Makefile for CGI program using SQLite library

Question

I am developing a CGI program in C on Linux using gcc, GNU make and the SQLite library. How does my makefile look?

# Automatic Variables
# $@ file name of target
# $< name of the first prerequisite
# $? name of all prerequisites newer than target
# $^ names of all prerequisites
# Pattern rule example - complile object files from prerequisites
# %.o: %.c
# $(CC) -c $(CFLAGS) $< -o $@ 
#
# Predefined Variables 
# CC compiler, default gcc
# CFLAGS compiler flags
# LDFLAGS linker flags such as -L (extra directories searched for -l)
# LDLIBS libaries such as -lfoo
CC=gcc
CFLAGS=-ansi -pedantic -Wall -Wextra -O2
LDLIBS=-ldl -lpthread
# directory of SQLite library
SQLITEDIR=sqlite
sqlfun.cgi: sqlfuncgi.o sqlite3.o
 $(CC) -o $@ $^ $(CFLAGS) $(LDLIBS)
sqlite3.o: $(SQLITEDIR)/sqlite3.c
 $(CC) -o $@ $^ -c -Os 
sqlfuncgi.o: sqlfuncgi.c
 $(CC) -o $@ $^ -c $(CFLAGS) 
.PHONY: clean test
clean:
 rm -f sqlfun.cgi *.o
test:
 clear
 cppcheck --enable=all --inconclusive --std=c89 sqlfuncgi.c
 valgrind --leak-check=yes ./sqlfun.cgi test

• 200_success: Please see What to do when someone answers . I have rolled back Rev 3 → 2.

Answer 1

First impressions

This is clear and easy to read, and follows conventions well.

---

Use more built-ins

You can use more of Make's built-in rules. For example, this rule can be omitted entirely:

sqlfuncgi.o: sqlfuncgi.c
 $(CC) -o $@ $^ -c $(CFLAGS)

If you add $(SQLITEDIR) to the VPATH, the sqlite3.o rule becomes simply

sqlite3.o: CFLAGS += -Os

And the link rule can use the built-in LINK.c variable:

sqlfun.cgi: sqlfuncgi.o sqlite3.o
 $(LINK.c) -o $@ $^ $(LDLIBS)

---

Special targets

Good use of .PHONY. We probably also want .DELETE_ON_ERROR to ensure that if any command fails, its partially-written outputs don't hang around and appear to be made

---

Portability improvement

We can use Make's predefined $(RM) in place of rm -f.

• user2309803: Thanks Toby. As you said, I could have omitted the sqlitefuncgi.o rule since it would be implicitly built - but I find it clearer to have it explicitly documented. I didn't know about VPATH, so I have added it. I also added a system include path since I don't want to see compiler warnings from sqlite/sqlite3.h. I also added your suggestions $(RM) and .DELETE_ON_ERROR. I can't find any documentation about LINK.c - what does it do? Is $(CFLAGS) superfluous in the sqlfun.cgi recipe? I assume this rule only does linking not compiling
• Toby Speight: $(LINK.c) is one of Make's built-in variables (that can be examined using make --print-data-base - which on my system shows it defined as $(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) $(TARGET_ARCH)), and it's used in the default rule for building from C sources. You'd use $(LINK.cc) instead for C++ code, to link the C++ standard library as well.