mkproj

Generic project templates for tools, filters, libraries in C++.

Installation

Type make to install the mkproj script, its man page, and the templates.

The default location is to put everything inside your ~/.local hierarchy, but you can change that by defining an environment variable PREFIX, giving it your desired root directory as a value, before typing make.

The actual location used will be recorded in a config file: ~/.config/mkprojrc, which will be read by the mkproj script. It needs to know where your templates are in order to function.

Overview

With mkproj, you can create a C++ project for a tool or a library. The project can be:

• a simple tool, to test some idea;
• a more elaborate tool, meant to be distributed;
• a UNIX filter, which processes input files line by line, or reads from standard input when there are no input files;
• a library, where both a static and a dynamic library will be built.

Apart from the simple tool, all of these can optionally:

• use a precompiled header for the C++ Standard Library;
• implement a plugin architecture, where building and installing plugins is automatically supported.

At the center is a Makefile, which should not be altered. This Makefile can build and install any of these projects. All project-specific additions should be put in the mandatory premake.make (which is included at the start of the Makefile), and in an optional postmake.make (which is included at the end of the Makefile).

The premake.make typically defines some Make variables, whereas the postmake.make typically contains extra Make targets.

The premake.make is mandatory, because it defines the name of the tool or library, and its version. This is also where you declare external dependencies.

Available Make targets for your project are:

• make will build the tool or library;
• make test will build and run tests, using the Boost Unit Test Framework;
• sudo make install will install it, and all of its accompanying files;
• make clean will remove compiled object files, but will keep a previously built tool or library, and the precompiled header;
• make dist-clean will bring the project to a pristine state.
• sudo make uninstall will remove all installed files.

Documentation

man mkproj