problems running MAKE utility from DOS command prompt

Question

I have:
fileMainProgram.cpp
fileClassImplementation.cpp
fileClass.h
makefile

in a directory.
Ran cmd and typed

              g++ -make -f makefile

got this message after tinkering with it for a while (change file name/extension, tried without -f, used gcc instead of g++, etc)

---

C:\miscprograms\Dropbox\box\Dropbox\c++\etextbook\e12\progec12\pe1c12romanNumeral>g++ -make -f makefile

c:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.6.2/../../../../mingw32/bin/ld.exe:makefile.tx t: file format not recognized; treating as linker script c:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.6.2/../../../../mingw32/bin/ld.exe:makefile.tx t:1: syntax error collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

---

This is the makefile, (tried to delete the lines inbetween targets and actions, tried using automatic variables, etc,

I tried to compile the program as

                                      g++ -c fileClassImplementation.cpp

                           then

                                      g++ fileClassImplementation.o fileMain.cpp

to get an executable and it works fine.

---

 all: a

 a: romanNumeralMain.o romanNumeralImp.o
 [1 tab]g++ romanNumeralMain.o romanNumeralImp.o -o a

 romanNumeralMain.o: romanNumeralMain.cpp 
        g++ -c romanNumeralMain.cpp

 romanNumeralImp.o: romanNumeralImp.cpp
        g++ -c romanNumeralImp.cpp

 clean:
        rm romanNumeralImp.o romanNumeralMain.o a

---

Ran the whole thing on C4droid for my samsung phone and worked fine as is.
Doesn not work on my Windows7 laptop.

Answer 1

What you appear to have is a GNU Makefile, suitable for running GNU Make. Windows doesn't come with GNU Make, so you'll need to download it yourself.

It appears you've already downloaded MingW, try running the mingw32-make command to execute your makefile.