Makefile generator

How to use it

1. Choose the project type and enter the program name.
2. Tick the targets you need. All except lint are on at first.
3. Copy the result into a file named Makefile in the project root.
4. Run make, make test, make clean or make help.

How it works

The file has three parts:

• Variables: tools with ?= so they can be overridden (CC ?= cc, GO ?= go, NPM ?= npm, PYTHON ?= python3) and the program name with :=.
• .PHONY: every chosen target, so files with the same names cannot block them.
• Targets: each a rule line and one or more recipe lines indented with a tab. For C, build depends on $(TARGET), which is linked from the object files; a pattern rule %.o: %.c compiles each source in src/.

The help target prints the target names found in the Makefile itself with grep, so it stays correct when you add targets.

Example

The defaults (Go, name app) give:

GO ?= go
BINARY := app

.PHONY: build test run install clean help

build:
	$(GO) build -o bin/$(BINARY) .

test:
	$(GO) test ./...

run:
	$(GO) run .

install:
	$(GO) mod download

clean:
	rm -rf bin

help:
	@grep -E '^[a-zA-Z_-]+:' $(MAKEFILE_LIST) | cut -d: -f1

Tips

• Prefix a recipe line with @ to hide the command and show only its output.
• Use $$ for a dollar sign the shell should see: a single $ belongs to make.
• Each recipe line runs in its own shell, so cd dir on one line does not affect the next; write cd dir && command.