch out that things are installed in the right place for your system.
3. make clean -- should clean things up. Get rid of the executables, any temporary files, object files, etc.
You may encounter other common targets, some have been
already mentioned (tags and lint).

An Example Makefile for printenv


# make the printenv command

#

OWNER=bin

GROUP=bin

CTAGS= ctags -x >tags

CFLAGS= -O

LDFLAGS= -s

CC=cc

GET=co

SRCS=printenv.c

OBJS=printenv.o

SHAR=shar

MANDIR=/usr/man/manl/printenv.l

BINDIR=/usr/local/bin

DEPEND= makedepend $(CFLAGS)

all:    printenv



# To get things out of the revision control system

$(SRCS):

        $(GET) $@

# To make an object from source

       $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c $*.c



# To make an executable



printenv: $(OBJS)

        $(CC) $(LDFLAGS) -o $@ $(OBJS)



# To install things in the right place

install: printenv printenv.man

        $(INSTALL) -c -o $(OWNER) -g $(GROUP) -m 755 printenv $(BINDIR)

        $(INSTALL) -c -o $(OWNER) -g $(GROUP) -m 644 printenv.man $(MANDIR)



# where are functions/procedures?

tags: $(SRCS)

        $(CTAGS) $(SRCS)



# what have I done wrong?

lint: $(SRCS)

        lint $(CFLAGS) $(SRCS)



# what are the source dependencies

depend: $(SRCS)

        $(DEPEND) $(SRCS)



# to make a shar distribution

shar:   clean

        $(SHAR) README Makefile printenv.man $(SRCS) >shar



# clean out the dross

clean:

        -rm printenv *~ *.o *.bak core tags shar



# DO NOT DELETE THIS LINE -- make depend depends on it.

printenv.o: /usr/include/stdio.h

Makefile Implicit Rules

Consider the rule we used for printenv
```
printenv: printenv.c

        $(CC) $(CFLAGS) printenv.c $(LDFLAGS) -o printenv
```
We generalized a bit to get
```
printenv: printenv.c

        $(CC) $(CFLAGS) $@.c $(LDFLAGS) -o $@
```
The command is one that ought to work in all cases where we
build an executable x out of the source code x.c This can be
stated as an implicit rule:
```
.c:

        $(CC) $(CFLAGS) $@.c $(LDFLAGS) -o $@
```
This Implicit rule says how to make x out of x.c -- run cc
on x.c and call the output x. The rule is implicit because
no particular target is mentioned. It can be used in all
cases.

Another common implicit rule is for the construction of .o
(object) files out of .c (source files).
```
.o.c:

        $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c $<
```
alternatively
```
.o.c:

        $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c $*.c
```
Make Dependencies

It's pretty common to have source code that uses include
files. For example:
```
% cat program.c



#include        

#include        "defs.h"

#include        "glob.h"

        etc....

main(argc,argv)

        etc...
```
The implicit rule only covers part of the source code depen-
dency (it only knows that program.o depends on program.c).
The usual method for handling this is to list the dependen-
cies separately;
```
        etc...

        $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c $*.c

        etc...

program.o: program.c defs.h glob.h
```
Usually an implicit rule and a separate list of dependencies
is all you need. And it ought to be easy enough to figure
out what the dependencies are.

However, there are a number of nice tools around that will
automatically generate dependency lists for you. For example
(trivial):
```
DEPEND= makedepend $(CFLAGS)

        etc...

# what are the source dependencies



depend: $(SRCS)

        $(DEPEND) $(SRCS)



        etc....

# DO NOT DELETE THIS LINE -- ....



printenv.o: /usr/include/stdio.h
```
These tools (mkdepend, mkmkf, etc.) are very common these
days and aren't too difficult to use or understand. They're
just shell scripts that run cpp (or cc -M, or etc.) to find
out what all the include dependencies are. They then just
tack the dependency list onto the end of the Makefile.

Based on Make and Makefiles by

Reg Quinton

Computing and Communications Services

The University of Western Ontario

London, Ontario N6A 5B7

Canada

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memo

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Make script

How to write a Makefile

Introduction

Makefile Naming

Makefile Components

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