=head1 NAME

makepp_functions -- Functions in makepp

=head1 DESCRIPTION

Any expression of the format S<C<$(name arg1 arg2 arg3)>> or C<$(name)> where
C<name> is not the name of a variable, is interpreted as a function call.  The
name may contain letters, underscores, or hyphens; to avoid confusion, you may
use hyphens or underscores interchangeably, since internally hyphens are
converted to underscores.  Evaluating such an expression simply invokes a perl
subroutine.  You can define perl subroutines to do whatever you like.  See the
C<sub> statement and the section on L<extending makepp|makepp_extending> for
more details.

makepp has a number of builtin functions which may be useful.  It supports
almost all of GNU make's textual functions (see GNU make's documentation for
details), and some of its own.  The most useful functions are:

=over 4

=item absolute_filename files X<absolute_filename>

Converts relative filenames into absolutes.  For example,
S<C<$(absolute_filename xyz.c)>> might return
C</usr/src/our_project/subdir/xyz.c>.

=item addprefix prefix, words X<addprefix>

Prepends the prefix string to each of the words.  This is mostly for GNU make
compatibility; using rc-style expansion, this can be done in a more readable
fashion like this:

    MODULES := a b c d
    X_OLD_STYLE := $(addsuffix $(OBJDIR)/, $(addsuffix .o, $(MODULES)))
    X_NEW_STYLE := $(OBJDIR)/$(MODULES).o   # Isn't that easier to read?

=item addsuffix suffix, words X<addsuffix>

Appends the suffix string to each of the words.  This is mostly for GNU make
compatibility; using rc-style expansion, this can be done in a more readable
fashion like this:

    X_OLD_STYLE := $(addsuffix .o, $(MODULES))
    X_NEW_STYLE := $(MODULES).o

=item basename filenames X<basename>

The basename is the entire file name (with the directory), minus the text
after the last period.  E.g., S<C<$(basename myfile/version-1.0-module.c)>> is
C<myfile/version-1.0-module>

=item dir filenames X<dir>

Extracts the directory part of each file in the filename list, including the
trailing slash.  Returns C<./> if there is no directory in the filename.

=item filter patterns, words X<filter>

Returns all words in the list that match the patterns.  Patterns may simply be
other words, or filename wildcards (i.e., C<*>, C<?>, and C<[a-z]> are
recognized), or they may have a C<%> character, which means to match any
string at that point (same as C<*>).

=item filter_out patterns, words X<filter_out>

Returns all words in the list that do not match the patterns.  Patterns may
simply be other words, or filename wildcards (i.e., C<*>, C<?>, and C<[a-z]>
are recognized), or they may have a C<%> character, which means to match any
string at that point (same as C<*>).

For example:

    libproduction.a: $(filter_out test_*, $(wildcard *.o))

will put all F<.o> files which exist or can be built, except those beginning
with F<test_>, into F<libproduction.a>.

=item find_upwards filename X<find_upwards>

Searches for a file of the given name in the directory ., .., ../..,
../../.., etc., until the file is found or the root directory is reached
or the directory is located on a different file system.  (This last
requirement is to prevent problems with automounters or hung network
filesystems.)

For example, if you have a project with many levels of subdirectories, you
could include this common fragment in all of the makefiles (e.g., by using the
C<include> statement):

   TOP_LEVEL_INCLUDE_DIR := $(find_upwards includes)
                                # Searches for a directory that contains the
                                # includes subdirectory.

   %.o : %.c
        $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -I$(TOP_LEVEL_INCLUDE_DIR) -c $(input) -o $(output)

(Note that the C<include> statement automatically searches upwards for files,
so there is no need to do something like this:

    include $(find_upwards top_level_rules.mk)

Instead, you can just do

    include top_level_rules.mk

and it will work just as well.)

=item if string, result-if-string-not-blank, result-if-string-blank X<if>

An alternative to the C<ifeq>, etc., statements.  If the string is not blank
(i.e., the condition is true), the second argument (the "then" clause) is
returned (after variable expansion); if the string is blank, the third
argument (the "else" clause) is returned.

For example,

    CFLAGS := $(if $(filter gcc egcc, $(CC)), -g -Wall, -g)

defines CFLAGS to be C<-g -Wall> if the variable CC is either C<gcc> or
C<egcc>, and C<-g> otherwise.  (This is what the default build rules do.)

