Re: [dev] requirements of build systems

From: lists <lists_AT_ethanjmarshall.co.uk>
Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2022 22:27:09 +0000

From my experience with using pure-POSIX make for many years now, I have
almost no troubles. The only recurring trouble I have is with complex
dependency chains (which I aim to keep to a minimum anyway for
simplicity) and mtime over sshfs connections. Other than that, make has
never failed me.

My best advice for make-based build systems is to try and keep things
simple. Unless you have a *really* complicated build process (like a
kernel image or something), don't be too fancy. Just use a single,
central Makefile and put your sources in one place. If you find yourself
having to use GNU extensions, that's often a sign of your process being
too complicated.

For me, make would be more useful if it could:
        1) Auto-detect sources based on regular expression (build src/*.{ch})
        2) Have a clean way of managing dependencies between files

But I am generally happy with what I have.

        Ethan
Received on Sun Jan 30 2022 - 23:27:09 CET