book

Managing Projects with GNU Make, 3rd Edition

by Robert Mecklenburg

November 2004

Intermediate to advanced

302 pages

9h 7m

English

O'Reilly Media, Inc.

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GNU Make

The Road to the Third EditionWhat’s New in This EditionConventions Used in This BookUsing Code ExamplesComments and QuestionsAcknowledgments
1.1. Targets and Prerequisites1.2. Dependency Checking1.3. Minimizing Rebuilds1.4. Invoking make1.5. Basic Makefile Syntax
2.1. Explicit Rules2.1.1. Wildcards2.1.2. Phony Targets2.1.3. Empty Targets2.2. Variables2.2.1. Automatic Variables2.3. Finding Files with VPATH and vpath2.4. Pattern Rules2.4.1. The Patterns2.4.2. Static Pattern Rules2.4.3. Suffix Rules2.5. The Implicit Rules Database2.5.1. Working with Implicit Rules2.5.2. Rule Structure2.5.3. Implicit Rules for Source Control2.5.4. A Simple Help Command2.6. Special Targets2.7. Automatic Dependency Generation2.8. Managing Libraries2.8.1. Creating and Updating Libraries2.8.2. Using Libraries as Prerequisites2.8.3. Double-Colon Rules
3.1. What Variables Are Used For3.2. Variable Types3.2.1. Other Types of Assignment3.3. Macros3.4. When Variables Are Expanded3.5. Target- and Pattern-Specific Variables3.6. Where Variables Come From3.7. Conditional and include Processing3.7.1. The include Directive3.7.2. include and Dependencies3.8. Standard make Variables
4.1. User-Defined Functions4.2. Built-in Functions4.2.1. String Functions4.2.2. Important Miscellaneous Functions4.2.3. Filename Functions4.2.4. Flow Control4.2.4.1. Style note concerning variables and parentheses4.2.5. Less Important Miscellaneous Functions4.3. Advanced User-Defined Functions4.3.1. eval and value4.3.2. Hooking Functions4.3.3. Passing Parameters

5.1. Parsing Commands5.1.1. Continuing Long Commands5.1.2. Command Modifiers5.1.3. Errors and Interrupts5.1.3.1. Deleting and preserving target files5.2. Which Shell to Use5.3. Empty Commands5.4. Command Environment5.5. Evaluating Commands5.6. Command-Line Limits
6.1. Recursive make6.1.1. Command-Line Options6.1.2. Passing Variables6.1.3. Error Handling6.1.4. Building Other Targets6.1.5. Cross-Makefile Dependencies6.1.6. Avoiding Duplicate Code6.2. Nonrecursive make6.3. Components of Large Systems6.3.1. Requirements6.4. Filesystem Layout6.5. Automating Builds and Testing
7.1. Portability Issues7.2. Cygwin7.2.1. Line Termination7.2.2. Filesystem7.2.3. Program Conflicts7.3. Managing Programs and Files7.3.1. Source Tree Layout7.4. Working with Nonportable Tools7.4.1. A Standard Shell7.5. Automake
8.1. Separating Source and Binary8.1.1. The Easy Way8.1.2. The Hard Way8.2. Read-Only Source8.3. Dependency Generation8.3.1. Tromey’s Way8.3.2. makedepend Programs8.4. Supporting Multiple Binary Trees8.5. Partial Source Trees8.6. Reference Builds, Libraries, and Installers
9.1. Alternatives to make9.1.1. Ant9.1.2. IDEs9.2. A Generic Java Makefile9.3. Compiling Java9.3.1. The Fast Approach: All-in-One Compile9.3.2. Compiling with Dependencies9.3.3. Setting CLASSPATH9.4. Managing Jars9.5. Reference Trees and Third-Party Jars9.6. Enterprise JavaBeans
10.1. Benchmarking10.2. Identifying and Handling Bottlenecks10.2.1. Simple Variables Versus Recursive10.2.2. Disabling @10.2.3. Lazy Initialization10.3. Parallel make10.4. Distributed make
11.1. The Book Makefile11.1.1. Managing Examples11.1.2. XML Preprocessing11.1.3. Generating Output11.1.4. Validating the Source11.2. The Linux Kernel Makefile11.2.1. Command-Line Options11.2.2. Configuration Versus Building11.2.3. Managing Command Echo11.2.4. User-Defined Functions
12.1. Debugging Features of make12.1.1. Command-Line Options12.1.1.1. —just-print12.1.1.2. —print-data-base12.1.1.3. —warn-undefined-variables12.1.2. The —debug Option12.2. Writing Code for Debugging12.2.1. Good Coding Practices12.2.2. Defensive Coding12.2.3. Debugging Techniques12.3. Common Error Messages12.3.1. Syntax Errors12.3.1.1. missing separator12.3.1.2. commands commence before first target12.3.1.3. unterminated variable reference12.3.2. Errors in Command Scripts12.3.3. No Rule to Make Target12.3.4. Overriding Commands for Target
B.1. Data StructuresB.2. Arithmetic
C.1. 0. PREAMBLEC.2. 1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONSC.3. 2. VERBATIM COPYINGC.4. 3. COPYING IN QUANTITYC.5. 4. MODIFICATIONSC.6. 5. COMBINING DOCUMENTSC.7. 6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTSC.8. 7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKSC.9. 8. TRANSLATIONC.10. 9. TERMINATIONC.11. 10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE

Overview

The utility simply known as make is one of the most enduring features of both Unix and other operating systems. First invented in the 1970s, make still turns up to this day as the central engine in most programming projects; it even builds the Linux kernel. In the third edition of the classic Managing Projects with GNU make, readers will learn why this utility continues to hold its top position in project build software, despite many younger competitors.The premise behind make is simple: after you change source files and want to rebuild your program or other output files, make checks timestamps to see what has changed and rebuilds just what you need, without wasting time rebuilding other files. But on top of this simple principle, make layers a rich collection of options that lets you manipulate multiple directories, build different versions of programs for different platforms, and customize your builds in other ways.This edition focuses on the GNU version of make, which has deservedly become the industry standard. GNU make contains powerful extensions that are explored in this book. It is also popular because it is free software and provides a version for almost every platform, including a version for Microsoft Windows as part of the free Cygwin project. Managing Projects with GNU make, 3rd Edition provides guidelines on meeting the needs of large, modern projects. Also added are a number of interesting advanced topics such as portability, parallelism, and use with Java.Robert Mecklenburg, author of the third edition, has used make for decades with a variety of platforms and languages. In this book he zealously lays forth how to get your builds to be as efficient as possible, reduce maintenance, avoid errors, and thoroughly understand what make is doing. Chapters on C++ and Java provide makefile entries optimized for projects in those languages. The author even includes a discussion of the makefile used to build the book.