what is a make file
 

hi
can sombody plz tell what a make file is and how is it created


thanxs
linorg:newbie:

A makefile is a file that contains instructions
for tools to do repetitive tasks on files, when
involved repeatedly it will only touch files
that have a newer date than their related
resulting file. I.e. gcc test.c -o test in a makefile
will only execute gcc if you modified the
source after you last compiled it.

You create them using your favourite editor.


Cheers,
Tink

it is used to compile a program from source, it is made by the developers for everyones benefit.

so is it somewhat similar to batch file in dos
how do i execute a makefile
what extension does it have

rofl, the equivilent of a batch from dos is a shell script, makefile is differnet, but at basic level I cannot say you are wrong...

you do not execute a makefile, it is called from another executable.

first off see if there is a file called "configure" in the directory with the makefile, if so type:
./configure

when that is finished or if there is not one type this:
make
that will call the makefile and compile the software.
then to install type:
make install
that calls the makefile section for installing the program.

And no, it's not like a batch. It's way
smarter :} and serves a completely
different purpose. It's primarily targeted
at programmers, to cut down on compile
times by only recompiling things that
have been modified.

You call it Makefile (no extension)
and you invoke it by typing make<ENTER>

Cheers,
Tink

does this means a single directory can have only one makefile..
to create a makefile i should just put the commands to be executed in a file called makefile
and just call make from the promt in the same directory...

consider the following makefile for compiling the kernel module i'm learnimg to write
(taken from a tutorial frm tldp.org)

Makefile for a basic kernel module

TARGET := hello-1
WARN := -W -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes
INCLUDE := -isystem /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/include
CFLAGS := -O2 -DMODULE -D__KERNEL__ ${WARN} ${INCLUDE}
CC := gcc-3.0

${TARGET}.o: ${TARGET}.c

.PHONY: clean

clean:
rm -rf {TARGET}.o

are all the labels used here (target,clean ...) preefined.

No, just the invocation gets more complex :)

if you called your makefile
my_makefile.txt
you'd invoke it with
make -f my_makefile.txt


Cheers,
Tink