[erlang-questions] Use of makefiles

[Alexander Lamb]

Hello list,

I am starting a project in Erlang. I read Armstrong's book. He  
indicates he uses makefiles to manage compiling erlang modules.

Now, I am wondering. Is this overkill? Slightly outdated (makefiles  
make me think of those sendmail config files: totally weird and  
impossible to understand)?

What are the various strategies to manage your build / run or build /  
deploy cycles?

Then, what is the strategy used to organize your code?

I thought having a folder for a project, containing the makefile, then  
a subdirectory src and a subdirectory ebin

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get my makefile work with that  
setup. Here is my makefile:

.SUFFIXES: .erl .beam .yrl

.erl.beam:
	erlc -W $<

.yrl.erl:
	erlc -W $<

ERL = erl -boot start_clean

MODS = profiles

all: compile
	${ERL} -s profiles start

compile: ${MODS:%=%.beam}

clean:
	rm -rf *.beam erl_crash.dump

subdirs:
	cd src; make

Now this works, but only with .erl and .beam files in the main  
directory.

Thanks,

--
Alexander Lamb
Founding Associate
RODANOTECH Sàrl

4 ch. de la Tour de Champel
1206 Geneva
Switzerland

Tel:  022 347 77 37
Fax: 022 347 77 38

http://www.rodanotech.ch