Simple Makefile Template for C Projects

This is a straightforward Makefile template designed for building C projects using GCC. It is designed to keep things neat by putting object files in a out directory and the finished executable in the root directory.

Installation

You can use this template repository as a template by clicking Use this template and then Create a new repository, click here to see a tutorial.

Otherwise you can:

Download a zip of this repository by pressing the green Code button.

or

Clone the github repo and remove the .git (so you can create your own repository):

On Linux

git clone --depth 1 --no-single-branch https://github.com/Phillezi/C_Makefile_Template.git
cd C_Makefile_Template
rm -rf .git

or you can just get the makefile

wget -O makefile https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Phillezi/C_Makefile_Template/master/makefile

On Windows,

git clone --depth 1 --no-single-branch https://github.com/Phillezi/C_Makefile_Template.git
cd C_Makefile_Template
del /Q .git

Instructions

Windows

This assumes you are using mingw32. To build the project, simply run the following command. Since all is the first target in the Makefile, it will be executed by default. This command compiles all the .c files in the src directory into .o files and then links them to an executable specified in the Makefile (Target).

mingw32-make.exe

To build the project with debug flags, use the debug target. By default, it includes the -g flag for debugging information, this lets you debug the executable with programs like GDB.

mingw32-make.exe debug

For a list of available Makefile targets and their descriptions, you can use the help target.

mingw32-make.exe help

Unix-based (OS X / Linux)

To build the project, simply run the following command. Since all is the first target in the Makefile, it will be executed by default. This command compiles all the .c files in the src directory into .o files and then links them to an executable specified in the Makefile (Target).

make

To build the project with debug flags, use the debug target. By default, it includes the -g flag for debugging information, this lets you debug the executable with programs like GDB.

make debug

For a list of available Makefile targets and their descriptions, you can use the help target.

make help

Once the program is compiled, the object files will be stored in the out directory, and the executable will be generated in the root directory (the same directory as the Makefile).

Feel free to modify the Makefile to suit your project's specific requirements.