CODEWITHSUNDEEP
cgccmakefilecompilationheader
angelustt
angelustt

Reputation: 109

How to compile with headers and a create a Makefile - C

I am trying to compile and create a Makefile with my source code organized as per the following structure:

|-- build
|-- include
| \-- functions.h
\-- src
|-- functions.c
\-- main.c

The code written there has been tested on an IDE, so I know it works. I just need to compile it but I don't know how to execute 2 files with extensions .c and the .h file. ALSO, I need to create a makefile for this.

How?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 852

Answers (1)

Basile Starynkevitch
Basile Starynkevitch

Reputation: 1

A Makefile is just some textual file (where tab characters are significant at least when they start a command line). Use some source code editor to create or improve it; I prefer GNU emacs so recommend it, but you could use some other editor (e.g. vim, gedit, etc...), it is a matter of taste. BTW, don't forget to use some version control system (I recommend git).

Before creating your Makefile take some time to read the documentation of make. Be aware of the numerous built-in rules (which you could obtain by running make -p) and take advantage of them.

how to execute 2 .c files and the .h file.

You don't execute .c files, but you feed them to your C compiler. I recommend using GCC (or perhaps Clang/LLVM) as your C compiler.

You probably should set the CC make variable (it gives the default C compiler) to gcc, and the CFLAGS variable (it gives default compiler flags).

So read documentation about Invoking GCC. You surely want to compile with all warnings and debug info.

Hence, I recommend to have the following two lines in your Makefile 

 CC= gcc
 CFLAGS= -Wall -Wextra -g

Of course, you need other lines in your Makefile. I leave you to read more and experiment. This and that should be inspirational.

You probably want to mention the dependency on your header file(s) in your Makefile.

So I leave you to write your Makefile. Consider it as source code, so backup and version control it carefully.

BTW, for a tiny program like yours, I don't think that having src/ and include/ directories is useful, and I believe that introducing a build/ directory is just adding unnecessary complexity. YMMV.

The code written there has been tested on a IDE, so I know it works.

This could be an illusion. Sometimes you can have the bad luck of having some undefined behavior which simply "appears" to work but is a bug. See this answer and follow the links I gave there.

There are many free software projects built with make; look on github and elsewhere to find some. Sometimes Makefiles are themselves generated (e.g. using cmake, qmake, or autoconf), but that is not worthwhile in your simple case.

PS. Don't expect StackOverflow to do your homework.

Upvotes: 1

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