how to write a makefile for c program multiple files

A target can be specified by writing its name followed by a colon ( :), for example, all: You can set up several targets in a Makefile, which you can then use with the make command. Wait, you might be thinking that a Makefileis just like a simple bash script, so what is the big deal? No, the make command can do more than what you just thought, so keep on reading. In this way, you can write multiple commands in the Makefileand execute them all using the simple make command. In the example given above, it will first compile the main.cpp file and will create an executable file named ‘ example_code’, then it will execute the ‘ example_code’ file. It will execute the instructions (commands) written in the Makefile. Now if you enter the make command like this make You can consider Makefileas a simple bash script that contains commands to build, compile, and run your code files. For example, g++ main.cpp -o example_code

In this file, you can write a set of commands to perform various tasks. Makefileis usually created as a text file without any extension, like this touch makefile The Makefilecontains the instructions regarding options passed to the compiler. The basis of the make command is a text file called Makefile. Thus, it makes the life of a C/C++ programmer easier. In short, make allows you to automatically build, compile, execute or even install complex software applications using a single command. Instead of performing the compilation steps individually and remembering the file names and commands, the make command can be used to automatically perform these tasks. Instead of remembering all the commands to compile their files manually, or keeping track of files that are changed and need to be recompiled, they can simply use the make command to handle things for them automatically. The only available option is to use the terminal to compile the source code. They don’t have any IDE (Integrated Development Environment) such as Eclipse or Visual Studio available to compile and handle their project. To manage these files and the entire software development project, the make command is used in Linux.Ĭonsider the case when the programmers have their projects in simple folders. During the build process of these applications, several object files are also created. Compiling and linking these files is not easy and can be erroneous.

Large and complex software applications consist of hundreds of source code and other files.

How to write a makefile for c program multiple files