=item infer_objects

    $(infer_objects object1.o object2.o, *.o)

If you use standard conventions regarding header file names, makepp is capable
of guessing which C<.o> or C<.lo> files need to be linked with your program.
I use this to pick out files from a library directory which contains modules
used in many different programs.  Instead of making a library C<.a> file and
having the linker pick out the relevant modules, makepp can pick out the
relevant modules for you.  This way, only the relevant modules get compiled.

Makepp's algorithm for inferring object dependencies depends on the convention
that the implementation of all classes or functions defined in a header file
C<xyz.h> are compiled into an object file called C<xyz.o> (or C<xyz.lo>).  So
makepp's algorithm for inferring object dependencies starts with one or a few
objects that we know have to be linked into the program.  It looks at which
files were included with C<#include> in those sources, and tries to find
corresponding object files for each of the include files.

S<C<$(infer_objects )>> needs to be mentioned in the dependency list of a
program, like this:

    myprog: $(infer_objects main.o another_object.o, \
    		**/*.o /other/library/dirs/**/*.o)
    	$(CXX) $(inputs) -o $(output) $(LIBS)

The C<infer_objects> function takes two arguments (separated by a comma, as
shown).  The first is one or a few object files that are known to be required
(wildcards are permissible here).  The second is a list of possible objects
(normally you would use a wildcard here) that could be linked in if necessary.
The return value from this function is a list that contains first all of the
objects in the first argument, and then after those, all additional objects
that were contained in the second argument that are required by the objects in
the first argument.

For example, suppose C<main.o> comes from C<main.cpp>, which includes
C<my_class.h>.  C<infer_objects> looks for files with the name C<my_class.o>.
If exactly one such file is found, it is added to the list.  (If two object
files C<my_class.o> are found in different directories, a warning message is
printed.)  C<infer_objects> also examines C<my_class.cpp> to see what it
includes, and what additional object files are implied.

=item notdir filenames X<notdir>

Returns the non-directory portion of the filename(s), i.e., everything after
the last slash if there is one, or the whole filename otherwise.

=item only_targets filenames X<only_targets>

Returns only those filenames in the list that are actually targets of
some rule (either explicit or pattern rules).  You may specify wildcards
(including makepp's special wildcard, C<**>) in the filenames.  (See the
S<C<$(wildcard )>> function for more details.  This can be used for a
clean target, for example:

    .PHONY: clean
    
    clean:
    	rm -f $(only_targets *)


Now if you type S<C<makepp clean>>, it will delete everything it knows how to
build.

Another place where it may be useful is to avoid including stale F<.o> files
in your build.  For example, if you build a library like this:

    mylib.a: *.o
        $(RM) -f $(output)
        $(AR) cr $(output) $(inputs)

and then you delete some source files but forget to delete the corresponding
F<.o> files, the F<.o> files will still be around.  This means they will still
be incorporated into the library despite the fact that they are not useful any
more.  If you modify your rule like this:

    mylib.a: $(only_targets *.o)
        $(RM) -f $(output)
        $(AR) cr $(output) $(inputs)

then this problem won't occur.

Note that this refers only to files that are known to be targets I<at
the time you invoke> C<only-targets>.  If C<only_targets> appears in the
dependencies or actions of a rule, then all possible targets will be
known because dependencies and actions are not evaluated until the rule
is executed.  However, if you evaluate try to evaluate it earlier in the
makefile with a C<:=> variable like this:

    ALL_TARGETS := $(only_targets *)
    
    target1: dependency1
    	actions
    
    target2: dependency2
    	actions

then C<only_targets> will not know about the subsequent rules.

Similarly, C<only_targets> doesn't know about targets produced in
makefiles that are loaded with recursive make.  (But you shouldn't be
using recursive make anyway; use use the C<load_makefile> statement, or
L<implicit makefile loading|makepp_build_algorithm/Implicit loading>
instead.)

