This repository contains a generic makefile for use with small/medium C and C++ projects. This makefile project is forked from https://github.com/mbcrawfo/GenericMakefile but majorly addapted in the meantime. It allows for easy project setup without the need to create tedious build rules or dependency lists. In the test directory is a makefile configured to create an example executable which references the static library generated by the makefile in the root directory.

• Automatically finds and compiles all source files within the source directory.
• Compiles most recently modified files first, to hopefully find problems earlier.
• Automatically generates dependecies as files are compiled, ensuring that files are correctly recompiled when dependecies have updated.
• Includes configurations for normal (release) build and debug build suitable for GDB debugging (the debug is the standard build that is called with a 'make' command.)
• Times the compilation of each file and the entire build.
• Generates version numbers based on git or subversion tags (see below), which are passed the compiler as preprocessor macros.
• Implements and includes a header file with a static PrintVersion function (see example in sources).
• By default, builds in a "verbose" mode which allows you to see the full compiler commands being issued. By passing V=false to make, you can compile with only an output for the actions being performed.
• Automatically added Build Date and Build Number Symbols which can be extracted from the generated lib or executable with the 'getVersion.sh' script included in this repository. Examples follow below.
• Added stacked compilation support to enable a simple project build on multiple cores by make -f all [option]. There are multiple options available like clean, newd (= new debug) and newr (= new release).
• Makefile now supports out of the box executables, static (.a) and shared (.so) libraries. All you need to change is the TYPE flag to one of the specified NAMES (TARGET_EXECUTABLE, TARGET_STATIC_LIB or TARGET_SHARED_LIB).
• Added IGNORE_SOURCE flag. With IGNORE_SOURCE="old" each file, that contains old will be ignored.
• SYMBOLIC_LINK_DIR is now optional. Just specify a directory for a symlink to be build in. If nothing is specified, no symlink will be created. Make sure to also specify the LIB_SYMLINK_DELTA flag, which has to contain the path from the SYMBOLIC_LINK_DIR to the project root (otherwise the created links won't work).
• The DIST_INFO Variable can now be used e.g. for the SYMBOLIC_LINK_DIR. It contains information about the distribution and the current OS-Type (32 or 64 bit).
• Supported make flags are:
  • clean - removes all compiled or generated data
  • release - builds an optimized release build of the project
  • debug - builds an gdb debuggable build of this project
  • all - builds both, debug and release
  • reset - resets build number
  • help - shows this overview

Tags should be made in the format "vMAJOR.MINOR.PATCH[-description]", where MAJOR, MINOR and PATCH are numeric. The following macros will be generated and passed to the preprocessor:

• VERSION_MAJOR (int) - The major version number from the most recent tag.
• VERSION_MINOR (int) - The minor version number from the most recent tag.
• VERSION_PATCH (int) - The patch version number from the most recent tag.
• VERSION_REVISION (int) - The number of commits since the most recent tag.
• BUILD_NUMBER (int) - The build number, which is automatically increasing every time the project is linked.
• BUILD_YEAR (int) - The year of the build date.
• BUILD_MONTH (int) - The month of the build date.
• BUILD_DAY (int) - The day of the build date.
• BUILD_HOUR (int) - The hour of the build date.
• BUILD_MIN (int) - The minute of the build date.
• BUILD_SEC (int) - The second of the build date.

git tag -a v1.0.1 -m "Your tag message"

# to list all version information of all linked libraries included in libtest.a.
./getVersion.sh libtest.a
# lists only the version information of libtest.a itself.
./getVersion.sh libtest.a libtest.a

# Find all references:
# The file extention .a of static libraries is removed in the reference symbols.
objdump -t libtest.a | grep REF

# For usage of the additional linked REF symboles see test/src/main.cpp
extern char libtest_BUILD_NUMBER_REF;
std::cout << "Version: v" << (unsigned long) &libtest_BUILD_NUMBER_REF;

# first of all you need to activate the option PRINTVERSION_HEADER := true in makefile.
____________
// Source code
#include "jversion.hpp"

void yourFunction()
{
    // Use the $(NAME) flag you defined in the makefile.
    JVersion::Name::PrintVersion();
}

make clean
make clean debug
make clean reset debug
make clean reset release
make clean reset all
make install
make uninstall
...

If the makefile is not used in a git repository, or is in a repository with no tags, the version macros are not created.

• Assumes GNU make.
• Doesn't really support multiple types of source files in the same project.
• Currently no full support for svn.
• Only tested and adapted for Linux system and g++ and ar toolchain.

• My friend Jay and people on Stack Overflow for help with regex to parse the version info.
• The residents of /r/programming for suggesting numerous tweaks and improvements.
• For the support and help from Sebastian with this project and a lot of good improvement ideas.