HOWTO: Use Relative Paths in 32-bit Visual C++ .MAK Files

• Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Edition, versions 2.0, 2.1, 4.0

SUMMARY

This article explains how to edit the .MAK file produced by the development environment to change the absolute paths of dependents to be relative paths. The Visual C++ interface doesn’t change these paths back to absolute paths and still loads the makefile as an internal makefile.

MORE INFORMATION

The Visual C++ development environment creates a .MAK file when a project is created. The paths to files within the makefile often contain hard-coded paths. Some developers have indicated that they desire the makefile to contain relative paths instead.

Under normal circumstances, you cannot edit a makefile produced by Visual C++ and still load the makefile as an internal makefile, thus allowing you to continue to use the graphical development environment to maintain your project. However, making the paths to dependents in your makefile relative is one exception.

Visual C++ has full support for relative paths, but defaults to using absolute paths for files not in or below the project root. Currently there is no way to override this behavior from the Visual C++ Development Environment. However, once you edit the makefile to change the absolute paths for your existing files to relative paths, Visual C++ maintains the use of relative paths for those changes.

NOTE: If you choose to use Visual C++ to edit the makefile text, be careful when loading it into the editor. The Visual C++ editor often truncates extremely long lines. Other editors remove necessary blanks at the end of the lines. NOTEPAD is a safe editor to use on .MAK files. Also be sure to save the original .MAK file before making your changes, so you have a backup in case you encounter a problem.

Keywords          : NmakeIss VwbIss
Version           : WINNT:2.0,2.1,4.0;
Platform          : NT WINDOWS