MAKEFILE TUTOR (GNU)

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Summary

Addressed to beginners and not to newcomers, the idea behind this tutorial is to focus on the essential. Anything that is not directly related to the template we are going to explore will not be covered here. On the other hand everything that is covered in this tutorial will be carefully detailed.

Initially intended to help 42 students to step up their Makefile skills through a C-focused documented template that evolves gradually, version by version. With the aim of making them more digestible and even tasty 🍔

Allow 1 hour to complete this tutorial, plus some additional time to work with the examples. For those of you who are wondering, as I write this line, I have invested a total of 102 hours and 50 minutes in creating this tutorial.

TL;DR Refer to the bold text.

→ GitHub Page ←
→ GitHub Repo ←

Roadmap

GitHub Page
A ready to make project of each template version
bold text that acts as a summary
v1 Simplest C project
v2 Project that include headers
v3 Project with any kind of directory structure
v4 Static library + introduce auto-gen dependencies
v5 Project that uses libraries
POSIX Makefile

Usage

This tutorial is designed to be read line by line linearly at first.

Then it can be quickly navigated thanks to the:

Brief of each version which is visible from the Index.
Text in bold that compile the essence of this tutorial.
Return to Index ↑ buttons at the end of each version.

Each version of the template has an assigned directory in the projects directory of the repository, to play with a Makefile open a terminal and run:

git clone https://github.com/clemedon/Makefile_tutor.git
cd Makefile_tutor/projects

cd <template_version>
make <target>

PS1 C++ users have to replace CC = clang with CXX = g++ and CFLAGS with CXXFLAGS.

PS2 feel free to fork me so as to remove everything that does not interest you and customize me according to your needs.

Glossary

Each version of the template has 3 sections:

Structure is the project structure sketch.
Brief is a summary made from the bold parts of the template comments.
Template is a commented Makefile template with comments (that are always placed at the end of the template part that concerns them).

Our template will be articulated around the following parts:

### BEG Mark the template beginning.
INGREDIENTS Build variables.
UTENSILS Shell commands.
RECIPES Build and extra rules.
SPEC Special targets.
#### END Mark the template end.

According to make a rule is made of:

targets are the names of the goals we want to make. It can be a file or an action, the latter leading to a pseudo target.
prerequisites are the goals that must be achieved so that the rule can execute. Thus prerequisites are the targets dependencies.
recipe is the set of lines that begins with a TAB character and appear in a rule context.

target: prerequisite
    recipe line 1
    recipe line 2
    …

Syntax

Like every Makefile the template uses a combination of Makefile syntax and shell script syntax. The shell script syntax is reserved and limited to recipe lines, by default those lines have to start with a TAB character to be differentiated by make (and passed to the shell). The Makefile syntax is used for all the other lines.

About the equal signs:

:= simply expand the defined variable (like C =).
= recursively expand the defined variable (the expression is expanded afterward, when (and each time) the variable is used).

A := Did $(C)
B = Did $(C)

C  = you understand ?

all:
    $(info $(A)) # output "Did"
    $(info $(B)) # output "Did you understand ?"

About variables note that ${VAR} and $(VAR) is exactly the same.

Automatic Variables expansion:

$< leftmost prerequisite
$@ current target
$^ all prerequisites
$(@D) directory part of the file name of the target
$(@F) file part of the file name of the target

Cf. Version 1 / Automatic variables in practice.

Template

Index

Version 1 / Simplest C project

42 C coding style conventions

builtin variables

The C compilation implicit rule

pattern rule contains % character

Automatic variables in practice

Illustration of a make all

C build recap

parallelization enabled by make --jobs

the .PHONY: special target

Version 2 / Project that include headers

preprocessor's flags

print a custom message

C compilation implicit rule is overwritten

default goal all appears first

.SILENT: silences the rules output

Version 3 / Project with any kind of directory structure

split the line with a backslash

substitution reference so main.c becomes src/main.c

generate the OBJ_DIR based on SRC_DIR

compilation rule uses multiple source and object directories

Version 4 / Static library

when a header file is modified the executable will rebuild

automatically generate a list of dependencies

build directory

dependency files must be included

hyphen symbol to prevent make from complaining

creates a static library

Version 5 / Project that uses libraries

system library linked by default

addprefix make function

flags and libraries used by the linker

dir function

Build with a library

Linking with a library

builds each of the required libraries

call rules recursively

Bonus

make and run the default goal

print <target> recipe without executing it

print the value of an arbitrary variable

update the git repository

Version 1

v1 Structure

The simplest, build a program called icecream with the following structure:

