Re: [Mingw-users] No make / gmake ??

[Craig R. <cr...@po...>]

Ryan D'Baisse wrote:
>> You can find a standalone 'make' here:
>>   http://mingw.org/download.shtml
> 
> Cool, but which one?  If I grab "mingw32-make-3.80.0-3.exe" will it  
> be compatible with the version of MinGW [and its tools] that I am  
> running?  I installed MinGW using "MinGW-5.0.2.exe".

It should be. mingw32-make is modified to use cmd.exe for its shell, by 
the way (it doesn't depend on a UNIX/POSIX shell) so Makefiles written 
for it many not work under UNIX/Linux unless very, very carefully written.

>> You've said you want to do cross-platform work. How will you
>> write, say, a 'clean' rule? You could use 'del' in a makefile
>> for msw only. But if you want to be platform independent, then
>> you'll want 'rm', which MSYS provides, along with 'make' and
>> many other utilities that you may find you do need after all.
> 
> To answer your question honestly, I have absolutely no clue.  Before  
> you asked the question I did not even know that I HAD to concern  
> myself with this.



That's why I suggested using a Makefile generator. You also get 
`configure'-like functionality (or `configure' its self, with autotools) 
which lets you detect things like endianness and word sizes and special 
case parts of your program for them if necessary.

> Until this point, I was under the impression that I would install  
> MinGW and that it would provide EVERYTHING (aka "every single  
> command, utility, and tool") that I would need to create, build,  
> compile, etc., etc., a C++ application on a Windows box... to include  
> any make utilities.

It does provide the minimal tools to do exactly that. mingw32-make, gcc, 
as, ld, etc. If you want to produce an easy-to-build portable project, 
you need to do some more work.

> Also, from what I read on the MinGW site that the whole goal of the  
> project was to replicate what GNU had created with GCC... which would  
> include things like "make."

Unfortunately, Makefiles tend to depend on a UNIX shell and utilities. 
That's not exactly ideal under MinGW, so it provides a modified Make 
that uses cmd.exe. You can use that and be very careful with your 
Makefiles, you can maintain two sets of Makefiles (one for MinGW, one 
for *NIX), or you can use a Makefile generator to do it for you.

--
Craig Ringer