makerules - system programmers guide for compiling projects on different
platforms
SRCROOT= ..
RULESDIR= RULES
include $(SRCROOT)/$(RULESDIR)/rules.top
local defines are here
include $(SRCROOT)/$(RULESDIR)/rules.*
See chapter CURRENTLY SUPPORTED TARGET TYPES for possible values
of rules.*.
Makerules is a set of rules that allows compiling of structured projects with
small and uniformly structured makefiles. All rules are located in a central
directory. Compiling the projects on different platforms can be done
simultaneously without the need to modify any of the makefiles that are
located in the projects directories.
Makerules is a set of high level portability tools superior to
autoconf and easier to use.
Three make programs are currently supported: Sunpro make,
GNU make and smake. If you want to add support for other make
programs, read the sections about the minimum requirements for a make
program and about the structure of the make rule system.
This manual will help programmers who need to make modifications
on the make rule system itself. If you want to know something on how to use
the makefile system have a look at makefiles(4).
The main design goal was to have no definition on more than place
in the make rules. This implies that system programmers who want to add or
modify rules must follow this goal in order not to destroy functionality in
other places.
The visible result for the user is a set of small and easy to read
makefiles, each located in the project's leaf directory and therefore called
leaf-makefile.
Each of these leaf-makefiles, in fact contains no rule at
all. It simply defines some macros for the make-program and includes
two files from a central make rule depository. These included files define
the rules that are needed to compile the project.
Each leaf-makefile is formed in a really simple way:
- •
- It first defines two macros that define the relative location of the
project's root directory and the name of the directory that contains the
complete set of of rules and then includes the rule file rules.top
from the directory that forms the central rule depository. You only have
to edit the macro SRCROOT to reflect the relative location of the
project's root directory.
- •
- The next part of a leaf-makefile defines macros that describe the
target and the source. You can only have one target per
leaf-makefile. Of course, there may be many source files, that are
needed to create that target. If you want to make more than one target in
a specific directory, you have to put more than one makefile into that
directory. This is the part of a makefile that describes a unique target.
Edit this part to contain all source files, all local include files and
all non global compile time flags that are needed for your target. For a
typical target this is as simple as filling in a form.
- •
- Each leaf-makefile finally includes a file from the rules directory
that contains rules for the appropriate type of target that is to be made
from this leaf-makefile.
The makefile in each directory has to be called Makefile.
If you want to have more than one makefile in a specific directory, you have
to choose different names for the other makefiles.
There are rules for the following type of targets:
- commands
- The make rules for user level commands like cat, ls etc. are
located in the file rules.cmd
- drivers
- The make rules for device drivers are located in the file
rules.drv
- libraries
- The make rules for non shared libraries are located in the file
rules.lib
- shared libraries
- The make rules for shared libraries are located in the file
rules.shl
- localized files
- The make rules for localized files are located in the file
rules.loc
- nonlocalized files
- The make rules for non localized files are located in the file
rules.aux
- shell scripts
- The make rules for shell scripts (a variant of localized files) are
located in the file rules.scr
- manual pages
- The make rules for manual pages (a variant of localized files) are located
in the file rules.man
- diverted makefiles
- The make rules for projects that need to have more than one makefile in a
specific directory are located in the file rules.mks It contains a
rule that diverts to the listed sub makefiles. Each sub makefile may be of
any type.
- directories
- The make rules for sub directories are located in the file
rules.dir
The make rules currently have support for Sunpro make, GNU make
and smake. If you like to add support for other make programs, they
need to have some minimal features that go beyond the capabilities of the
standard UNIX make program. BSDmake could be
supported if it supports pattern matching rules correctly.
- include
- The make program must be able to recursively include other files from
within a makefile. The name if the file to include must be allowed
to be a macro. The make program must be able to do this in a way that if
the file that should be included may be a result of make rule. e.g if the
file to be included does not exist or is outdated, it should be built
before an attempt is made to actually include it.
- appending to a macro
- A macro reference of the form:
macro += addval
should append addval to the string that is currently in
macro.
- suffix macro replacement
- A macro reference of the form:
out= $(macro:string1=string2)
should replace a suffix string1 to string2 in
all words that are in macro, where string1 is either a suffix, or
a word to be replaced in the macro definition, and string2 is the
replacement suffix or word. String1 and string2 must be
replaced correctly even if they are macros themselves. Words in a macro
value are separated by SPACE, TAB, and escaped NEWLINE characters.