    before build:    after build:
    .                .
    ├── Makefile     ├── Makefile
    └── main.c       ├── main.o
                     ├── main.c
                     └── icecream

v1 Brief

42 C coding style conventions
builtin variables
The C compilation implicit rule
pattern rule contains % character
Automatic variables in practice
Illustration of a make all
C build recap
parallelization enabled by make --jobs
the .PHONY: special target

v1 Template

####################################### BEG_1 ####

NAME        := icecream

#------------------------------------------------#
#   INGREDIENTS                                  #
#------------------------------------------------#
# SRCS      source files
# OBJS      object files
#
# CC        compiler
# CFLAGS    compiler flags

SRCS        := main.c
OBJS        := main.o

CC          := clang
CFLAGS      := -Wall -Wextra -Werror

#------------------------------------------------#
#   UTENSILS                                     #
#------------------------------------------------#
# RM        force remove
# MAKEFLAGS make flags

RM          := rm -f
MAKEFLAGS   += --no-print-directory

#------------------------------------------------#
#   RECIPES                                      #
#------------------------------------------------#
# all       default goal
# $(NAME)   linking .o -> binary
# clean     remove .o
# fclean    remove .o + binary
# re        remake default goal

all: $(NAME)

$(NAME): $(OBJS)
    $(CC) $(OBJS) -o $(NAME)

clean:
    $(RM) $(OBJS)

fclean: clean
    $(RM) $(NAME)

re:
    $(MAKE) fclean
    $(MAKE) all

#------------------------------------------------#
#   SPEC                                         #
#------------------------------------------------#

.PHONY: clean fclean re

####################################### END_1 ####

The choice of the CC and CFLAGS values, NAME, clean, fclean, all and re as the basic rules as well as not using a wildcard to auto generate the sources list is guided by the 42 C coding style conventions, do not hesitate to disagree and change it (like renaming clean and fclean to the more GNU conventional mostlyclean and clean respectively).

MAKE and MAKEFLAGS are builtin variables like CFLAGS and a lot of others that you can find in the data-base (make --print-data-base command). MAKE value corresponds to the make executable being run and MAKEFLAGS to its flags. When a Makefile is executed from another Makefile, the called's MAKE MAKEFLAGS variables inherit from the caller's MAKE MAKEFLAGS values.

Here we append --no-print-directory to MAKEFLAGS content to have a clearer output, try to remove it and make re to see the difference.

The C compilation implicit rule looks like this:

%.o: %.c
    $(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) -c -o $@ $<

Where %.o expands to each objects, %.c to each sources, $@ to the first target (which is %.o) and $< to the leftmost prerequisite (which is %.c).

As their name implies implicit rules are implicit and do not need to be written. As well as the builtin variables, all the implicit rules can be found in the data-base, accessible with make -p -f/dev/null | less command.

A pattern rule is a rule whose target contains a % character (here %.o: %.c). This character means "exactly one of them". It is used here to say that each .o requires a .c with the same name and the $(CC)… recipe line will execute as many times as there are .o: .c pairs, thus creating for each source its corresponding object, one at a time.

Automatic variables in practice:

# Linking step

$(NAME): $(OBJS)
    $(CC) $^ -o $@

$@ expands to the current target, here we could have used $(NAME) instead.

$^ expands to all prerequisites, here we could have used $(OBJS) instead but not $< that expands to the leftmost prerequisite and so only the first item found in $(OBJS).

# Compiling step

%.o: %.c
    $(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) -c -o $@ $<

$< expands to the leftmost prerequisite, here it could not have been replaced with $(SRCS) because $(SRCS) expands to all the sources at once which is not the case of the pattern rule %.c. On the other hand here $< is equivalent to $^, both will always expand to one source: the current one expanded by %.c. For the same reasons $@ expands to %.o not to $(OBJS).

