A generic Makefile for Caml Light

The skeleton for the Make command

Makefile_caml.tpl must be copied as Makefile in the project directory.

Simplified instructions for use

• The file Makefile must exist in the directory where your source code files are.
• Fill in the parts of the Makefile that are specific to your application:
  • SOURCES = the list of Caml sources (including camlyacc and camllex source files).
  • EXEC = a.out replace a.out by the name of the executable program you want to create.
• Create a .depend file (executing touch .depend under Unix). This file will contain the list of compilation dependencies automatically generated by the Makefile when executing the command make depend.
• Type make. Type make again each time you modify one of the source files of the program.

Advanced instructions for use

In addition, the Makefile file offers the following entry points:

• make clean removes the executable program and all the object files (compiled Caml files).
• make depend computes the dependencies between the modules of the program, hence tries to find a correct compilation order to recompile the application.
• make rebuilds the executable program, recompiling what has to be recompiled.
• make all combine make depend and make, hence recomputes dependencies and then rebuilds the application.
• make clean; make all is the normal sequence to recompile the program from scratch.

If you use Caml libraries (such as graphics, unix, or nums), you must set the line LIBS= with the list of libraries you use. The names of these libraries for Make are listed in the Makefile: each ``name'' is in fact a Make macro that adds the relevant options to the Caml compiler. For instance, to use both ``graphics'' and ``unix'' you should write: LIBS=WITHGRAPHICS WITHUNIX

Make and Emacs

Advanced Caml programmers generally agree that the simplest way of developing Caml programs is to use make from within the emacs editor: call make with the emacs command Meta-X compile. If an error occurs, the editor points to the precise file and line where the Caml compiler found the error, if you type in Meta-X next-error. The command Meta-X compile is generally bound to the keystrokes combination CTRL-C CTRL-C, while Meta-X next-error is bound to CTRL-X `.
This means that the entire compilation + error finding process just needs to 4 key-strokes.