- pattern macro replacement
- A macro reference of the form:
out= $(macro:op%os=np%ns)
should replace a central pattern in macro, where
op is the existing (old) prefix and os is the existing
(old) suffix, np and ns are the new prefix and new suffix,
respectively, and the pattern matched by % (a string of zero or more
characters), is carried forward from the value being replaced. For
example:
PROGRAM=fabricate
DEBUG= $(PROGRAM:%=tmp/%-g)
sets the value of DEBUG to tmp/fabricate-g. Op,
os, np and ns must be replaced correctly even if
they are macros themselves.
One of the basic algorithms used in the make rule system is needed to set an
undefined macro to a guaranteed default value. Because not all make programs
have support for if then else structures, a different method has to be
used.
The method used in make rules is implemented by using
suffix macro replacement and pattern macro replacement.
First, a macro that contains a unique suffix is defined:
# Define magic unique cookie
_UNIQ= .XxZzy-
This macro is used for all places where it is necessary to have a
macro with a guaranteed default value. The following example shows the basic
algorithm that is used to implement the phrase: If
$(MAKE_NAME) contains a value, then $(XMAKEPROG) will
be set to $(MAKE_NAME) else $(XMAKEPROG) will be set to
$(MAKEPROG).
_MAKEPROG= $(_UNIQ)$(MAKE_NAME)
__MAKEPROG= $(_MAKEPROG:$(_UNIQ)=$(MAKEPROG))
XMAKEPROG= $(__MAKEPROG:$(_UNIQ)%=%)
The first line in this example, sets the macro _MAKEPROG to
the concatenation of the value of MAKE_NAME and .XxZzy-. If
the macro MAKE_NAME is empty at this time, _MAKEPROG will
contain only .XxZzy-.
In the second line, __MAKEPROG is set to the value of
_MAKEPROG. If _MAKEPROG contains only .XxZzy- this
implies, that .XxZzy- is the suffix. This suffix is then replaced by
the value of MAKEPROG, in this case __MAKEPROG will contain
the unmodified value of MAKEPROG. If _MAKEPROG contains a
concatenation of .XxZzy- and something else, .XxZzy- will not
be a suffix, but a prefix of _MAKEPROG and for this reason
__MAKEPROG will contain the unmodified value of _MAKEPROG,
which is a concatenation of .XxZzy- and the value of
MAKE_NAME.
In the third line, XMAKEPROG is set to the value of
__MAKEPROG. If __MAKEPROG has the prefix .XxZzy- at
this time, .XxZzy- is stripped of.
The names used for make macros are structured in a way that allows to use
grep(1) to look for the names in the make rules. To allow this,
no name must be a substring of another name.
If a command needs options that have to be specified in macros,
there is a make macro that is named XXXFLAGS. This is
compliant to usual make file rules. The are internal make macros
called XXXOPTS and XXXOPTX that will be combined for
XXXFLAGS:
LDFLAGS= $(LDOPTS) $(LDOPTX)
Where XXXOPTS is the name of the macro that is used
internally and XXXOPTX is the name of the macro that may be used from
the command line of the make program. XXXOPTX therefore is used to
append to the content of XXXFLAGS If the value of XXXFLAGS
need to be overwritten, XXXOPTS may be used within the command line
flags of the make program.
The file RULES/rules.top first includes a rule file that depends on the
make program that is used. The name of this file is
RULES/mk-makeprog.id where makeprog has to be
replaced by the real name of the makeprogram e.g. make, gmake,
smake. The purpose of this file is to set up a list of macros that
identify the system where the project is currently built. These macros have
values that contain only lower case letters and define:
- the processor architecture
- If two systems run the same operating system, this is a unique value if a
simple user level program will not need to be recompiled in order to run
on the other system. Possible values are sparc, mc68020,
pentium. This is the output of uname -p. The value is stored
in P_ARCH.
- the kernel architecture
- If two systems may use the same value for P_ARCH but a heavily
system dependent user level program need to be recompiled in order to run
on the other system, These two systems have different kernel
architectures. This is the output of uname -m. Possible values are
sun3, sun4c, sun4m. The value is stored in
K_ARCH.