Illustration of a make all:

all: $(NAME)                            3 ← 2

$(NAME): $(OBJS)                        2 ← 1
    $(CC) $(OBJS) -o $(NAME)

%.o: %.c                                1 ← 0
    $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c -o $@ $<

The all target requires icecream that requires the objects that require the sources that requires… a programmer. In other words all creates icecream with the objects created with the sources that you have created.

Make will first trace its path to the lower level where it finds a raw material 3 → 2 → 1 → 0 (the sources) and then do it backward while building each resource that is required by the direct upper level encountered 0 → 1 → 2 → 3 (the icecream, our final goal).

C build recap %.o target requires the sources to be compiled into objects, the -c option tells the compiler to only compile without linking. The -o option is used to specify the objects name. Afterward the $(NAME) target requires the linking the objects into a binary file whose name is specified with the -o flag.

For the re rule we have no choice but make an external call to our Makefile because we should not rely on the order in which prerequisites are specified. For example re: fclean all wouldn't not be reliable if parallelization was enabled by make --jobs.

The prerequisites given to the .PHONY: special target become targets that make will run regardless of whether a file with that name exists. In short these prerequisites are our targets that don't bear the name of a file.

Try to remove the .PHONY: re, create a file named re at the Makefile level in the project directory and run make re. It won't work.

Now if you do the same with all it won't cause any problem, as we know prerequisites are completed before their targets and all has the sole action of invoking $(NAME), as long as a rule doesn't have a recipe, .PHONY is not necessary.

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Version 2

v2 Structure

As above but for a project that includes header files:

    before build:     after build:
    .                 .
    ├── Makefile      ├── Makefile
    ├── main.c        ├── main.o
    └── icecream.h    ├── main.c
                      ├── icecream.h
                      └── icecream

v2 Brief

preprocessor's flags
print a custom message
C compilation implicit rule is overwritten
default goal all appears first
.SILENT: silences the rules output

v2 Template

####################################### BEG_2 ####

NAME        := icecream

#------------------------------------------------#
#   INGREDIENTS                                  #
#------------------------------------------------#
# SRCS      source files
# OBJS      object files
#
# CC        compiler
# CFLAGS    compiler flags
# CPPFLAGS  preprocessor flags

SRCS        := main.c
OBJS        := main.o

CC          := clang
CFLAGS      := -Wall -Wextra -Werror
CPPFLAGS    := -I .

CPPFLAGS is dedicated to preprocessor's flags like -I <include_dir>, it allows you to no longer have to write the full path of a header but only its file name in the sources: #include "icecream.h" instead of #include "../../path/to/include/icecream.h".

#------------------------------------------------#
#   UTENSILS                                     #
#------------------------------------------------#
# RM        force remove
# MAKEFLAGS make flags

RM          := rm -f
MAKEFLAGS   += --no-print-directory

#------------------------------------------------#
#   RECIPES                                      #
#------------------------------------------------#
# all       default goal
# $(NAME)   linking .o -> binary
# %.o       compilation .c -> .o
# clean     remove .o
# fclean    remove .o + binary
# re        remake default goal

all: $(NAME)

$(NAME): $(OBJS)
    $(CC) $(OBJS) -o $(NAME)
    $(info CREATED $(NAME))

%.o: %.c
    $(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) -c -o $@ $<
    $(info CREATED $@)

clean:
    $(RM) $(OBJS)

fclean: clean
    $(RM) $(NAME)

re:
    $(MAKE) fclean
    $(MAKE) all

The info function is used here to print a custom message about what has just been built.

We prefer info to shell echo because it is a make function. Also unlike echo that can only be used inside a recipe, info can be used anywhere in a Makefile which makes it powerful for debugging.

The C compilation implicit rule is overwritten with an explicit equivalent which let us add an info statement to it.

The order in which the rules are written does not matter as long as our default goal all appears first (the rule that will be triggered by a simple make command).

#------------------------------------------------#
#   SPEC                                         #
#------------------------------------------------#

.PHONY: clean fclean re
.SILENT:

Normally make prints each line of a rule's recipe before it is executed. The special target .SILENT: silences the rules output specified as prerequisites, when it is used without prerequisites it silents all the rules (implicit included).

To silence at the recipe-line level we can prefix the wanted recipe lines with an @ symbol.

