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This paper is a short introduction to the UNIX make utility. The intended audience is computer science students at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) of intermediate ability level, if you're taking CSCI 217 this paper will be of use to you. Although make can be used in conjunction with most programming languages all examples given here use C++ as this is the most common programming language used at MTSU. It is assumed that you have a good understanding of a C++ compiler. As an introduction this paper intends to teach the reader how to use the most common features of make. A more comprehensive guide may be found by examining the list of references provided.
Layout guide
Throughout the paper various text styles will be used to add meaning and focus on key points. All references to the make utility, file names and any sample output use the fixed font style, i.e. fixed font example. If the example is prefixed with a percent character ( % ) it is a UNIX C-shell command line. Words that are key to make terminology are highlighted in bold when they occur for the first time.
Overview
The make utility is a software engineering tool for managing and maintaining computer programs. Make provides most help when the program consists of many component files. As the number of files in the program increases so to does the compile time, complexity of compilation command and the likelihood of human error when entering command lines, i.e. typos and missing file names.
By creating a descriptor file containing dependency rules, macros and suffix rules, you can instruct make to automatically rebuild your program whenever one of the program's component files is modified. Make is smart enough to only recompile the files that were affected by changes thus saving compile time.