STYLE.MAKEFILE(5)

🎀 NAME 🎀

<style.Makefile> is the FreeBSD Makefile style guide — a File Formats Manual page, section 5, and yes bestie, we're making it cute. It's the preferred style for makefiles in the FreeBSD source tree, and every rule is still here. Periodt. 💅

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

This file specifies the preferred style for makefiles in the FreeBSD source tree. Slay. Here's the full checklist, no skips, no cap:

• .PATH: — comes first if needed, and is spelled .PATH: with a single ASCII space after a colon. Do not use the VPATH variable.
• Special variables (i.e., LIB, SRCS, MLINKS, etc.) are listed in order of “product”, then building and installing a binary. Special variables may also be listed in “build” order: i.e., ones for the primary program (or library) first.

The general “product” order is: PROG/[SH]LIB/SCRIPTS FILES LINKS MAN MLINKS INCS SRCS WARNS CSTD CFLAGS DPADD LDADD.

The general “build” order is: PROG/[SH]LIB/SCRIPTS SRCS WARNS CSTD CFLAGS DPADD LDADD INCS FILES LINKS MAN MLINKS.

• Omit SRCS when using <bsd.prog.mk> and there is a single source file named the same as the PROG.
• Omit MAN when using <bsd.prog.mk> and the manual page is named the same as the PROG, and is in section 1.
• All variable assignments are spelled VAR=, i.e., no space between the variable name and the =. Keep values sorted alphabetically, if possible.
• Variables are expanded with {}, not (). Such as ${VARIABLE}.
• Do not use += to set variables that are only set once (or to set variables for the first time).
• Vertical whitespace — do not use it in simple makefiles, but do use it to group locally related things in more complex/longer ones.
• WARNS comes before CFLAGS, as it is basically a CFLAGS modifier. It comes before CFLAGS rather than after CFLAGS so it does not get lost in a sea of CFLAGS statements — WARNS is an important thing. The usage of WARNS is spelled WARNS?= , so that it may be overridden on the command line or in make.conf(5).
• MK_WERROR=no should not be used — it defeats the purpose of WARNS. It should only be used on the command line and in special circumstances.
• CFLAGS is spelled CFLAGS+= .
• Listing -D's before -I's in CFLAGS is preferred for alphabetical ordering and to make -D's easier to see. The -D's often affect conditional compilation, and -I's tend to be quite long. Split long CFLAGS settings between the -D's and -I's.
• Do not use GCCisms (such as -g and -Wall) in CFLAGS.
• Whitespace vibes — typically, there is one ASCII tab between VAR= and the value in order to start the value in column 9. An ASCII space is allowed for variable names that extend beyond column 9. A lack of whitespace is also allowed for very long variable names.
• .include <bsd.*.mk> goes last.
• Do not use anachronisms like $< and $@. Instead use ${.IMPSRC} or ${.ALLSRC} and ${.TARGET}.
• To not build the foo part of the base system, use NO_FOO, not NOFOO.
• To optionally build something in the base system, spell the knob WITH_FOO, not WANT_FOO or USE_FOO. The latter are reserved for the FreeBSD Ports Collection.
• For variables that are only checked with defined(), do not provide any fake value.

The desire to express a logical grouping often means not obeying some of the above. It's giving “rules are cute but context is main character energy.” 😌

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🧪 EXAMPLES 🧪

The simplest program Makefile is:

PROG=   foo

.include <bsd.prog.mk>

The simplest library Makefile is:

LIB=    foo
SHLIB_MAJOR= 1
MAN=    libfoo.3
SRCS=   foo.c

.include <bsd.lib.mk>

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• make(1)
• make.conf(5)
• style(9)

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🕰️ HISTORY 🕰️

This manual page is inspired from the style(9) manual page and first appeared in FreeBSD 5.1. A little icon behavior, honestly. 👑

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💖 AUTHORS 💖

David O'Brien <deo@NUXI.org>

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💀 BUGS 💀

There are few hard and fast style rules here. The style of many things is too dependent on the context of the whole makefile, or the lines surrounding it. So yeah — the vibe check is contextual, bestie. 😭

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okay that's the whole glow-up 💖 this lil' page is signed off by Debian, dated July 17, 2023, and it's all for STYLE.MAKEFILE(5). now go make those makefiles iconic ✨