- the machine architecture
- An outdated macro that is useful only on sun systems. Do not use this, use
P_ARCH instead. This is the output of arch. Possible values
are sun3, sun4. The value is stored in M_ARCH.
- the hostname
- The name of the machine where the compilation takes place. This is the
output of uname -n. The value is stored in HOSTNAME.
- the name of the operating system
- This is the output of uname -s. Possible values are sunos,
dgux, hp-ux, irix. The value is stored in
OSNAME.
- the release of the operating system
- This is the output of uname -r. Possible values are 5.5,
4.1.4. The value is stored in OSREL.
The next file to be included from RULES/rules.top is
RULES/os-operating system.id. It defines the
macros O_ARCH and -O_ARCH and may modify one of the macros
that are defined in RULES/mk-makeprog.id. The
macros O_ARCH and -O_ARCH are used to distinguish between
different operating systems. The names of the compiler configuration files
have -O_ARCH as a central part. On some operating systems e.g.
SunOS and DG-UX it is necessary to distinguish between
SunOS 4.x and SunOS 5.x or DG-UX 3.x and DG-UX
4.x.
The next file to be included from RULES/rules.top is
Defaults. It defines the macros DEFCCOM , DEFINCDIRS ,
LDPATH , RUNPATH , INS_BASE and INS_KBASE. If
the definitions have to be different on different systems, this file may
contain a line int the form:
include
$(SRCROOT)/Defaults.$(O_ARCH)
The actual definitions then have to be moved into these files.
Next, after setting up some internal defaults,
RULES/rules.top includes the compiler configuration file with the
name:
$(SRCROOT)/$(RULESDIR)/$(XARCH).rul
This file contains all necessary system dependent stuff
that is needed to configure the C-compiler on the appropriate system. It is
a bad idea to create a new one from scratch. Have a look at the other
compiler configuration files and modify a similar file for your needs. Note
that there are basically two criterias to that are important in a compiler
configuration file. One is whether the system uses the ELF header
format or not. The other is whether the system uses shared libraries
or not.
The application specific rule files are designed in such a way that they include
all necessary stuff that is needed for that specific task. The application
specific rule files are:
- $(RULES)/rules.aux
- Rules for installing non localized auxiliary files.
- $(RULES)/rules.cmd
- Rules for commands like sh.
- $(RULES)/rules.dir
- Rules for sub directories.
- $(RULES)/rules.drv
- Rules for lodable drivers.
- $(RULES)/rules.lib
- Rules for static libraries.
- $(RULES)/rules.loc
- Rules for installing localized auxiliary files.
- $(RULES)/rules.man
- Rules for installing localized manual pages.
- $(RULES)/rules.mks
- Rules for sub makefiles.
- $(RULES)/rules.mod
- Rules for lodable stream modules.
- $(RULES)/rules.scr
- Rules for installing localized shell scripts.
- $(RULES)/rules.shl
- Rules for shared libraries.
To understand the structure of the make rule system while doing changes,
try to use the -xM flag in the smake program. This flag will
print out the include dependency list (i.e. a list that tell you which make
rules is included from which other rule).
Note that some of the rules are make program dependent. If you
want to make changes to these rules you may need to place the definitions
into separate rule files each for the appropriate make program. Have a look
into the RULES directory for some examples.
.../RULES/*
.../DEFAULTS/*
.../TARGETS/*
.../TEMPLATES/*
makefiles(4), make(1), gmake(1), smake(1).
Diagnostic messages depend on the make program. Have a look at the appropriate
man page.
The make rules can be used with Sunpro make, Gnu make and
smake. Although Gnu make runs on many platforms, it has no useful debug
output.
Use Sunpro make or smake if you have problems with a
makefile. Sunpro make and smake, both have a -D flag, that
allows you to watch the makefiles after the first expansion. Use this
option, if you are in doubt if your makefile gets expanded the right way and
if the right rules are included. There is also a -d option that gives
debugging output while make is running. If you want more output, use -dd,
-ddd and so on.
Smake has an option -xM that shows you the include
dependency for make rules.
The following outline gives a quick tour through a typical source hierarchy:
- .../
- root directory of the source tree
- Makefile
- the top Makefile
- Defaults
- default definitions for that source tree. System dependent definitions are
in .../DEFAULTS/
- Targetdirs
- a file containing a list of directories that are needed for that project.
