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Product Description
Book Description
The Power of GNU make for Building Anything
Product Description
The utility simply known as make is one of the most enduring features of both Unix and other operating systems. First invented in the 1970s, make still turns up to this day as the central engine in most programming projects; it even builds the Linux kernel. In the third edition of the classic Managing Projects with GNU make, readers will learn why this utility continues to hold its top position in project build software, despite many younger competitors.
The premise behind make is simple: after you change source files and want to rebuild your program or other output files, make checks timestamps to see what has changed and rebuilds just what you need, without wasting time rebuilding other files. But on top of this simple principle, make layers a rich collection of options that lets you manipulate multiple directories, build different versions of programs for different platforms, and customize your builds in other ways.
This edition focuses on the GNU version of make, which has deservedly become the industry standard. GNU make contains powerful extensions that are explored in this book. It is also popular because it is free software and provides a version for almost every platform, including a version for Microsoft Windows as part of the free Cygwin project. Managing Projects with GNU make, 3rd Edition provides guidelines on meeting the needs of large, modern projects. Also added are a number of interesting advanced topics such as portability, parallelism, and use with Java.
Robert Mecklenburg, author of the third edition, has used make for decades with a variety of platforms and languages. In this book he zealously lays forth how to get your builds to be as efficient as possible, reduce maintenance, avoid errors, and thoroughly understand what make is doing. Chapters on C++ and Java provide makefile entries optimized for projects in those languages. The author even includes a discussion of the makefile used to build the book.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I got a lot out of this book: it has taken my understanding of Make forward by leaps, and in ways that reading tutorials and the man-page never managed.
I came to Make from IDE's that do things for you, and despite using Make to build existing projects I didn't do much with it myself. Recently I needed to create my own makefile. Make is so complex that its difficult to find good information that goes beyond the very basics but isn't full of the strange incantations of Make gurus.
This book helped me bridge the gap. It explains clearly the simple stuff, and it takes you through the intermediate stuff. There are chapters beyond where I needed, so I can't tell you if it is good at introducing the advanced stuff.
I learned that make is a very powerful tool, with a powerful embedded programming language. I learned how to get my jobs done with it, and some of what I could maybe do if I needed to at some point. My makefiles are much bigger now, but they are also more powerful - performing backups, version control checkouts, creating release builds and installers, applying security. All jobs I used to do by hand with lots of icon-clicking, but now can be done seemlessly. All stuff I wouldn't have had confidence to try without the help from this book.
The only criticism of the book is that it jumps around a bit (or it seemed to for me). I guess this a side-effect of it being written by several people over several years. Some chapters use material that hasn't been introduced yet, and others go back over stuff that's been amply covered before.
Its not a major criticism (hence the 4 stars) and a couple of trips to the Index got me through. I'd definitely recommend this book if you want to take more control over your large project builds.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
When I read this book, I was looking at a build system that's based on GNU make that has been ill maintained for quite some time. So I had several "how can I do this?" questions on my mind.
This book helped me improve my understanding of GNU make a lot. I own and have read the 2nd edition of the book (which isn't specific to GNU make). I found this edition considerably clearer - probably at least partly due to it being better focused on the tool that I use. This extra knowledge should aid me to solve most of the problems that we're having.
This book helped me improve my understanding of GNU make a lot. I own and have read the 2nd edition of the book (which isn't specific to GNU make). I found this edition considerably clearer - probably at least partly due to it being better focused on the tool that I use. This extra knowledge should aid me to solve most of the problems that we're having.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Great book that brought us light years ahead when we wanted to use Gnu Make from Eclipse, to organise complicated projects in complicated directory structures.
One star is deducted for factual errors in the examples (sloppy testing or transfer of examples?) and for the somewhat jumping around between topics. But much better than the Gnu Make manual (which, however, also is indispensible!)
There are many ideas that we could use. That is the spirit to use this - don't expect to find a boiler plate example, but many ideas and examples to incorporate in your final work.
One star is deducted for factual errors in the examples (sloppy testing or transfer of examples?) and for the somewhat jumping around between topics. But much better than the Gnu Make manual (which, however, also is indispensible!)
There are many ideas that we could use. That is the spirit to use this - don't expect to find a boiler plate example, but many ideas and examples to incorporate in your final work.
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