Date: 2018-05-27
Last Updated: 2018-05-27
A compile script is a shell script to compile programs which consist of multiple files, and potentially libraries too. In my opinion at least a compile script is a step below a Makefile. I had honestly not heard of such a thing until I was helping a lecturer to test that his old FORTRAN simulation would compile and run on a modern UNIX machine. The purpose of the script was to simply compile all the source files and then link the object files to the executable[^1].
[^1]: Strangely when I received the compile script it had been written in such a way that the user would compile the source files first, then modify the script to link those object files and finally run the script a second time! Honestly I saw no benefit to this so I ... fixed it.
I found useful resource by Norman Ramsey, which gives an example compile script too.