Makefile For Vb Classic Build

Use GNU make to automate VbClassic builds.

For each project, create a makefile (see example below).
The primary target for the makefile is the DLL or EXE you're building.
Each module, class, form, etc. is a dependency for the target component.
Add component dependencies (from the References or Components dialog) by relative path references.
Write a master makefile one directory higher that calls each of the component makefiles in turn (use $(MAKE) -C <subdir>).

Mmmm... that is a recursive Makefile, and some would argue that RecursiveMakeConsideredHarmful. The alternative is to include every component Makefile into the master Makefile (make sure you get the directories right, though).

A sample makefile for VisualBasic:

 LOGFILE=vbcompile.log
 BC=vb6 /out $(LOGFILE)
 DLLFLAG=/makedll
 DLLUN=regsvr32 /s /u /c

 %.dll : %.vbp;
 @echo Compiling $@ ...
 @if exist $@ $(DLLUN) $@
 @$(BC) $(DLLFLAG) $<

 fwSessionManager.dll: fwSessionManager.res modError.bas modFrameworkTypes.bas modGuid.bas modRegistry.bas modResource.bas modResSessionManager.bas modSqlFunc.bas SessionManager.cls ../IAuthUser/fwIAuthUser.tlb ../Datasource/fwDatasource.dll

 ../IAuthUser/fwIAuthUser.tlb:
 $(MAKE) -C ../IAuthUser

 ../Datasource/fwDatasource.dll:
 $(MAKE) -C ../Datasource

 clean:
 @if exist fwSessionManager.dll $(DLLUN) fwSessionManager.dll
 -@del *.dll
 -@del *.exp
 -@del *.lib
 -@del $(LOGFILE)

I especially invite comments/advice from non-VBers on this topic. I found this way to simplify our VisualBasic builds with makefiles, but if I'm not applying the tool correctly, tell me. -- MattGarland

Would you want to unregister the DLLs before deleting them?

Something like...

foreach %%f in (*.DLL) do regsvr32 /u %f

(Not that I really remember how to do that in MS-DUNCE anymore. ;-)

Make? Yuch!!! Use Ant!

http://jakarta.apache.org/ant/index.html

Why not write a little program or script to obtain the dependencies for a given target from the project file?

CategoryVbClassic