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Managing Projects with GNU Make

Posted by michael on from the making-trouble dept.

sarumont writes "Every Open Source developer uses or has used GNU make at some point or another. Everyone who has ever compiled a piece of Open Source software has used GNU's make. So what exactly is GNU make and how does it work? The 3rd Edition of 'Managing Projects with GNU Make' tells you all about using GNU make and more."

1 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. Newer and better alternatives to make by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting
    There are newer and much better alternatives to make.


    1. boost-build v2 is the absolute BEST if you want to build C/C++ projects with multiple compilers & versions & targets--or even on simple projects that require a one-liner to feed into boost-build2 (normally taking 5-20 lines in GNU make).


    Upside for boost-build2? Wraps compiler/linker flags in a generic language for many compilers and versions(gcc, msvc, bcc, etc). Also very easy for simple projects but truly shines on huge and complex projects. Jamfiles can inherit properties , requirements, targets, etc. from parent directories. Very very cool.


    Downside to boost-build? Documentation truly sucks compared to other tools. Docs getting better but new users should prepare to unexpectedly find features they could've used to avoid hours of effort.


    Boost-build v2 uses bjam but there seems to be a plan to add support for Python.


    2. Scons is the next best thing to boost-build v2. The underlying language is Python but you don't have to be a Python expert to use it. And the documentation is much better than boost-build v2. However, it takes many more lines to get things done than boost-build v2 (which isn't all that bad considering boost-build v2 can do things in only 5 lines to replace a 40-line gnu makefile).


    3. rake is a make-alternative written in Ruby. For all you recent Ruby converts, be sure to check it out. I love Ruby but I gotta admit, I don't see anything out there being better than boost-build v2 today.


    GNU make served us well but it is time to move on to better choices that make us more productive. Just like cvs having served us well but svn and others being a better choice today.