Used to automate compile and linking processes for programs. It allows you to compile all the dependencies together in a single step and takes care if any one of them has been modified after the most recent compilation. Selectively recompiles only the files modified after the last 'make'.
To be exclusively named as "makefile".
target:prerequisites- ex:
main.out : main.cpp sub.cpp
Uses a graph structure for representation. All the target at nodes followed by their pre-requisites/dependencies as their children. Thus it finds and recompiles only the files which have some of their children modified.
If we want to have some variable parameters to the commands, we can define them at the beginning and the use them in every command.
Ex:
CC=g++
${CC} main.cpp sub1.cpp
We can also add flags for optimizations/ parameters for compilations.
Ex:
FLAGS=-O3
${CC} main.cpp ${FLAGS] main.o
- Use
$^if you want the same prerequisites in the compilations command instead of mentioning each one. Ex;main.out: main.o sub1.o sub2.o${CC} ${FLAGS} $^ -o main.out