[fpc-pascal] The secrets of FPMake

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Mon, 3 Dec 2012, luciano de souza wrote:

> Hello all,
> Browsing in FPC directories, I found several occurances of FPMake.pp.
> It's a makefile for Freepascal programs.
> In the /bin directory, I found "pas2fm" that reads a unit and creates
> a fpmake prototype program.
> As an example, I compile fpmake found in CHM directory. A fpmake.exe
> was generated. When I executed it it complains about a RTL
> dependences.
> Actually, my question is: how to take advantage of fpmake features?
> What does FPMake really mean?
> I suppose a makefile is a batch to pass some commands to the compiler.
> The "-Fu" commands, for example, could be there. But, the FPC
> commandline is very rich. If I can create a batch to automatize some
> borring compilations, why would I use FPMake?

fpmake is an attempt to get rid of the Makefiles.

The basic philosophy is that since all FPC users know Pascal, 
making a build system in pascal makes more sense than requiring 
people to know Makefiles.

The idea is that fpmake and it's sister tool fppkg are the corner 
stones of a repository system such as CPAN, CTAN etc.

I have not yet had time to document fpMake properly. You can find more info at:
http://wiki.freepascal.org/FPMake

Michael.