Re: looking for a makefile methodology

[Paul D. Smith]

%% "Martin d'Anjou" <address@hidden> writes:

  md> - Where are makefile located, in the same directory as source files?

Typically yes.

  md> - How do I avoid duplicating rules in every makefile?

Put the common stuff in a common makefile and include it in the others.

  md> - Where are users expected to build targets? i.e. one level above the 
  md> source files dir? inside them?

Typically a user would type "make" in a directory after they have
finished editing source in that directory.

  md> - Where should test cases reside? In which makefile do I put the
  md>   rules for compiling a test and running it?

This is beyond the scope of make.  Do it however you like.

  md> - How do I link the dependencies such that making a test causes
  md> the entire project to be re-compiled (if and only-if necessary)?
  md> How do I get the rules to cross over directories when dependencies
  md> are located elsewhere?

This is a very complex subject.  Traditionally you would have a makefile
in each directory that knows how to build the things in that directory.
In a directory with sources it would build the sources.  In a directory
with subdirectories it would recursively invoke make in each
subdirectory.

In this case you could have your tests jump to the top of the source
tree and invoke make there, which will build everything.

This is not usually how it's done, though, because it's very slow.
Usually it would be done in two separate phases with perhaps a "do it
all" target that does both of them, so users could choose to either run
"just the build" or "just the tests" or both.

  md> - How do I make the targets (objects and executables) re-locatable
  md> (i.e.  building on local drives instead of network drives) without
  md> re-writing the rules?

Put the target directory in a variable and use that instead of hardcoded
paths.  Use variables and relative paths to find headers. etc.  Then you
can change that variable (maybe by overriding it on the make command
line: make OBJDIR=/some/other/dir).

  md> Do you know of a book that talks about some advanvced makefile
  md> methodology?

Well, there's an O'Reilly book on managing projects that talks about
make, but it's very UNIX-centric.

  md> I am not using C, nor Java, so it would be good if the book was
  md> not too language centric.

Languages are really superfluous to make.  It doesn't have any very
special support for any language.  So, books that talk about building C
code will give you just as much info as anything else.

Building Java with make is a very difficult, very unrewarding
experience, though, because of the structure of the Java language and
build tools.

-- 
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 Paul D. Smith <address@hidden>          Find some GNU make tips at:
 http://www.gnu.org                      http://make.paulandlesley.org
 "Please remain calm...I may be mad, but I am a professional." --Mad Scientist