Managing Projects with GNU make, 3/e (Paperback)

Description:

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.

 

Table of Contents:

Foreword
Preface
Part I. Basic Concepts
1. How to Write a Simple Makefile
      Targets and Prerequisites
      Dependency Checking
      Minimizing Rebuilds
      Invoking make
      Basic Makefile Syntax
2. Rules
      Explicit Rules
      Variables
      Finding Files with VPATH and vpath
      Pattern Rules
      The Implicit Rules Database
      Special Targets
      Automatic Dependency Generation
      Managing Libraries
3. Variables and Macros
      What Variables Are Used For
      Variable Types
      Macros
      When Variables Are Expanded
      Target- and Pattern-Specific Variables
      Where Variables Come From
      Conditional and include Processing
      Standard make Variables
4. Functions
      User-Defined Functions
      Built-in Functions
      Advanced User-Defined Functions
5. Commands
      Parsing Commands
      Which Shell to Use
      Empty Commands
      Command Environment
      Evaluating Commands
      Command-Line Limits
Part II. Advanced and Specialized Topics
6. Managing Large Projects
      Recursive make
      Nonrecursive make
      Components of Large Systems
      Filesystem Layout
      Automating Builds and Testing
7. Portable Makefiles
      Portability Issues
      Cygwin
      Managing Programs and Files
      Working with Nonportable Tools
      Automake
8. C and C++
      Separating Source and Binary
      Read-Only Source
      Dependency Generation
      Supporting Multiple Binary Trees
      Partial Source Trees
      Reference Builds, Libraries, and Installers
9. Java
      Alternatives to make
      A Generic Java Makefile
      Compiling Java
      Managing Jars
      Reference Trees and Third-Party Jars
      Enterprise JavaBeans
10. Improving the Performance of make
      Benchmarking
      Identifying and Handling Bottlenecks
      Parallel make
      Distributed make
11. Example Makefiles
      The Book Makefile
      The Linux Kernel Makefile
12. Debugging Makefiles
      Debugging Features of make
      Writing Code for Debugging
      Common Error Messages
Part III. Appendixes
A. Running make
B. The Outer Limits
C. GNU Free Documentation License-GNU Project-Free Software Foundation (FSF)
Index