####################################### END_2 ####

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Version 3

v3 Structure

As above but a more complex project structure with multiple source directories and their corresponding object directories:

    before build:          after build:
    .                      .
    ├── src                ├── src
    │   ├── base           │   ├── base
    │   │   ├── water.c    │   │   ├── water.c
    │   │   └── milk.c     │   │   └── milk.c
    │   ├── arom           │   ├── arom
    │   │   └── coco.c     │   │   └── coco.c
    │   └── main.c         │   └── main.c
    ├── include            ├── obj
    │   └── icecream.h     │   ├── base
    └── Makefile           │   │   ├── water.o
                           │   │   └── milk.o
                           │   ├── arom
                           │   │   └── coco.o
                           │   └── main.o
                           ├── include
                           │   └── icecream.h
                           ├── Makefile
                           └── icecream

v3 Brief

split the line with a backslash
substitution reference so main.c becomes src/main.c
generate the OBJ_DIR based on SRC_DIR
compilation rule uses multiple source and object directories

v3 Template

####################################### BEG_3 ####

NAME        := icecream

#------------------------------------------------#
#   INGREDIENTS                                  #
#------------------------------------------------#
# SRC_DIR   source directory
# OBJ_DIR   object directory
# SRCS      source files
# OBJS      object files
#
# CC        compiler
# CFLAGS    compiler flags
# CPPFLAGS  preprocessor flags

SRC_DIR     := src
OBJ_DIR     := obj
SRCS        := \
    main.c          \
    arom/coco.c     \
    base/milk.c     \
    base/water.c
SRCS        := $(SRCS:%=$(SRC_DIR)/%)
OBJS        := $(SRCS:$(SRC_DIR)/%.c=$(OBJ_DIR)/%.o)

CC          := clang
CFLAGS      := -Wall -Wextra -Werror
CPPFLAGS    := -I include

We can split the line by ending it with a backslash to increase the readability of SRCS content and facilitate its modification.

A string substitution reference substitutes the value of each item of a variable with the specified alterations. $(SRCS:%=$(SRC_DIR)/%) means that each item of SRCS represented by % becomes itself (%) plus the $(SRC_DIR)/ alteration, so main.c becomes src/main.c. OBJS will then use the same process to convert src/main.c into obj/main.o, based on OBJ_DIR and the new value of SRCS.

#------------------------------------------------#
#   UTENSILS                                     #
#------------------------------------------------#
# RM        force remove
# MAKEFLAGS make flags
# DIR_DUP   duplicate directory tree

RM          := rm -f
MAKEFLAGS   += --no-print-directory
DIR_DUP     = mkdir -p $(@D)

DIR_DUP will generate the OBJ_DIR based on SRC_DIR structure with mkdir -p which creates the directory and the parents directories if missing, and $(@D) that will expand to the directory part of the target, as we've seen in the syntax section.

This will work with every possible kind of src directory structure.

#------------------------------------------------#
#   RECIPES                                      #
#------------------------------------------------#
# all       default goal
# $(NAME)   linking .o -> binary
# %.o       compilation .c -> .o
# clean     remove .o
# fclean    remove .o + binary
# re        remake default goal

all: $(NAME)

$(NAME): $(OBJS)
    $(CC) $(OBJS) -o $(NAME)
    $(info CREATED $(NAME))

$(OBJ_DIR)/%.o: $(SRC_DIR)/%.c
    $(DIR_DUP)
    $(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) -c -o $@ $<
    $(info CREATED $@)

clean:
    $(RM) $(OBJS)

fclean: clean
    $(RM) $(NAME)

re:
    $(MAKE) fclean
    $(MAKE) all

The compilation rule .o: %.c becomes $(OBJ_DIR)/%.o: $(SRC_DIR)/%.c, since our structure uses dedicated source and object directories.

