CoCoA » CoCoALib

Here is an example I found on the internet; it uses GNU make's VPATH facility:

vpath %.cpp ../src

src = Foo.cpp Bar.cpp 
test_src = Main.cpp FooTest.cpp BarTest.cpp 

objects = $(patsubst %.cpp,obj/%.o,$(src)) 
test_objects = $(patsubst %.cpp,obj/%.o,$(test_src)) 

$(objects): | obj

obj:
  @mkdir -p $@

obj/%.o : %.cpp
  @echo $< 
  @$(CXX) $(CXXFLAGS) -c $< -o $@

Posting here to keep this example in an archive.

NOTE JAA continues to be a little uneasy about using features present only in GNU make (despite the fact that JAA thinks "make" is pretty horrible)

Right now I do not recall why we think it is a good idea to have all object files in a single directory.

• easy to tell which object files are newer than libcocoa.a
• any name clashes between object files ought to be more evident (maybe? not entirely sure)
• some other (open source) projects do it this way

• not easy to achieve with classical make files

Would it be easy to do this with some other make program (such as cmake)?

Do we really want to overhaul the current Makefile structure?
I do not recall any problems lately, and am loath to delve too much into the esoterics of make.
As I recall, the Makefile for Frobby does some "esoteric" stuff (i.e. I don't know how it works).

Right now, I'd be more inclined to invest effort into moving to cmake rather than to try to make standard make do acrobatics.

PS this issue was opened 9 years ago; the last comment was 5 years ago. And there are no substantial comments.