Windows makefile: generate debug information - c

Question

I have to automate couple of simple builds on windows.
I am able to generate debug information if I use specific target.
My Makefile
.c.obj:
#echo executing compile rule
$(cc) $(cdebug) $(cflags) $(cvars) $*.c
.obj.exe:
#echo executing linker rule
$(link) $(ldebug) $(conflags) -out:$# $** $(conlibs)
foo.exe: foo.obj
#echo executing target rule
$(link) $(ldebug) $(conflags) -out:$# $** $(conlibs)
nmake /f Makefile.win foo.exe : make Output:
Microsoft (R) Program Maintenance Utility Version 10.00.30319.01
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
executing compile rule
cl -Zi -Od -DDEBUG -c -DCRTAPI1=_cdecl -DCRTAPI2=_cdecl -nologo -GS -D_X
86_=1 -DWIN32 -D_WIN32 -W3 -D_WINNT -D_WIN32_WINNT=0x0500 -DNTDDI_VERSION=0x050
00000 -D_WIN32_IE=0x0500 -DWINVER=0x0500 -D_MT -MTd foo.c
foo.c
executing target rule
link /DEBUG /DEBUGTYPE:cv /INCREMENTAL:NO /NOLOGO -subsystem:console,5.
0 -out:foo.exe foo.obj kernel32.lib ws2_32.lib mswsock.lib advapi32.lib
nmake /f Makefile.win bar.exe : make Output:
Microsoft (R) Program Maintenance Utility Version 10.00.30319.01
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
cl bar.c
Microsoft (R) 32-bit C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 16.00.30319.01 for 80x86
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
bar.c
Microsoft (R) Incremental Linker Version 10.00.30319.01
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
/out:bar.exe
bar.obj
Notice that none of the suffix rules were executed second time. What am I doing wrong?
I have added .SUFFIXES: .exe .obj at the top.

Answer 1

First be sure both .obj and .exe are in the suffixes list, or those suffix rules won't take effect:
.SUFFIXES: .obj .exe
Second, using $** is very odd. Why are you adding foo* to your link line? I would think you'd want something like $^ instead.
Other than that all I can suggest is you examine the actual linker lines that are printed by make in both situations and figure out what the difference is between them. You don't show that here.

Answer 2

GNU make takes the approach of modeling the entire dependency tree at once, and tracing the modified files all the way through to the output. This is great if make is the only build tool you use. This doesn't work well if you have very large projects, so you need to make them in a specific order. This doesn't work well if 'make' doesn't support some tools of your build process, so you would need to run make multiple times anyway.
nmake.exe takes the approach of doing the simplest possible thing: Only doing one pass at a time. It assumes it will be part of a larger tool chain. So if you have multi-pass dependencies, you will need multiple passes of nmake. If your build process requires more than 3 passes, you are probably doing A Bad Thing and you should fix your process. And for crying out loud, if you need multiple passes, just write a script to do it.
from here:
nmake inference rules limited to depth of 1