#------------------------------------------------#
#   SPEC                                         #
#------------------------------------------------#

.PHONY: clean fclean re
.SILENT:

####################################### END_3 ####

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Version 4

v4 Structure

Builds a library so there are no main.c. We generate dependencies that are stored with the objects. Therefor we rename the obj directory into a more general .build directory.

    before build:          after build:
    .                      .
    ├── src                ├── src
    │   ├── base           │   ├── base
    │   │   ├── water.c    │   │   ├── water.c
    │   │   └── milk.c     │   │   └── milk.c
    │   └── arom           │   └── arom
    │       └── coco.c     │       └── coco.c
    ├── include            ├── include
    │   └── icecream.h     │   └── icecream.h
    └── Makefile           ├── .build
                           │   ├── base
                           │   │   ├── water.o
                           │   │   ├── water.d
                           │   │   ├── milk.o
                           │   │   └── milk.d
                           │   └── arom
                           │       ├── coco.o
                           │       └── coco.d
                           ├── Makefile
                           └── libicecream.a

v4 Brief

when a header file is modified the executable will rebuild
automatically generate a list of dependencies
build directory
dependency files must be included
hyphen symbol to prevent make from complaining
creates a static library

v4 Template

####################################### BEG_4 ####

NAME        := libicecream.a

#------------------------------------------------#
#   INGREDIENTS                                  #
#------------------------------------------------#
# SRC_DIR   source directory
# SRCS      source files
#
# BUILD_DIR object directory
# OBJS      object files
# DEPS      dependency files
#
# CC        compiler
# CFLAGS    compiler flags
# CPPFLAGS  preprocessor flags

SRC_DIR     := src
SRCS        :=  \
    arom/coco.c \
    base/milk.c \
    base/water.c
SRCS        := $(SRCS:%=$(SRC_DIR)/%)

BUILD_DIR   := .build
OBJS        := $(SRCS:$(SRC_DIR)/%.c=$(BUILD_DIR)/%.o)
DEPS        := $(OBJS:.o=.d)

CC          := clang
CFLAGS      := -Wall -Wextra -Werror
CPPFLAGS    := -MMD -MP -I include
AR          := ar
ARFLAGS     := -r -c -s

Unlike with sources, when a header file is modified make has no way of knowing this and will not consider the executable to be out of date, and therefor will not rebuild it. In order to change this behavior we should add the appropriate header files as additional prerequisites:

#before                     #after
main.o: main.c              main.o: main.c icecream.h
    clang -c $< -o $@           clang -c $< -o $@

Doing this manually for multiple sources and headers is both tedious and error prone. By adding -MMD to CPPFLAGS our compiler will automatically generate a list of dependencies for each object file encountered during the compilation. The -MP option prevents errors that are triggered if a header file has been deleted or renamed.

Dependency files must be included into our Makefile right after the objects creation so to obtain their names we copy OBJS into DEPS and use substitution reference to turn .o part of their name into .d.

We change our old OBJ_DIR = obj for a BUILD_DIR = .build, a hidden build directory that will contain our dependency files in addition to our objects.

A static library is not a binary but a collection of objects so we use ar to creates a static library during the linking step of the build. -r to replace the older objects with the new ones with -c to create the library if it does not exist and -s to write an index into the archive or update an existing one.

#------------------------------------------------#
#   UTENSILS                                     #
#------------------------------------------------#
# RM        force remove
# MAKEFLAGS make flags
# DIR_DUP   duplicate directory tree

RM          := rm -f
MAKEFLAGS   += --no-print-directory
DIR_DUP     = mkdir -p $(@D)

#------------------------------------------------#
#   RECIPES                                      #
#------------------------------------------------#
# all       default goal
# $(NAME)   link .o -> library
# %.o       compilation .c -> .o
# clean     remove .o
# fclean    remove .o + binary
# re        remake default goal

all: $(NAME)

$(NAME): $(OBJS)
    $(AR) $(ARFLAGS) $(NAME) $(OBJS)
    $(info CREATED $(NAME))

$(BUILD_DIR)/%.o: $(SRC_DIR)/%.c
    $(DIR_DUP)
    $(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) -c -o $@ $<
    $(info CREATED $@)

-include $(DEPS)

clean:
    $(RM) $(OBJS) $(DEPS)

fclean: clean
    $(RM) $(NAME)

re:
    $(MAKE) fclean
    $(MAKE) all

Dependency files are written in the make language and must be included into our Makefile to be read. The include directive work the same as C #include, it tells make to suspend its current Makefile reading and read the included files before continuing. Make sure to include the dependencies after they are created → after the compilation rule that invoke -MMD via $(CPPFLAGS).

The purpose of the -include $(DEPS) initial hyphen symbol is to prevent make from complaining when a non-zero status code is encountered, which can be caused here by a missing files from our generated dependency files list.

