Reference guide21Build Orchestration and Makefiles

Builds the default or named makefile targets for the current project. This is the normal top-level build command in the environment.

It reads the component Makefile,fe1, honours macro assignments such as BUILD32=1, BUILD26=1, or BUILD64=1, and drives the shared makefile system via the makefile include selected by the project.

Arguments of the form name=value are treated as macro definitions rather than targets. In this environment that is the normal way to select architecture or makefile behaviour at invocation time.

riscos-makegen scans a source tree whose immediate child directories represent build units and writes either a fully expanded AMU makefile or a shared-format makefile for the RISC OS Makefile System.

It is intended for older Toolbox-style source layouts and generated interface trees. A top-level c or s directory is treated specially and builds directly into the top-level object directories, while other multi-character directories are expected to contain one nested c/ or s/ directory.

If neither -26bit nor -32bit is supplied, the tool defaults to 26-bit output only. The live parser accepts only lib and link for -l, even though older diagnostics still mention libfile.

In standard mode, the tool writes explicit object rules and creates object directories as a side effect. In shared mode, it mainly emits the variables and targets expected by the shared makefile includes, and does not accept -f.

The tool's built-in usage path is reached by running it with no arguments or with -h; the GNU long-option spelling --help is not supported by the live command.

riscos-ifthere is a small build-script helper that checks whether a named file exists, then runs one of two command lines according to the result.

The keywords Then and Else are matched case-insensitively. All remaining arguments after Then are joined with spaces to form the true command, and any remaining arguments after Else are joined in the same way for the false command.

The characters ;, <, >, $, ", ', and \ are escaped before the selected command is passed to the host command interpreter, so literal values such as $PATH are preserved.

If no Else clause is supplied and the file is absent, no real command is run and the result is success. If the filename contains a wildcard character, the tool reports an error and runs neither branch.

This output is from a plain command skeleton, which has c.main but no c.module; the Else branch runs.

make is a convenience wrapper for mixed projects and routine shell use. It tries to detect whether the current directory is really a RISC OS AMU project and, if so, runs riscos-amu; otherwise it falls back to the host's normal GNU make.

This means the same short command usually does the sensible thing in both kinds of source tree. In a normal POSIX project it behaves like ordinary make. In a project built around Makefile,fe1 or the shared RISC OS Makefile System, it switches over to riscos-amu automatically and forwards the original arguments there.

When deciding which directory and makefile to inspect, the wrapper honours -C and --directory, and it honours -f or compact -fname forms when an explicit makefile is supplied. Without an explicit makefile, it looks for Makefile, makefile, Makefile,fe1, and makefile,fe1. If the named file does not exist but the same name with a ,fe1 suffix does exist, the wrapper automatically uses that typed form instead.

A project is treated as an AMU build when the selected makefile name ends in ,fe1, when its first line mentions env riscos-amu, or when it includes one of the common shared makefile families AsmModule, CModule, LibraryCommand, or LibExport. When that detection succeeds and riscos-amu is available, the wrapper executes it directly. If the project looks like a RISC OS build but riscos-amu is unavailable, the wrapper warns and then falls back to standard GNU make.

The wrapper is intended to be reliable for normal day-to-day use, but it is still only a selector layer. Detection is based on the makefile path and contents described above, and backend-specific options are not reinterpreted beyond what is needed to decide which backend should receive them.

With no INSTDIR set, the default null:$ discards the copy harmlessly, which is why this is a safe example to try as written. riscos-copy also prints warnings about the f and r flags it does not support; these are expected and do not indicate a failed install.

riscos64-amu is only a convenience wrapper. It invokes riscos-amu with BUILD64=1 inserted before your other arguments, so shared makefiles select the 64-bit object, library, and output paths.

All real parsing, target selection, and makefile handling still come from riscos-amu. Use this wrapper when a project already understands the standard makefile-system architecture variables and you simply want the 64-bit selection without spelling the macro yourself.

riscos64-make runs ordinary GNU make but predefines the usual build-tool variables so that a Unix-style makefile can target the RISC OS 64-bit wrapper family without being edited.

The wrapper currently injects AR=aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu-ar, AS=riscos64-as, LD=riscos64-link, CC=riscos64-cc, and CXX=riscos64-c++. It preserves normal make option handling, including explicit makefile selection with -f, --file, or --makefile.

Your own command-line variable assignments still win if you need to override one of those defaults. This tool is therefore most useful for simple or imported GNU-make projects; projects already using the RISC OS Makefile System normally stay with riscos-amu or riscos64-amu instead.

The wrapper calls the plain make command internally, and that name resolves to the make selector wrapper described above, not directly to GNU make. If the current directory also contains an AMU project (for example a stray Makefile,fe1 left over from another build), that selector detects it and silently redirects the whole invocation to riscos-amu instead, ignoring the GNU makefile and target you asked for. Run riscos64-make from a directory that contains only the intended GNU makefile to avoid this.