Makefile without tabs

README.md

Purpose

Original Makefile require the use of TABs to express recipes. I really hate TABs. They are the remnants of the dot matrix printers. In this simple example I'll show you how to use Makefiles without TABs!

Add the following to the beginning of the Makefile

.RECIPEPREFIX = >

Then each recipe can be written like this:

helloworld: helloworld.c
> $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -o $@ $<

Download all files for working example.

helloworld.c

#include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
  printf("Hello World\n");
  return 0;
}

Makefile

.RECIPEPREFIX = >
.PHONY: all
CFLAGS = -pedantic -Wall -Werror -Wstrict-prototypes -Wwrite-strings -Wshadow -Winit-self -Wcast-align -Wformat=2 -Wmissing-prototypes -Wstrict-overflow=2 -Wcast-qual -Wc++-compat -Wundef -Wswitch-default -Wconversion
%.o : %.c
> $(CC) -c $(CFLAGS) -o $@ $<

all: helloworld

helloworld: helloworld.c
> $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -o $@ $<

clean:
> rm -f *.o helloworld