mkg - Opinionated GNU Make-based Project Generator

mkg generates GNU Make-based projects for either C or C++.

Not Maintained Anymore

Finally, I found a project generator is not a good idea. There is no single project architecture to satisfy all secenerios. Forthermore, programmers can merely create some boilerplate projects instead. I made some as well, such as

• c-boilerplate-application
• c-boilerplate-library
• cpp-boilerplate-application
• cpp-boilerplate-library
• objc-boilerplate-application
• objc-boilerplate-library

You can equally create your own boilerplate projects. It takes much less time than you think.

If you are still interested in creating a project generator, refer to this repo. I hope the code here helps.

System Requirements

To use mkg-generated projects, you need

• A C (or C++) compiler
• GNU Make

To compile mkg from source, you need

• A Go compiler

Install

We provide pre-compiled executables here. Just move pre-compiled mkg executable to any valid system PATH.

Alternatively, compile and install it with a Go compiler:

$ go get github.com/cwchentw/mkg

Synopsis

Run it in batch mode:

$ mkg [option] path/to/project

Rut it interactively with a sensible project structure:

$ mkg

Rut it interactively with more customization:

$ mkg --custom

Usage

mkg generated projects utilizes system default C or C++ compiler, i.e. Visual C++, Clang, GCC. Nevertheless, mkg users may choose their favored compiler by setting environment variables.

Make is a part of POSIX standard and many Unix-like systems adopt GNU Make as their Make implementations. In Windows, you may get a GNU Make port from either GnuWin32 or MSYS2.

By default, mkg will generate a nested C console application project to the target path:

$ mkg myapp

You may adjust mkg with some parameters:

$ mkg -cpp --library --flat mylib

To invoke mkg interactively, run it without any argument:

$ mkg
Program name [myapp]:
Project path [myapp]:
Project author [somebody]: Michael Chen
Project brief description [something]: Yet Another Application
Project language (c/cpp) [c]:

c89
c90
c99
c11
c17
c18
gnu89
gnu90
gnu99
gnu11
gnu17
gnu18

Language standard [c99]:
Project type (console/library) [console]:

None (none)
Apache License 2.0 (apache2)
GNU General Public License v3.0 (gpl3)
MIT License (mit)
---
BSD 2-clause "Simplified" license (bsd2)
BSD 3-clause "New" or "Revised" license (bsd3)
Eclipse Public License 2.0 (epl2)
GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (agpl3)
GNU General Public License v2.0 (gpl2)
GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1 (lgpl2)
GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0 (lgpl3)
Mozilla Public License 2.0 (mpl2)
The Unlicense (unlicense)

Project license [none]:

In this case, mkg will generate a project with a sensible project structure.

Alternatively, run it interactively with more customization:

$ mkg --custom
Program name [myapp]:
Project path [myapp]:

(Same as above...)

Project structure (nested/flat) [nested]:
Project source directory [src]:
Project include directory [include]:
Project test directory [test]:
Project example directory [examples]:
Project config file [Makefile]:

Options

Program metadata

• -v or --version: Show version info and exit the program
• -h or --help: Show help message and exit the program
• --licenses: Show the available open-source licenses and exit the program
• --standards: Show available language standards and exit the program

Project metadata

• -p _prog_ or --program _prog_: Set program name to prog, default to directory name
• -a _author_ or --author _author_: Set project author to author
• -b _brief_ or --brief _brief_: Set a brief description to brief for the project
• -o _makefile_ or --output _makefile_: Set Make configuration file to makefile, default to Makefile
• -l _license_ or --license _license_: Choose a open-source license for the project

Here are the available licenses in our program:

• Recommended
  • Apache License 2.0 (apache2)
  • GNU General Public License v3.0 (gpl3)
  • MIT License (mit)
• Alternative
  • BSD 2-clause "Simplified" license (bsd2)
  • BSD 3-clause "New" or "Revised" license (bsd3)
  • Eclipse Public License 2.0 (epl2)
  • GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (agpl3)
  • GNU General Public License v2.0 (gpl2)
  • GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1 (lgpl2)
  • GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0 (lgpl3)
  • Mozilla Public License 2.0 (mpl2)
  • The Unlicense (unlicense)

Behavior modifiers

• -c or -C: generate a C project (default)
• -cpp or -cxx: generate a C++ project
• -std _std_ or --standard _std_ set the language standard to std
• --console: generate an console application project (default)
• --library: generate a library project
• --nested: generate a nested project (default)
• --flat: generate a flat project
• -f or --force: Remove all existing contents on path (Dangerous!)
• --custom: run it interactively with more customization

Here are the available language standard for C:

• c89 or c90
• c99
• c11 (default)
• c17 or c18
• gnu89 or gnu90
• gnu99
• gnu11
• gnu17 or gnu18

Due to the limitation from Visual C++, this setting won't take effect when using Visual C++.

Here are the available language standard for C++:

• c++98 or c++03
• c++11
• c++14
• c++17 (default)
• gnu++98 or gnu++03
• gnu++11
• gnu++14
• gnu++17

Due to the limitation from Visual C++, mkg will automatically set to the most appropriate language standard for C++ when using Visual C++.

Project structure

These parameters only make effects in nested projects.

• -s _dir_ or --source _dir_: set source directory, default to src
• -i _dir_ or --include _dir_: set include directory, default to include
• -d _dir_ or --dist _dir_: set dist directory, default to dist
• -t _dir_ or --test _dir_: set test programs directory, default to tests
• -e _dir_ or --example _dir_: set example programs directory, default to examples

Philosophy

mkg is a Makefile-based project generator that features

• Green: mkg is a statically-compiled executable without any external runtime environment
• Portable: mkg itself and the generated projects are portable on the big three desktop systems
• Simple: no yet another Makefile-generating language but only the dead-simple Makefile mini-language

Autotools is a well-known Makefile generating tool, but only feasible on Unix-like systems. CMake is famous and cross-platform, but CMake users need a full language to utilize CMake. Bakefile is a less famous CMake alternative, but you still need yet another high-level language to utilize it. There have been some community projects like PyMake or vfnmake, but they rely on some runtime environments and provide no support to Windows-family systems. Therefore, we made our own wheel.

Copyright

Copyright (c) 2018-2020 Michelle Chen.

mkg itself is licensed under MIT. Nevertheless, the project generated by mkg is not restricted by any license, able to use for any purpose, either commercial or non-commercial. We set a license chooser in mkg just for convenience. mkg users may use their own licenses when proper.