Notes on Makefile - CSCI 530, Spring 2004


Notes on Makefile - CSCI 530, Spring 2004
You are suppose to know how to write a `Makefile` already. If you don't, you should learn it as soon as possible because your `Makefile` must work in all your project submissions. There are a few tutorials on `make` on the web. Here are links to some of them. I have not really read through these pages so I cannot guarantee their correctness. a detailed tutorial from University of Hawaii a one-page tutorial from Indiana University a one-page tutorial from Rutgers University etc.

Windows Makefiles
Please be aware that if you transfer a `Makefile` from a Windows environment to a UNIX environment, chances are, it will not work. The reason is that a line in a text file in Windows ends with "\r\n" while a line in a text file in UNIX ends with just "\n". The extra "\r" can confuse `make` on UNIX machines. But I'm sure you can write a small program to fix that.

Compiling Your Code
If you are writing your program in C, you should use `gcc` as your compiler, rather than `cc`. `Gcc` supports function prototypes and other ANSI extensions, which you should use in your programs. The option `-Wall` turns on most of the useful `gcc/g++` warnings. Compiling with this option will find many simple mistakes in your programs. On many platforms you also need to link the network and socket libraries to your program.

Requirements
We will evaluate your submission by copying all the files you have submitted into an empty directory and then type the following command: make This will the be only method we will use to compile your code. So, please do not use a visual tool to compile your code. You may lose quite a few points if we have to debug your `Makefile` in order to get your code to compile. You may receive a score of zero if we cannot get your `Makefile` to work. How do you make sure that `make` would work? It's actually very simple. Don't create a `Makefile` until the last minute! Create one first time you need to compile your code. If you do your development on Windows and expect your code to just compile and run on nunki.usc.edu, you will soon find out how unrealistic your assumption is. I would leave at least 2 days for porting for small projects and 5 days for porting large projects. Write a rule in your `Makefile` to generate a submittable file in the right format. Do this early! You can also think of this as generating a backup copy of what you have done so far. Copy the backup copy to another place in case you accidentically erase all your files. Testing! Verify your submissions. Create an empty directory on nunki.usc.edu, unpack your test submission, and type `make` in it! If it doesn't work, fix it right away. Have a working copy ready for submission. When it's 2 hours away from the deadline and your code is not completing working, you should probably consider doing the following. Fix your code so that it compiles and runs. Create a submission from your working code and keep it as a backup in case you can't fix your bugs when deadline comes. Repeat this as you fix more bugs.

Cleanup
When the following command is invoked at the UNIX prompt: make clean all binary files created during compilation (.o files, .class files, and executable files) must be removed.