How to use external makefile in Eclipse

Question

I have a source code of an OpenSource project which I get from SVN. I was able to run autogen --> configure --> and make successfully (through the terminal). But I want to build the same project with Eclipse, and I can't port manually those source files to eclipse though. So, How can I set Eclipse to use external make files ? can anyone please help me ? Thanks.

Answer 1

Ok, I got it, It was straightforward. Just go to project properties --> C/C++ Build --> Make file generation --> and untick "Generate Make files automatically". In additionally you may have to set the Build location also.

Answer 2

This might vary with different versions. The one I use is Eclipse 3.5 with CDT 6, and it is quite straightforward:

New Project -> C++ Project -> Makefile Project -> Empty project

Untick the 'Use default location' and provide the location where the root of your project and Makefile reside.

I found it misleading at first, and had a couple of dry runs in copied directories to make sure that the 'Empty project' would not clear the Makefile, but the fact is that the option name is probably misleading as 'Empty' stands for CDT will not create a Makefile for you (but won't delete an existing version either)

Answer 3

You may be able to avoid creating a custom makefile. The standard Eclipse autogenerated makefile has a couple of hooks:

.
.
-include ../makefile.init
.
.
.
-include ../makefile.init
.
.

That allow you to add your own tweaks to the build process whilst retaining Eclipse’s build automation.

As an example, I have need to include a binary image in my executable so I have a makefile.defs with:

binaryblob.o:
    ld -r -b binary -o binaryblob.o ../binaryblob.mid