Makefile for Unit Tests in C++

Question

I'm struggling to write Makefiles that properly build my unit tests. As an example, suppose the file structure looks like this

src/foo.cpp
src/foo.hpp
src/main.cpp
tests/test_foo.cpp
tests/test_all.cpp

So, to build the executable test_all, I'd need to build test_foo.o which in turn depends on test_foo.cpp but also on src/foo.o.

What is the best practice in this case? One Makefile in the parent folder? One Makefile per folder? If so, how do I manage the dependencies across folders?

Answer 1

Common practice is a Makefile per directory. That's what I would have suggested before I read "Recursive Make Considered Harmfull" (http://miller.emu.id.au/pmiller/books/rmch/). Now I'd recommend one Makefile. Also check out the automatic dependency generation - now you don't even need to work out what your tests depends on. All you need is some targets.