Table of Contents
makedepend - create dependencies in makefiles
makedepend [ -Dname=def ] [ -Dname ] [ -Iincludedir ] [ -Yincludedir
] [ -a ] [ -fmakefile ] [ -oobjsuffix ] [ -pobjprefix ] [ -sstring ] [ -wwidth
] [ -v ] [ -m ] [ -- otheroptions -- ] sourcefile ...
The makedepend program reads each sourcefile in sequence and
parses it like a C-preprocessor, processing all #include, #define, #undef,
#ifdef, #ifndef, #endif, #if, #elif and #else directives so that it can
correctly tell which #include, directives would be used in a compilation.
Any #include, directives can reference files having other #include directives,
and parsing will occur in these files as well.
Every file that a sourcefile
includes, directly or indirectly, is what makedepend calls a dependency.
These dependencies are then written to a makefile in such a way that make(1)
will know which object files must be recompiled when a dependency has changed.
By default, makedepend places its output in the file named makefile if
it exists, otherwise Makefile. An alternate makefile may be specified with
the -f option. It first searches the makefile for the line
# DO NOT DELETE
THIS LINE -- make depend depends on it.
or one provided with the -s option,
as a delimiter for the dependency output. If it finds it, it will delete
everything following this to the end of the makefile and put the output
after this line. If it doesn't find it, the program will append the string
to the end of the makefile and place the output following that. For each
sourcefile appearing on the command line, makedepend puts lines in the
makefile of the form
sourcefile.o: dfile ...
Where sourcefile.o is the name from the command line with its suffix replaced
with ``.o'', and dfile is a dependency discovered in a #include directive while
parsing sourcefile or one of the files it included.
Normally, makedepend
will be used in a makefile target so that typing ``make depend'' will bring
the dependencies up to date for the makefile. For example,
SRCS = file1.c file2.c ...
CFLAGS = -O -DHACK -I../foobar -xyz
depend:
makedepend -- $(CFLAGS) -- $(SRCS)
The program will ignore any option that it does not understand so
that you may use the same arguments that you would for cc(1)
.
- -Dname=def
or -Dname
- Define. This places a definition for name in makedepend's symbol
table. Without =def the symbol becomes defined as ``1''.
- -Iincludedir
- Include
directory. This option tells makedepend to prepend includedir to its list
of directories to search when it encounters a #include directive. By default,
makedepend only searches the standard include directories (usually /usr/include
and possibly a compiler-dependent directory).
- -Yincludedir
- Replace all of
the standard include directories with the single specified include directory;
you can omit the includedir to simply prevent searching the standard include
directories.
- -a
- Append the dependencies to the end of the file instead of
replacing them.
- -fmakefile
- Filename. This allows you to specify an alternate
makefile in which makedepend can place its output. Specifying ``-'' as the file
name (i.e., -f-) sends the output to standard output instead of modifying an
existing file.
- -oobjsuffix
- Object file suffix. Some systems may have object
files whose suffix is something other than ``.o''. This option allows you to
specify another suffix, such as ``.b'' with -o.b or ``:obj'' with -o:obj and so forth.
- -pobjprefix
- Object file prefix. The prefix is prepended to the name of the
object file. This is usually used to designate a different directory for
the object file. The default is the empty string.
- -sstring
- Starting string
delimiter. This option permits you to specify a different string for makedepend
to look for in the makefile.
- -wwidth
- Line width. Normally, makedepend will
ensure that every output line that it writes will be no wider than 78 characters
for the sake of readability. This option enables you to change this width.
- -v
- Verbose operation. This option causes makedepend to emit the list of
files included by each input file on standard output.
- -m
- Warn about multiple
inclusion. This option causes makedepend to produce a warning if any input
file includes another file more than once. In previous versions of makedepend
this was the default behavior; the default has been changed to better match
the behavior of the C compiler, which does not consider multiple inclusion
to be an error. This option is provided for backward compatibility, and
to aid in debugging problems related to multiple inclusion.
- -- options --
- If
makedepend encounters a double hyphen (--) in the argument list, then any
unrecognized argument following it will be silently ignored; a second double
hyphen terminates this special treatment. In this way, makedepend can be
made to safely ignore esoteric compiler arguments that might normally be
found in a CFLAGS make macro (see the EXAMPLE section above). All options
that makedepend recognizes and appear between the pair of double hyphens
are processed normally.
The approach used in this program enables
it to run an order of magnitude faster than any other ``dependency generator''
I have ever seen. Central to this performance are two assumptions: that
all files compiled by a single makefile will be compiled with roughly the
same -I and -D options; and that most files in a single directory will include
largely the same files.
Given these assumptions, makedepend expects to be
called once for each makefile, with all source files that are maintained
by the makefile appearing on the command line. It parses each source and
include file exactly once, maintaining an internal symbol table for each.
Thus, the first file on the command line will take an amount of time proportional
to the amount of time that a normal C preprocessor takes. But on subsequent
files, if it encounters an include file that it has already parsed, it
does not parse it again.
For example, imagine you are compiling two files,
file1.c and file2.c, they each include the header file header.h, and the file
header.h in turn includes the files def1.h and def2.h. When you run the command
makedepend file1.c file2.c
makedepend will parse file1.c and consequently, header.h and then def1.h
and def2.h. It then decides that the dependencies for this file are
file1.o:
header.h def1.h def2.h
But when the program parses file2.c and discovers that it, too, includes
header.h, it does not parse the file, but simply adds header.h, def1.h and
def2.h to the list of dependencies for file2.o.
cc(1)
, make(1)
makedepend
parses, but does not currently evaluate, the SVR4 #predicate(token-list)
preprocessor expression; such expressions are simply assumed to be true.
This may cause the wrong #include directives to be evaluated.
Imagine you
are parsing two files, say file1.c and file2.c, each includes the file def.h.
The list of files that def.h includes might truly be different when def.h
is included by file1.c than when it is included by file2.c. But once makedepend
arrives at a list of dependencies for a file, it is cast in concrete.
Todd
Brunhoff, Tektronix, Inc. and MIT Project Athena
Table of Contents