Makefiles

See my Makefile template: https://github.com/bertvv/dotfiles/blob/master/.vim/templates/make

Special targets

• .POSIX: get reliable POSIX behaviour (first non-comment line)
• .SUFFIXES: ignore built-in inference rules (beginning of Makefile)
• .PHONY: specified targets aren’t file names, always considered “unclean” (warning: NOT POSIX, GNU Make extension)

Special macros

Macros are defined with NAME = VALUE and are expanded with $(NAME).

• $< The target’s prerequisites

Inference rules

E.g. you want to convert .foo files into .bar

.SUFFIXES: .foo .bar
.foo.bar:
    foo2bar $<

References

• Davis-Hansson, J. Your Makefiles are wrong. Retrieved 2020-01-15 from https://tech.davis-hansson.com/p/make/
• Makefile specification: http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/make.html
• Wellons, C. (2017). A tutorial on Portable Makefiles. Retrieved 2017-09-05 from http://nullprogram.com/blog/2017/08/20/
• Zaninotto, F. (2016). Self-Documented Makefile. Retrieved 2017-09-05 from https://marmelab.com/blog/2016/02/29/auto-documented-makefile.html