#------------------------------------------------#
#   SPEC                                         #
#------------------------------------------------#

.PHONY: clean fclean re
.SILENT:

####################################### END_4 ####

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Version 5

v5 Structure

Builds an icecream program that uses libbase and libarom libraries. Both libraries are v4 based.

    before build:              after build:
    .                          .
    ├── src                    ├── src
    │   └── main.c             │   └── main.c
    ├── lib                    ├── lib
    │   ├── libbase            │   ├── libbase
    │   │   ├── src            │   │   ├── src
    │   │   │   ├── water.c    │   │   │   ├── water.c
    │   │   │   └── milk.c     │   │   │   └── milk.c
    │   │   ├── include        │   │   ├── include
    │   │   │   └── base.h     │   │   │   └── base.h
    │   │   └── Makefile       │   │   ├── .build
    │   └── libarom            │   │   │   ├── water.o
    │       ├── src            │   │   │   ├── water.d
    │       │   ├── coco.c     │   │   │   ├── milk.o
    │       │   └── cherry.c   │   │   │   └── milk.d
    │       ├── include        │   │   ├── Makefile
    │       │   └── arom.h     │   │   └── libbase.a
    │       └── Makefile       │   └── libarom
    ├── include                │       ├── src
    │   └── icecream.h         │       │   ├── coco.c
    └── Makefile               │       │   └── cherry.c
                               │       ├── include
                               │       │   └── arom.h
                               │       ├── .build
                               │       │   ├── coco.o
                               │       │   ├── coco.d
                               │       │   ├── cherry.o
                               │       │   └── cherry.d
                               │       ├── Makefile
                               │       └── libarom.a
                               ├── include
                               │   └── icecream.h
                               ├── .build
                               │   ├── main.o
                               │   └── main.d
                               ├── Makefile
                               └── icecream

v5 Brief

system library linked by default
addprefix make function
flags and libraries used by the linker
dir function
Build with a library
Linking with a library
builds each of the required libraries
call rules recursively

v5 Template

# @author   clemedon (Clément Vidon)
####################################### BEG_5 ####

NAME        := icecream

#------------------------------------------------#
#   INGREDIENTS                                  #
#------------------------------------------------#
# LIBS        libraries to be used
# LIBS_TARGET libraries to be built
#
# INCS        header file locations
#
# SRC_DIR     source directory
# SRCS        source files
#
# BUILD_DIR   build directory
# OBJS        object files
# DEPS        dependency files
#
# CC          compiler
# CFLAGS      compiler flags
# CPPFLAGS    preprocessor flags
# LDFLAGS     linker flags
# LDLIBS      libraries name

LIBS        := arom base m
LIBS_TARGET :=            \
    lib/libarom/libarom.a \
    lib/libbase/libbase.a

INCS        := include    \
    lib/libarom/include   \
    lib/libbase/include

SRC_DIR     := src
SRCS        := main.c
SRCS        := $(SRCS:%=$(SRC_DIR)/%)

BUILD_DIR   := .build
OBJS        := $(SRCS:$(SRC_DIR)/%.c=$(BUILD_DIR)/%.o)
DEPS        := $(OBJS:.o=.d)

CC          := clang
CFLAGS      := -Wall -Wextra -Werror
CPPFLAGS    := $(addprefix -I,$(INCS)) -MMD -MP
LDFLAGS     := $(addprefix -L,$(dir $(LIBS_TARGET)))
LDLIBS      := $(addprefix -l,$(LIBS))

We can notice that the m library from LIBS is not mentionned in LIBS_TARGET for the reason that m is a system library (libm for mathematical functions found in math.h). Unlike the libc which is linked by default (we don't need to provide -lc flag to our linker) the libm is not linked by default.

In CPPFLAGS we use addprefix that, as its name suggests is a make function that allows you to add a prefix, here a -I to each of the item found in $(INCS) (that contains the paths to our project and libraries headers).

LDFLAGS and LDLIBS contain the flags and libraries that will be used by the linker ld to link the library to our project sources.

The dir function means that we want to keep only directory part of the given item, there exists a notdir function that does the opposite to keep only the file name of the given item.

