Built-in Common Actions

Feature Description

A set of frequently used actions are provided in the default base rules and do not need to be defined in the user makefiles. There are approximately 30 common actions provided, the most popular being install, clobber and clean.

Impact

Productivity

• Development time is saved by not having to implement the common actions.
• The size and complexity of makefiles is reduced.
• Brings consistency among developers and projects.

Build Accuracy

• For the clobber and clean common actions nmake determines automatically which files to delete by knowing what it generated.
• Small and simple makefiles are less error prone.

Consequence of Not Having the Feature

• Makefiles become more complex and error prone.
• Errors may arise if the user defined actions, such as clobber, are not kept up-to-date with the makefile as targets or objects are added or removed from the makefile.
• Inconsistency may rise from developers implementing actions differently. One clobber may produce different results from another.

Examples

The following examples use the default install directories relative to INSTALLROOT, but the directories can be changed if desired. The example makefile builds two targets, an executable and an archive library.

INSTALLROOT = $(VROOT)
:ALL:
abc :: a.c b.c c.c
libxyz.a :: x.c y.c z.c

Running nmake will generate the targets.

$ nmake
+ cc -O -I- -c a.c
+ cc -O -I- -c b.c
+ cc -O -I- -c c.c
+ cc -O -o abc a.o b.o c.o
+ cc -O -I- -c x.c
+ cc -O -I- -c y.c
+ cc -O -I- -c z.c
+ ar r libxyz.a x.o y.o z.o
ar: creating libxyz.a
+ rm -f x.o y.o z.o

Running nmake install will update (if necessary) and install the targets. In this case the targets are already up-to-date so they are only installed. By default executables are placed in bin and libraries in lib. If a target directory does not exist it will be created. If the files have already been installed they will not be re-installed unless they have changed, and old files are backed up to filename.old. The :INSTALL: and :INSTALLDIR: operators can be used to install any files into specified directories.

$ nmake install
+ mkdir -p ../../bin
+ 2> /dev/null
+ cp abc ../../bin/abc
+ mkdir -p ../../lib
+ 2> /dev/null
+ cp libxyz.a ../../lib/libxyz.a

Running nmake clobber.install will delete the installed files.

$ nmake clobber.install
+ ignore rm -f -r ../../bin/abc ../../lib/libxyz.a

Running nmake clean will delete the intermediate object files.

$ nmake clean  
+ ignore rm -f c.o b.o a.o

Running nmake clobber will delete the intermediate and final target files (but not the installed files.) The objects deleted in the previous example have been regenerated for this example.

$ nmake clobber
+ ignore rm -f libxyz.a c.o b.o a.o abc Makefile.mo Makefile.ms

Example using standard make tool

The following makefile implements similar actions to the above examples using standard make.

INSTALLROOT = ../..
OBJECTS = a.o b.o c.o
LIBOBJECTS = x.o y.o z.o
TARGETS = abc libxyz.a

all : $(TARGETS)

abc : $(OBJECTS)
        cc -o $@ $(OBJECTS)

libxyz.a : $(LIBOBJECTS)
        ar cr $@ $?


clean:
        rm -f $(OBJECTS) $(LIBOBJECTS)

clobber: clean
        rm -f $(TARGETS)

clobber.install:
        rm -f $(INSTALLROOT)/bin/abc $(INSTALLROOT)/bin/libxyz.a

install: $(TARGETS)
        test -d $(INSTALLROOT)/bin || mkdir $(INSTALLROOT)/bin
        cmp -s abc $(INSTALLROOT)/bin/abc || { test -f $(INSTALLROOT)/bin/abc \
            && mv $(INSTALLROOT)/bin/abc $(INSTALLROOT)/bin/abc.old \
            cp abc $(INSTALLROOT)/bin ; }
        test -d $(INSTALLROOT)/lib || mkdir $(INSTALLROOT)/lib
        cmp -s libxyz.a $(INSTALLROOT)/lib/libxyz.a || { 
            test -f $(INSTALLROOT)/lib/libxyz.a && \
            mv $(INSTALLROOT)/lib/libxyz.a $(INSTALLROOT)/lib/libxyz.a.old \
            cp libxyz.a $(INSTALLROOT)/lib ; }

$ make install
cc   -c  a.c
cc   -c  b.c
cc   -c  c.c
cc -o abc a.o b.o c.o
cc   -c  x.c
cc   -c  y.c
cc   -c  z.c
ar cr libxyz.a x.o y.o z.o
test -d ../../bin || mkdir ../../bin
cmp -s abc ../../bin/abc || { test -f ../../bin/abc && mv ../../bin/abc ../
../bin/abc.old ; cp abc ../../bin ; }
test -d ../../lib || mkdir ../../lib
cmp -s libxyz.a ../../lib/libxyz.a || { test -f ../../lib/libxyz.a && mv ..
/../lib/libxyz.a ../../lib/libxyz.a.old ; cp libxyz.a ../../lib ; }