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

GNU Make is pretty smart and the Makefile you need for this doesn't need to be as verbose as in the other answers given so far. Here is a simple Makefile which you can use to compile the OpenCV examples:

CPPFLAGS = $(shell pkg-config --cflags opencv)
LDLIBS = $(shell pkg-config --libs opencv)

That's it. The Makefile can be this short thanks to Make's implicit rules.

Then run make as usual:

make facedetect

This assumes there is a facedetect.c or facedetect.cpp in the same directory.

I recommend the following (free!) book if you want to learn Make: http://oreilly.com/catalog/make3/book/index.csp