Best way to compile (a type of cpp program) that has lot of parameters

Question

I'm learning opengl these days and I'm compiling from command line (I don't want to use IDE because I'm used to VIM). Compiling the opengl files can be troublesome, say if I have a file called hello.cpp, for quickly compile&run I have to do:

g++ -framework GLUT -framework OpenGL -framework Cocoa hello.cpp & ./a.out

Since I'm learning opengl I'll be testing with lots of different files and it's not feasible for me to type the above command all the time. What I want is something like:

some_command % & ./a.out

The some_command is best to be some commonly used ones (like g++, make), and % is the filename.

I think makefile might be a possible solution, so I went ahead and learnt about makefile but it seems to be working for a specific name; there're methods to pass parameters to makefile but still it seems too troublesome for me (I have to manually type-in the ARGUMENT=filename part).

Also I think shell script might be a good solution.. the only fallback is that I have to self-define a name for the shell-script.

I want to know if there is any better way for me to quickly compile&run the opengl cpp files

Thanks a lot.

What's is the problem with using a shell script? I don't understand what you mean by "I have to self-define a name for the shell-script." — Matt Ball, Mar 27 '13 at 04:08
@MattBall If possible.. I'd like to use some commonly-used command instead of self-invent ones... say like I write a script named "compile-cpp-gl.sh", I'll prefer using make if I can get it done elegantly — songyy, Mar 27 '13 at 04:31

wsdookadr · Answer 1 · 2013-03-27T04:50:19.477

Use a Makefile

CC=g++
PARAM=-framework GLUT    \
      -framework OpenGL  \
      -framework Cocoa  #\

hello: hello.cpp
       $(CC) $(PARAM) ${ARGS} hello.cpp -o hello

Then compile and run with make hello; ./hello;

You might be wondering what the ${ARGS}. It's for custom command-line arguments. So now you can do something like make ARGS="-framework CustomX" hello; ./hello; and it will get added to the other g++ options you have in the Makefile.

You can read more about GNU Makefile here, here and here

UPDATE: Here is a small one-liner that will generate all the targets you need. If you want, you can expand it into a script so you have more control over it.

ls *.cpp | perl -ne 'chomp; $n=$_; $n=~s/\.cpp$//; print "$n: $_\n\t\$(CC) \$(PARAM) \${ARGS} $_ -o $n\n";' >> Makefile

Apart from that, I usually write my targets by hand. @Emil Sit's solution might be better if you want something really general.

Sorry I think my question is not clear... I want to have some like "make FOO.cpp" to be able to compile the opengl cpp file called "FOO.cpp", without writing the same makefile every time. (because I want to quickly test different cpp files) — songyy, Mar 27 '13 at 04:33

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 27 '13 at 04:24

I think you want to be able to do something like:

make foo

(say, from vim), where foo varies depending on what source file you are using.

To achieve this in make, you want to use a pattern rule.

For example:

CXX=g++
CXX_FLAGS=-framework GLUT -framework OpenGL -framework Cocoa

%: %.cpp
    $(CXX) $(CXX_FLAGS) -o $@ $<
    ./$@

This should allow you to run make hello and it will:

Build an executable called hello in the current directory (if hello.cpp has changed).
Run hello for you, if it decided to compile and the compilation was successful.

Best way to compile (a type of cpp program) that has lot of parameters

2 Answers2