Appendix A. Automating Your Programs with Makefiles
In This Appendix
Compiling and linking your programs
Automating your work
Implying work with inference rules in your Makefiles
Getting the most out of Makefiles
Since the beginning of time, or at least since the beginning of the Unix operating system, programmers have used a utility called make
to build their programs. And it's still often used today. The make
utility looks at which of your source-code files have changed and decides what needs to be compiled and built.
Development tools, such as CodeBocks and Microsoft Visual C++, don't require you to use a make
utility because they have such decision-making features built in. But many free compilers use them. Fortunately, the process for creating and using make
files is no longer as difficult as it once was. Third-party libraries come with make
utilities (such as the Boost library's Boost Jam and Boost Build; see Minibook VI, Chapter 3) that greatly reduce the complexity of creating and using make
files.
Before using make
, understanding the compile and link processes is important. In this appendix, we cover the compile and link processes and advise how to use make
to automate your building. Please note, however, that make
itself is a complex tool, and enough information is available about it to fill an entire For Dummies book. Therefore, we suggest that you don't worry about mastering make
and what are called Makefiles
. Instead, read this appendix so you understand them. Then, if you ...
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