If the system needs different target lists depending on the target system
architecture , use target specific files in .../TARGETS/
- ...
- .../RULES/
- the location of makefiles (included rules)
- rules.top
- the mandatory include rules (needed to setup basic rules)
- rules.aux
- rules needed to install a non localized auxiliary file
- rules.cmd
- rules needed to make an ordinary command (like /bin/sh)
- rules.drv
- rules needed to make a device driver
- rules.lib
- rules needed to make a standard (nonshared) library
- rules.loc
- rules needed to install a localized auxiliary file
- rules.man
- rules needed to install a localized manual page
- rules.scr
- rules needed to install a localized shell script
- rules.shl
- rules needed to make a shared library
- rules.mks
- rules needed to make more than one target in a specific directory
- rules.dir
- rules needed to make targets that are located in sub directories to the
current directory
- ...
- .../DEFAULTS/
- default definitions for various target architectures are located in this
directory. Templates for some architectures can be found in the
.../TEMPLATES/ directory.
- .../TARGETS/
- target list definitions for various target architectures are located in
this directory.
- .../TEMPLATES/
- templates that should be used inside the project (rename to Makefile, if
it is the only makefile on that directory, rename to target.mk, if
there is more than one target in that directory)
- Defaults
- Defaults file for the source root directory
- Defaults.linux
- Defaults file for linux. This sould be installed in the
.../DEFAULTS/ directory.
- Makefile.root
- Makefile for the source root directory
- Makefile.aux
- Makefile for a non localized auxiliary file
- Makefile.cmd
- Makefile for an ordinary command (like /bin/sh)
- Makefile.lib
- Makefile for a standard (nonshared) library
- Makefile.loc
- Makefile for a localized auxiliary file
- Makefile.man
- Makefile for a localized manual page
- Makefile_de.man
- Makefile for a localized manual page in the german locale
- Makefile.scr
- Makefile for a localized shell script
- Makefile.shl
- Makefile for a shared library
- Makefile.drv
- Makefile for a device driver
- Makefile.mks
- Makefile for more than one target in a specific directory
- Makefile.dir
- Makefile for targets that are located in sub directories to the current
directory
- ...
- .../cmd/
- source tree for normal commands
- Makefile
- the makefile for the cmd sub directory
- Targetdirs.sun4m
- a file containing a list of directories like myprog (see below)
that are needed for that specific architecture.
- myprog/
- directory where the sources for a specific command are located
- Makefile
- makefile for myprog
- Makefile.man
- makefile for the manual page of myprog
- mprog.c
- source for myprog
- mprog.tr
- troff source for the manual page of myprog
- OBJ/
- directory where system specific sub directories are located
- sparc-sunos5-cc/
- directory for binaries that belong to a specific system
- ...
- ...
- ...
- .../lib/
- directory where the sources for a libraries are located
- Makefile
- the makefile for the lib sub directory
- Targetdirs.sun4m
- a file containing a list of directories like libfoo (see below)
that are needed for that specific architecture.
- libfoo/
- directory where all source files for libfoo are located
- ...
- .../kernel
- directory for kernel modules
- Makefile
- the makefile for the kernel sub directory
- Targetdirs.sun4m
- a file containing a list of directories like drv (see below) that
are needed for that specific architecture.
- drv/
- directory where drivers are located
- Makefile
- the makefile for the drv sub directory
- Targetdirs.sun4m
- a file containing a list of directories like mydrv (see below) that
are needed for that specific architecture.
- mydrv/
- source for a specific driver
- ...
- ...
- .../include
- directory for global include files that are used in that project
- .../bins
- directory for binary programs that are created/needed while compiling the
project
- sparc-sunos5-cc/
- directory for binaries that belong to a specific system
- ...
- .../libs
- directory for libraries that are created/needed while compiling the
project
- sparc-sunos5-cc/
- directory for libraries that belong to a specific system
- ...
- .../incs
- directory for include files that are created/needed while compiling the
project
- sparc-sunos5-cc/
- directory for include files that belong to a specific system
- ...
- ...
Joerg Schilling
D-13353 Berlin
Germany
Mail bugs and suggestions to:
joerg@schily.net