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Makefile

Introduction​

  • make utility is primarily used to build and compile programs.
  • make is also used to automate repetitive tasks.

Installation​

# Ubuntu
sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential

# Verify with
which make
# Output
/usr/bin/make

Makefile​

  • Makefiles are directory specific, make will search in the directory where it was called.
# Makefile format:

EXAMPLE_VARIABLE=example-variable-value

target: [source]
    [COMMAND PREFIXES]command arg1 arg2 \
    arg3 $(EXAMPLE_VARIABLE)

target - a user-specified name to refer to a group of commands. Aligned on the left-hand column, is a continuous word (no spaces), and ends with a colon (:).
source - a reference to files or other targets and represents prerequisites or dependencies for the target. More than one source can be specified after any target, separated by spaces.
command - as many indented by one tab lines followed by a command (shell compatbale) allowed. make will go though them one by a time.

Command prefixes​

Command prefixes define how make must handle the command

-	            # Do not abort if an error is encountered
@               # Do not print command
+	            # Run even if Make is in ‘don’t execute’ mode

File Suffix Rules​

Used for file processing based on their extension.

# declaration of file suffixes to be used
.SUFFIXES: .jpg .png    

# declaration of suffix rule
# format: "original_extension.target_extension:"
.jpg.png:
    @echo converting $< to $@
    convert $< $@

Automatic variables​

Special variables​

Directives​

References​