reference/makeref.txt

# make reference
Learn Makefiles - https://makefiletutorial.com/

$ make
makefile:2: *** missing separator.  Stop.
$ cat -etv makefile
[it show line starting by ^I if <tab> is given to that line and it end the line by $]
Note: makefile must be indented using <tabs> and not <spaces> or 'make' will fail

# makefile syntax
targets: prerequisites
    command

* targets are file names, separated by spaces
  (typically, there is only one per rule)
* prerequisites are also file names, separated by spaces
  (these files need to exist before the commands for the target are run)
* commands are a series of steps typically used to make the targets
  (these need to start with a tab character, not spaces)

# the essence of make
file:
    echo "This line will print if the file does not exist."

* we have one target called file
* target file has no prerequisites
* target file has one command

Note: as long as the 'file' does not exist, the command will run
      (if 'file' does exist, no command will run)

example:
Let's create a more typical makefile - one that compiles a single C file. But
before we do, make a file called program.c that has the following contents:

int main() {
    return 0;
}

then create the makefile:
program:
    cc program.c -o program

This time, try simply running make. Since there's no target supplied as anargument
to the make command, the first target is run. In this case, there's only one target
(program). The first time you run this, program will be created. The second time, you
will see make: 'program' is up to date. That's because the program file already exists.
But there a problem: if we modify program.c and then run make, nothing gets recompiled.

We solve this by adding a prerequisite:
program: program.c
    cc program.c -o program

When we run make again, the following set of steps happens:
* the first target is selected, because the first target is the default target
* this has a prerequisite of program.c
* make decides if it should run the program target
  (it will only run if program doesn't exist, or program.c is newer than program)

The last step is critical, and is the essence of make.


make -d # trace debug output
make --debug=b # basic debug
make -p # print rules and variables