=item only_nontargets filenames X<only_nontargets>

Returns only those filenames in the list that are not targets of any
rule (either explicit or pattern rules).  You may specify a wildcard
(see the S<C<$(wildcard )>> function for more details on makepp's
wildcards).  This can be used for generating a distribution target, for
example:

    .PHONY: distribution
    
    distribution:
    	mkdir our_product-$(VERSION)
    	cp $(filter-out %~, $(only_nontargets *)) our_product-$(VERSION)
    	tar cf - our_product-$(VERSION) | gzip -9c > our_product-$(VERSION).tar.gz


In this case, the C<$(only_nontargets *)> returns every file in the current
directory that is not a target of some rule.  The C<$(filter_out %~, ...)>
removes editor backups.

Similar to C<only_targets> (see above), C<only_nontargets> only knows about
targets that have been defined already.  This is only a problem if you use it
to define variables with the C<:=> assignment; if you use it in the
dependency list or in the body of a rule, all other rules will already
have been seen.

=item relative_filename file1 file2 file3 X<relative_filename>

Returns the name of those files relative to the current directory (the one the
makefile is in).  This can also be used to clean unnecessary C<./> and other
junk from the path:

     DIR := .
     SUBDIR := ..
     FNAME := $(DIR)/../otherdir/$(SUBDIR)/files
     X := $(relative_filename $(FNAME))

=item relative_to file1 file2 file3, directory X<relative_to>

Returns the name of those files relative to the specified directory.  This is
typically useful when for whatever reason you have to execute a command from a
different directory:

    source_backup.tar:
        cd .. && tar cf $(relative_to $(output), ..) $(relative_to ., ..)

=item patsubst pattern, substitute, words X<patsubst>

Performs a substitution on each word in the word list.  A
C<%> character matches any string.  This is best
illustrated by an example:

    OBJS = $(patsubst %.c, object_dir/%.o, $(C_SOURCES))

takes every file in C_SOURCES and returns the name of an object
file in object_dir.  Sometimes it is more concise to use a
L<substitution reference|makepp_variables/Substitution References>, e.g.,
the above could have been written as

    OBJS = $(C_SOURCES:%.c=object_dir/%.o)


=item phony words X<phony>

Indicates that the list of words are actually phony targets, and
returns the list of targets.  It's intended to be used like
this:
    $(phony all): my_program
    
    $(phony clean):
    	rm -f *.o my_program


You can also declare one or more targets as phony with a line like 
this anywhere in your makefile:

    .PHONY: all clean

=item print text X<print>

Outputs the text and returns it.  This is mostly useful for
debugging, when you don't understand why variable substitution
has the result that it does.  For example,

    XYZ := $(print $(patsubst %.c, %o, $(SOURCE_FILES)))

will print out the result of the C<patsubst> call.

    XYZ := $(patsubst %.c, %o, $(print $(SOURCE_FILES)))

will print out the last argument to the C<patsubst>
call.

=item shell shell-command x<shell>

Returns the output from the given shell command, with newlines
replaced by spaces.

For example:

    ARCH := $(shell uname -m)

=item sort word1 word2 word3 ... X<sort>

Sorts the words in lexical order and removes duplicates.

=item wildcard pattern X<wildcard>

Returns the sorted names of all files matching the given pattern which exist,
or those files which do not yet exist but can be built based on the rules that
makepp knows about at the point when it evaluates the expression.  Ignores
files and directories that are not readable.

Makepp supports all the usual shell wildcards (C<*>, C<?>, and C<[]>).  It
also has a wildcard C<**> which matches any number of intervening directories.
(This idea was stolen from zsh.)  For example, C<**/*.c> matches all the F<.c>
files in the entire source tree.  C<objects/**/*.o> matches all the F<.o>
files contained anywhere in the subdirectory F<objects> or any of its
subdirectories or any of their subdirectories.  The C<**> wildcard will not
follow soft links to directories, nor will it attempt to enter directories
which exist but cannot be read.  Also files which exist but cannot be read
will not be returned by S<C<$(wildcard )>>.

=back

makepp also supports many other, less useful functions that GNU make has.  See
the GNU make documentation for details, because I don't feel like typing it in
now.  (To my knowledge, the only ones it does not support are C<call>,
C<error>, and C<warning>.)  These are intended mainly to support existing
makefiles; it's very easy to L<write your own functions in
perl|makepp_extending>, or to use the C<perl_begin> or C<sub> statements to
manipulate variables directly in perl inside your makefile, so you can do any
kind of manipulation if one of these built-in functions isn't adequate.

=head1 AUTHOR

Gary Holt (holt-makepp@gholt.net)