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g++

How can you compile all cpp files in a directory?

I have a number of source files in a number of folders.. Is there a way to just compile all of them in one go without having to name them?

I know that I can say 

g++ -o out *.cpp

But when I try

g++ -o out *.cpp folder/*.cpp

I get an error.

What's the correct way to do this? I know it's possible with makefiles, but can it be done with just straight g++?

Solution

  • Figured it out! :) I hate the idea of having to use make or a build system just to compile my code, but I wanted to split up my code into subfolders to keep it clean and organized.

    Run this (replace RootFolderName (e.g. with .) and OutputName):

    g++ -g $(find RootFolderName -type f -iregex ".*\.cpp") -o OutputName

    The find command will do a recursive case-insensitive regex search (-iregex) for files (-type f). Placing this within $() will then inject the results into your g++ call. Beautiful! :)

    Of course, make sure you're using the command right; you can always do a test run.

    For those using Visual Studio Code to compile, I had to do this in the tasks.json args: [] of a task with "command": "g++":

    "-g",
"$(find",
"code",
"-type",
"f",
"-iregex",
"'.*\\.cpp')",
"-o",
"program"

    (Otherwise it would wrap the $() all in single quotes.)

    (Thanks to: user405725 @ https://stackoverflow.com/a/9764119/1599699 comments)