cpp-init

One Makefile To Rule Them All

This repository contains a generic Makefile and other files for building and managing C++ projects.

Installation

First download this repository using git:

git clone https://github.com/avdstaaij/cpp-init

Then use the provided script cpp-init/newproject to initialize a new project. Alternatively, you can manually copy only the files you need to an existing project:

cp -i cpp-init/Makefile /path/to/your/project/Makefile
cp -i cpp-init/gitignore /path/to/your/project/.gitignore

Usage

With the Makefile in place, you can build your project using GNU Make:

make

Build settings can be configured by editing the Makefile. Instructions for this are included at the top of the Makefile. The Makefile contains various special targets, such as run, clean and debug. These are described in detail at the top of the Makefile as well.

Makefile features

The Makefile has the following features:

• Building with one command. Using make builds the entire C++ project at once, even if it is split up into many source and header files. You can also use make run to build and run in one go.
• Customizable build settings. Almost all build settings, such as compiler flags and project directories, can be easily configured using variables at the top of the Makefile.
• Object file caching. Generated object files are stored to reduce recompilation time.
• Automatic dependency detection. Code dependencies (#include) are automatically detected using compiler tools and are stored in dependency files. This is done as a side-effect of compilation for maximum efficiency. On recompilation, these files are used to compile those and only those files that are affected by the changes. Combined with the object file caching, this minimizes recompilation time. The dependency generation is fully automated, so there is no need to manually specify dependencies.
• Source file trees. Source files can be organized with subdirectories, and the Makefile will handle them just as well.
• Separate release and debug builds. The Makefile has a system to separately build release and debug binaries, using different compiler flags for each.
• Project cleaning. The Makefile has rules to clean generated files from your project. You can choose whether you want to keep the final binary or not. The cleaning rules actually clean everything: they won't leave any annoying empty directories.
• Library building support. By adjusting certain setting variables, the Makefile can easily be configured to build static or dynamic libraries instead of executables.

The top of the makefile contains instructions that explain how to use the various features.

License

This project is released into the public domain. See LICENSE.txt for details.