Getting File Basebase without Extension in GNU Makefile

Sometimes we would like to write a generic rule in GNU makefiles.

For instance, we would like to write a rule to process a LaTex file and then process BibTex entries for any LaTeX files. We can write the rule as follows,

%.dvi: %.tex
    latex $<
    bibtex $(basename $<)
    latex $<
    latex $<

In the example, if we issue a command make example.tex, the value of $< is example.tex while $(basename $<) yields the basename without the extension. The basename without the extension is required for bibtex to work in this example.

This solution is provided by the discussion here.

Wildcard Targets in a Makefile (Pattern Rules)

You may use "Wildcard" targets in GNU makefile. In GNU make, this is called Pattern Rules. I find this post is very helpful.  For those who do not  have the patience to read the documentation of GNU Make or to jump to the post, here is a few examples that serves as a summary.

To apply a rule to compile any C++ files, we can write a rule as follows,

CPP=g++
CLFAGS=-Wall

%.o:%.cpp
       $(CPP) $(CFLAGS) $< -o $@

To apply to rule to convert any LaTeX files to dvi files, any dvi files to PostScript files, and then any PostScript files to PDF files, we may write a set of rules as follows,

%.pdf: %.ps
 ps2pdf \
              -dPDFSETTINGS=/prepress \
              -dSubsetFonts=true \
              -dEmbedAllFonts=true \
              -dMaxSubsetPct=100 \
              -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 $<

%.ps: %.dvi
       dvips -t letter $<

 
%.dvi: %.tex
       latex $<