GenericMakefile

A generic makefile for use with small/medium C and C++ projects. Allows for easy project setup without the need to create tedious build rules or dependency lists. The c directory contains a makefile configured for C, while the makefile in the cpp directory is configured for C++.

Features

• Automatically finds and compiles all source files within the source directory.
• Compiles most recently modified files first, to hopefully find problems earlier.
• Automatically generates dependecies as files are compiled, ensuring that files are correctly recompiled when dependecies have updated.
• Includes configurations for normal (release) build and debug build suitable for GDB debugging.
• Times the compilation of each file and the entire build.
• Generates version numbers based on git tags (see below), which are passed the compiler as preprocessor macros.
• By default, builds in a "quiet" mode that only lists the actions being performed. By passing V=true to make, you can compile in verbose mode to see the full compiler commands being issued.

Versioning

Tags should be made in the format vMAJOR.MINOR.PATCH[-description], where MAJOR, MINOR, and PATCH are numeric. The following macros will be generated and passed to the preprocessor:

• VERSION_MAJOR (int) - The major version number from the most recent tag.
• VERSION_MINOR (int) - The minor version number from the most recent tag.
• VERSION_PATCH (int) - The patch version number from the most recent tag.
• VERSION_REVISION (int) - The number of commits since the most recent tag.
• VERSION_HASH (string) - The SHA of the current commit. Includes the "-dirty" suffix if there are uncommited changes.

If the makefile is not used in a git repository, or is in a repository with no tags, the version macros are not created.

Limitations

• Assumes GNU make.
• Timing does not work correctly with MacOS. See issue #6 for a workaround patch that allows timing in seconds on Mac.
• Doesn't really support multiple types of source files in the same project.
• No easy way to exclude files from the build. You can either change the extension of files to be excluded, or use preprocessor flags for conditional compilation.

Thanks to

• My friend Jay and people on Stack Overflow for help with regex to parse the version info.
• The residents of /r/programming for suggesting numerous tweaks and improvements.