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volf.tomas

Member

Registered: 2011-08-27

Posts: 7

Build system

Hi fellow users,
I am just starting a small project and while I am still in planning phase, I considering which build system to use.

GNU Make and CMake are currently on the table...

Can I ask for your opinions?

Thanks a lot

/dev/zero

Member

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2011-10-20

Posts: 1,247

Re: Build system

Autotools has enough precedent that many people will expect to just run "configure && make && sudo make install". You have to weigh the complexity of the project off against the complexity of autotools, though. For a small Linux-only project consisting of up to a few thousand SLOC, I'd probably go makefile.

Basu

Member

From: Cornell University

Registered: 2006-12-15

Posts: 296

Website

Re: Build system

Start with plain Makefiles until you get to the point where you need something more. If you're just learning build tools for the first time I think it's a good idea to start from the basics.

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ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,804

Re: Build system

They are just tools.  It really depends on the task at hand.

All other things being equal, I like prefer Autotools.  It can take a moderate amount of effort to get it working, but it does a nice job of keeping things "buildable" as the installed libraries mutate over time.  They also do a nice job if you want to cross compile to other OSes (Like a famous one from the American Pacific Northwest).  I have Autotool build scripts that will compile WxWidgets and C++ into both Linux Elf and "That other OS's" .exe executables.

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volf.tomas

Member

Registered: 2011-08-27

Posts: 7

Re: Build system

Well, thanks to all of you, I will stick with Autotools