Using make for cross platform compilation

ccross platformmakefile

I am currently developing a C project under Linux and Win32. The 'deliverable' is a shared library, and all the development is done under Linux with the GNU tool chain. I am using a Makefile to compile the shared library.

Every now and then I have to build a .dll under Win32 from the same src.

I've installed MinGW on the Win32 box such that I can use make and get far fewer complaints from the compiler (in comparison to MSVC). I'm at a stage where the src code compiles on both platforms

But the Linux Makefile and Win32 Makefile are different. I'm curious as how to best handle this – should I:

  1. have 2 makefiles, e.g. Makefile for linux and Makefile.WIN32 and then run make -f Makefile.WIN32 on the Windows box

  2. Should I make a different target in a single Makefile and do something like make WIN32 on the Windows box

  3. Should I ditch make and use CMake (is the juice worth the squeeze for such a simple project, i.e. 1 shared library)

Best Answer

Use a single make file and put the platform-specifics in conditionals, eg

ifeq ($(OS),Windows_NT)
    DLLEXT := .dll
else
    DLLEXT := .so
endif

DLL := libfoo$(DLLEXT)

lib : $(DLL)
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