Build with a library requires three flags: -I tell the compiler where to find the lib header files, -L tells the linker where to look for the library and -l the name of this library (without its conventional lib prefix).

For example: -I lib/libarom/include -L lib/libarom -l arom

#------------------------------------------------#
#   UTENSILS                                     #
#------------------------------------------------#
# RM        force remove
# MAKEFLAGS make flags
# DIR_DUP   duplicate directory tree

RM          := rm -f
MAKEFLAGS   += --silent --no-print-directory
DIR_DUP     = mkdir -p $(@D)

#------------------------------------------------#
#   RECIPES                                      #
#------------------------------------------------#
# all       default goal
# $(NAME)   link .o -> archive
# $(LIBS)   build libraries
# %.o       compilation .c -> .o
# clean     remove .o
# fclean    remove .o + binary
# re        remake default goal
# run       run the program
# info      print the default goal recipe

all: $(NAME)

$(NAME): $(OBJS) $(LIBS_TARGET)
    $(CC) $(LDFLAGS) $(OBJS) $(LDLIBS) -o $(NAME)
    $(info CREATED $(NAME))

$(LIBS_TARGET):
    $(MAKE) -C $(@D)

$(BUILD_DIR)/%.o: $(SRC_DIR)/%.c
    $(DIR_DUP)
    $(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) -c -o $@ $<
    $(info CREATED $@)

-include $(DEPS)

clean:
    for f in $(dir $(LIBS_TARGET)); do $(MAKE) -C $$f clean; done
    $(RM) $(OBJS) $(DEPS)

fclean: clean
    for f in $(dir $(LIBS_TARGET)); do $(MAKE) -C $$f fclean; done
    $(RM) $(NAME)

re:
    $(MAKE) fclean
    $(MAKE) all

Linking with a library requires special attention to the order of the linking flags. In our case we need to make sure that $(LDFLAGS) and $(LDLIBS) passes respectively before and after the $(OBJS) in the linking recipe.

$(LIBS_TARGET) rule builds each of the required libraries found in the INGREDIENTS part. It is a $(NAME) prerequisite for the same reason as $(OBJS) because our final goal needs the libraries as well as the objects to be built.

As both rules clean and fclean appear in the Makefile of all our $(LIBS_TARGET) we can call these rules for each of them recursively using a shell for loop. Here again we use the dir function to only keep the directory part of the library.

#------------------------------------------------#
#   SPEC                                         #
#------------------------------------------------#

.PHONY: clean fclean re
.SILENT:

####################################### end_5 ####

Return to Index ↑

Bonus

Extra rules

.PHONY: run
run: re
    -./$(NAME)

run is a simple rule that make and run the default goal. We start the shell command with the hyphen symbol to prevent make from interrupting its own execution if our program execution returns a non-zero value.

info-%:
    $(MAKE) --dry-run --always-make $* | grep -v "info"

info-<target> rule will execute a make <target> command with --dry-run to print the <target> recipe without executing it, --always-make to make even if the targets already exist and grep -v to filter the output. $* expands to the value given in place of the % at the rule call. For example with make info-re $* will expand to re.

print-%:
    $(info '$*'='$($*)')

The print-<variable> that works like print-<rule> will print the value of an arbitrary variable, for example a make print-CC will output CC=clang.

.PHONY: update
update:
    git stash
    git pull
    git submodule update --init
    git stash pop

The update rule will update the git repository to its last version, as well as its git submodules. stash commands saves eventual uncommitted changes and put them back in place once the update is done.

Sources

Topic	Website
doc	docs.w3cub.com
manual	gnu.org
a richer tutorial	makefiletutorial.com
order-only exquisite	stackoverflow.com
c libraries	docencia.ac.upc.edu
auto-deps gen	make.mad-scientist.net
auto-deps gen	scottmcpeak.com
auto-deps gen	microhowto.info
include statement	gnu.org
redis makefile	github.com

Contact

cvidon   42
clemedon icloud

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Latest commit History 140 Commits
projects		projects
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README.md		README.md

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MAKEFILE TUTOR (GNU)

Summary · Usage · Glossary · Syntax · Index · Sources · Contact

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Version 1

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Version 2

v2 Structure

v2 Brief

v2 Template

Version 3

v3 Structure

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v3 Template

Version 4

v4 Structure

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