Question

I came across this Makefile (found it through an open source project called sendip)

I have two confusions regarding this file –

1. Where are .c files being specified as dependencies here? Although all the libraries like ipv6.so, tcp.so are being generated fine, but which line here is responsible for it?

I think this is the line ….. Right ??

%.so: %.c $(LIBS)
                    $(CC) -o $@ $(CFLAGS) $(LIBCFLAGS) $+ $(LIBS)

but $(LIBS) only specify some .o files. IS this $+ doing something ?

2.I have never heard of $+. I tried to find it out and came across many others like $?, $@, $<, etc. but never seen this one. I think it behaves like $? but still it also demands .c depndencies to be specified.

Makefile:

#configureable stuff 

PREFIX ?= /usr/local
BINDIR ?= $(PREFIX)/bin
MANDIR ?= $(PREFIX)/share/man/man1
LIBDIR ?= $(PREFIX)/lib/sendip

#For most systems, this works
INSTALL ?= install

#For Solaris, you may need
#INSTALL=/usr/ucb/install

CFLAGS= -fPIC -fsigned-char -pipe -Wall -Wpointer-arith -Wwrite-strings \
-Wstrict-prototypes -Wnested-externs -Winline -Werror -g -Wcast-align \
-DSENDIP_LIBS=\"$(LIBDIR)\"

#-Wcast-align causes problems on solaris, but not serious ones

LDFLAGS=        -g -rdynamic -lm -ldl
#LDFLAGS_SOLARIS= -g -lsocket -lnsl -lm
LDFLAGS_SOLARIS= -g -lsocket -lnsl -lm -ldl
LDFLAGS_LINUX= -g  -rdynamic -lm -ldl
LIBCFLAGS= -shared
CC=     gcc-4.4

PROGS= sendip
BASEPROTOS= ipv4.so ipv6.so
IPPROTOS= tcp.so udp.so icmp.so
UDPPROTOS= rip.so ripng.so ntp.so
TCPPROTOS= bgp.so
PROTOS= $(BASEPROTOS) $(IPPROTOS) $(UDPPROTOS) $(TCPPROTOS)
LIBS= libsendipaux.a
LIBOBJS= csum.o compact.o protoname.o headers.o parseargs.o 
         cryptomod.o crc32.o
SUBDIRS= mec

all:    $(LIBS) subdirs sendip $(PROTOS) sendip.1 sendip.spec

#there has to be a nice way to do this

sendip: sendip.o        gnugetopt.o gnugetopt1.o compact.o
    sh -c "if [ `uname` = Linux ] ; then \
$(CC) -o $@ $(LDFLAGS_LINUX) $(CFLAGS) $+ ; \
elif [ `uname` = SunOS ] ; then \
   $(CC) -o $@ $(LDFLAGS_SOLARIS) $(CFLAGS) $+ ;\
else \
$(CC) -o $@ $(LDFLAGS) $(CFLAGS) $+ ; \
fi"

libsendipaux.a: $(LIBOBJS)
    ar vr $@ $?

subdirs:
    for subdir in $(SUBDIRS) ; do \
            cd $$subdir ;\
            make  ;\
            cd ..  ;\
            done

protoname.o:    mec/protoname.c
    $(CC) -o $@ -c -I. $(CFLAGS) $+

headers.o:      mec/headers.c
    $(CC) -o $@ -c -I. $(CFLAGS) $+

parseargs.o:    mec/parseargs.c
    $(CC) -o $@ -c -I. $(CFLAGS) $+

cryptomod.o:    mec/cryptomod.c
    $(CC) -o $@ -c -I. $(CFLAGS) $+

crc32.o: mec/crc32table.h mec/crc32.c
    $(CC) -o $@ -c -I. $(CFLAGS) mec/crc32.c

mec/crc32table.h: mec/gen_crc32table
    mec/gen_crc32table > mec/crc32table.h

sendip.1:       ./help2man $(PROGS) $(PROTOS) subdirs VERSION
                    ./help2man -n "Send arbitrary IP packets" -N >sendip.1

Answer 1

Yes you’re right.

When a target definition start with the % character it defines a target pattern, not a specific pattern. So %.so means a target to generate all .so files needed by other targets or required by the user. The %.c also is a pattern and means all .c files.

So the $(CC) -o $@ $(CFLAGS) $(LIBCFLAGS) $+ $(LIBS) means the command output will have the name of the target being generated ($@ -> name of the target that matched the pattern) … and the $+ means all the files that matched with the prerequisite pattern (i.e: %.c).

Take a look at the GNU make manual, specifically at the Catalogue of Rules to see what $+, $^, … mean.