Why is my makefile not making one of the targets?-CodePudding

I'm required to submit my program along with a makefile for an assignment but for some reason it is not making the target helper.o even though the command for that step (gcc -Wall -std=c99 -c helper.c) works when I type it into the command line manually. When I type the make command I get this error:

gcc -Wall -std=c99 -c createTweet.c
gcc -Wall -std=c99 -c displayTweets.c
gcc -Wall -std=c99 -c searchTweetsByKeyword.c
gcc -Wall -std=c99 -c countStopWords.c
gcc -Wall -std=c99 -c deleteTweet.c
gcc -Wall -std=c99 -c saveTweetsToFile.c
gcc -Wall -std=c99 -c loadTweetsFromFile.c
gcc -Wall -std=c99 -c sortID.c
gcc -Wall -std=c99 -c addNodeToList.c
cc    -c -o mainA3.o mainA3.c
gcc -Wall -std=c99 createTweet.o displayTweets.o searchTweetsByKeyword.o countStopWords.o deleteTweet.o saveTweetsToFile.o loadTweetsFromFile.o sortID.o addNodeToList.o helper.o mainA3.o -o matiwosEyoelA3
gcc: error: helper.o: No such file or directory
make: *** [makefile:2: outputA3] Error 1 '''

Here: is my makefile:

outputA3: createTweet.o displayTweets.o searchTweetsByKeyword.o countStopWords.o deleteTweet.o saveTweetsToFile.o loadTweetsFromFile.o sortID.o addNodeToList.o mainA3.o
    gcc -Wall -std=c99 createTweet.o displayTweets.o searchTweetsByKeyword.o countStopWords.o deleteTweet.o saveTweetsToFile.o loadTweetsFromFile.o sortID.o addNodeToList.o helper.o mainA3.o -o outputA3
helper.o: helper.h headerA3.h helper.c
    gcc -Wall -std=c99 -c helper.c
createTweet.o: createTweet.c helper.h headerA3.h
    gcc -Wall -std=c99 -c createTweet.c
displayTweets.o: displayTweets.c helper.h headerA3.h
    gcc -Wall -std=c99 -c displayTweets.c
searchTweetsByKeyword.o: searchTweetsByKeyword.c helper.h headerA3.h
    gcc -Wall -std=c99 -c searchTweetsByKeyword.c
countStopWords.o: countStopWords.c helper.h headerA3.h
    gcc -Wall -std=c99 -c countStopWords.c
deleteTweet.o: deleteTweet.c helper.h headerA3.h
    gcc -Wall -std=c99 -c deleteTweet.c
saveTweetsToFile.o: saveTweetsToFile.c helper.h headerA3.h
    gcc -Wall -std=c99 -c saveTweetsToFile.c
loadTweetsFromFile.o: loadTweetsFromFile.c helper.h headerA3.h
    gcc -Wall -std=c99 -c loadTweetsFromFile.c
sortID.o: sortID.c helper.h headerA3.h
    gcc -Wall -std=c99 -c sortID.c
addNodeToList.o: addNodeToList.c helper.h headerA3.h
    gcc -Wall -std=c99 -c addNodeToList.c
clean: 
    rm *.o outputA3

Why might this be happening?

CodePudding user response：

Your matiwosEyoelA3: ... does not list helper.o as a dependency.

That's a problem because you repeat so many file names and violate the "don't write it twice" rule. Use variables and make's builtin variables like $^.

e.g.

OBJECTS = createTweet.o displayTweets.o searchTweetsByKeyword.o \
          countStopWords.o deleteTweet.o saveTweetsToFile.o \
          loadTweetsFromFile.o sortID.o addNodeToList.o \
          mainA3.o helper.o
outputA3: $(OBJECTS)
      gcc -Wall -std=c99 -o $@ $^

CodePudding user response：

Your target outputA3: does not depend on helper.o.

Change the first line to -

outputA3: createTweet.o displayTweets.o searchTweetsByKeyword.o countStopWords.o deleteTweet.o saveTweetsToFile.o loadTweetsFromFile.o sortID.o addNodeToList.o mainA3.o helper.o
    gcc -Wall -std=c99 createTweet.o displayTweets.o searchTweetsByKeyword.o countStopWords.o deleteTweet.o saveTweetsToFile.o loadTweetsFromFile.o sortID.o addNodeToList.o helper.o mainA3.o -o outputA3

(notice the extra helper.o at the end)

One way to avoid such issues in the future is to use $^ to refer to all the dependencies instead of listing them.

So you can change the target to -

outputA3: createTweet.o displayTweets.o searchTweetsByKeyword.o countStopWords.o deleteTweet.o saveTweetsToFile.o loadTweetsFromFile.o sortID.o addNodeToList.o mainA3.o helper.o
    gcc -Wall -std=c99 $^ -o $@

This way you don't have to write the dependencies again and if you miss something you get a linker error telling you which file is missing.