Makefile to force compilation of certain files

[Acutetech]

I include __TIME__ and __DATE__ strings in some files (main.c & commands.c) - I want these files to be recompiled everytime even if they

are not changed. I am using teh standard makefile structure. How can I do this?

[Vidar Berg]

Hello,

I'm no makefile expert, but according to the stackoverflow thread linked below it seems like the most common approach is to create a new target named FORCE that is always run and then add this target as a dependency to the object files you want to rebuild every time.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7643838/how-to-force-make-to-always-rebuild-a-file 

You may try to add the lines below to the end of your project Makefile.

$(OUTPUT_DIRECTORY)/${TARGETS}/main.c.o:  FORCE
$(OUTPUT_DIRECTORY)/${TARGETS}/commands.c.o:  FORCE
.PHONY: FORCE
FORCE:

Best regards,

Vidar

[Acutetech]

Hi Vidar - thanks, that works! And ChatGPT helped me modify this as follows:

# Add files here that need to be recompiled every time, e.g. because they contain __TIME__ and __DATE__
FILES_TO_FORCE_REBUILD := main ble_commands

# Force recompilation of any files in the last that contain __TIME__ and __DATE__	
# Generate rules for each file in FILES_TO_FORCE_REBUILD list:
$(foreach file, $(FILES_TO_FORCE_REBUILD), \
	$(eval $(OUTPUT_DIRECTORY)/${TARGETS}/$(file).c.o: FORCE) \
)
.PHONY: FORCE
FORCE: