Supermake

Caution

I wrote this code in 2011 while learning Python as a teenager. I still use it for personal use, but it is otherwise abandoned, is not available in PyPI, and I have archived the repository. Proceed at your own risk.

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Supermake is a C and C++ 'build tool' focused on ease of use for simple projects. You run a single command and get running software.

http://personalcomputer.github.io/supermake/

Features

• Generate Unix makefiles from any sourcecode found in current directory.
• Automatically determine what libraries need to be linked.
• Easily specify custom gcc flags.
• Automatically compile your project.
• Automatically execute the resultant binary.
• Build static and dynamic libraries.

Example Usage

• supermake (By itself. Supermake is designed to do everything for you automatically with aggressive defaults. Run this from a C/C++ repository and you'll go straight from having sourcecode to having running software. As hard as running python or ruby, but for C/C++)
• supermake --binary=../bin/myprogram.run --debug --warn
• supermake --binary=myprogram.run -R --custom=-DTEST

For full proper usage information, see supermake --help.

Install

Supermake is a Python package, available for install via uv:

git clone git@github.com:personalcomputer/supermake.git
uv tool install ./supermake

Notes/Troubleshooting

• Supermake is written for Linux, but should work acceptably within a Windows+cgywin/mingw32 environment as well. MacOSX is untested.
• If Supermake fails to recognize some libraries you are using (there unfortunately won't be an error message on this until the compilation stage), you can manually add them to the libraries datastructure (definition near top of supermake.py). Supermake can't support every single library out there, but I try to support the ones I use most myself, at least. Send me your Github pull request with the additional library support and I'll gladly accept it.
• A known bug with Supermake is that it cannot preprocess code, so potentially disabled blocks of code from #ifdefs or #ifs and c-style comments (/* and */) will still be read. This may lead to unwanted library inclusions if you use different libraries in your project depending upon preprocessor #ifdefs or #ifs or have such includes commented out with C-style comments. The undocumented --override-depend + --custom=-llibrary -llibrary(remember to escape the spaces for bash!) workaround is available though if this bug is causing problems.
• Lastly, it is worth noting that Supermake automatically includes libraries from /usr/local/lib, and sets LD_LIBRARY_PATH to /usr/local/lib when running. I've yet to encounter a real situation on a beginner's system where this causes problems.