C and C++ SoftBench User's Guide

Maximizing Your Results with SoftBench
Understanding Projects
Chapter 126
Project build lets SoftBench manage your build instructions. You can
specify source-to-target dependencies and build order dependencies,
choose convenient system or customized build configurations and
build packages, and automatically generate Makefiles or do without
Makefiles altogether if you prefer.
• SoftBench provides an external build model as an alternative to
project build for people who already have a highly-tuned build
environment. With external build, you edit and maintain the
Makefile or build script. SoftBench provides an "External Build
Command" dialog box for you to initiate your builds.
External build lets you use your own make utilities, such as imake,
make,ornmake files or scripts. External build is the opposite of project
build, where SoftBench handles building without the need for a
Makefile. SoftBench does not read or parse your Makefile. By using
external build you lose some of the conveniences that project build
provides, such as access to the target graph and automatic generation
of a Makefile. You can also add secondary source locations to
SoftBench's search lists through alternate source roots.
The "External Build Command" dialog box can be utilized during
project build to build software which is not in a project, or to execute a
shell command and view the output in the output browser.
Recommendation: Use project build for your projects whenever
possible. You may choose to use external build and maintain the make
process yourself when:
• You have one source that becomes many types of objects.
• Your process cannot use file suffixes to tell what file types are in use.
• Your build process uses the VPATH environment variable for make(1).
• You have a working build process and are perfectly happy with it.