Makefile to Compile OpenCV Code in C++ on Ubuntu/Linux

Question

I am learning OpenCV using Learning OpenCV book.

One problem I am facing while compiling the code is that I have to write a long command to compile and get the executabl

Answer 1

You can create a file called Makefile in you working directory like this:

CFLAGS = `pkg-config --cflags opencv`
LIBS = `pkg-config --libs opencv`

% : %.cpp
        g++ $(CFLAGS) $(LIBS) -o $@ $<

then you can use this file for all your single-file programms. Just call make with the basename of the file you want to compile. For facedetect.cpp that would be

make facedetect

Here some more details:

The general format of a makefile is like this:

target : dependecy1 dependenc2 ...
    command that generates the target

So for your example you could write:

facedetect : facedetect.cpp
    g++  $(CFLAGS) $(LIBS) -o facedetect facedetect.cpp

For each new example you can now create a new target. But you can also make it more general:

% : %.cpp
    g++  $(CFLAGS) $(LIBS) -o $@ $<

Here % matches any nonempty substring. The automatic variables $@ and $< substitute the names of the target file and the source file. For more information you can consult the make documentation.