My Go-to makefile

#Compiler to use
CC      =g++

#For packaging
#cjvf = .tar.bz2
#czvf = .tar.gz
#cxvf = .tar.xz
#TODO: add auto debian & APK packaging
# I shall add Android as a build target in the future.
TAROPTS     =cjvf
TAR     =tar
DISTEXT     =.bz2

#C++ standard: use C++11 by default for extra
# goodies like nullptr, auto & for(<T> x:y)
CSTD        =gnu++0x

#different CFLAGS for different targets
CFLAGS_DEBUG    =-DDEBUG -g -Wall -O0 -std=$(CSTD)
CFLAGS_RELEASE  =-DDEBUG -O3 -mmmx -msse -std=$(CSTD)

#select your target here
CFLAGS      =$(CFLAGS_DEBUG)
#CFLAGS     =$(CFLAGS_RELEASE)

#linker flags; standard stuff
#IMPORTANT: -lm should ALWAYS come first
LDFLAGS     =-lm -lSDL2 -lSDL2_image -lSDL2_ttf

#don't touch these lines; they automatically
# glob all C++ files so no editing is needed. At all.
SOURCES     :=$(shell ls *.cpp)
BLOBS       =$(SOURCES:.cpp=.o)

#comment out the REDIRECT line to enable gcc output
#you will need to remove @ at start of lines, too
REDIRECT_CMD    =1>/dev/null
REDIRECT    =$(REDIRECT_CMD)

#output file name (the final executable)
OUTPUT      =a.out

#version
VERSION     =0.0.1

#auto detect OS
#will be one of LINUX DARWIN CYGWIN_NT UWIN FREEBSD etc.
OPSYS       :=$(shell uname | tr '[:lower:]' '[:upper:]' | cut -f1 -d "-")

#get PWD
WD      :=$(shell pwd)

#defines
#eg. you can use { "Starting on "<< OS << endl } or
#
#   #ifdef LINUX
#       //do linux stuff
#   #elsifdef CYGWIN_NT
#       //do windows stuff
#   #elsedef
#       //do generic fallback stuff
#
# -D$(OPSYS) is provided mainly for ease of porting to a different platform.
DEFINES_ALL =-DOS=$(OPSYS) -D$(OPSYS)
DEFINES_DEBUG   =$(DEFINES_ALL) -DDEBUG
DEFINES_RELEASE =$(DEFINES_ALL) -DRELEASE
DEFINES     =$(DEFINES_DEBUG)

all: init $(SOURCES) $(OUTPUT) final

devel: clean all

init:
    @echo "Building $(OUTPUT) for $(OPSYS)..."

$(OUTPUT): $(BLOBS)
    @echo "[Link] $< -> $@"
    @$(CC) $(LDFLAGS) $(BLOBS) -o $@ $(REDIRECT)

.cpp.o:
    @echo "[Comp] $< -> $@"
    @$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c $< $(REDIRECT)

clean:
    @echo "Cleaning up..."
    @rm -rf $(BLOBS) $(OUTPUT) dist/*

dist: clean
    @echo "Creating distribution package..."
    @cd dist
    @$(TAR) --exclude dist -$(TAROPTS) \
        dist/$(OUTPUT)-$(VERSION).tar$(DISTEXT) \
        ./*
    @echo "Look in dist/ for your package."
final:
    @echo "Built $(OUTPUT), $(shell wc -c a.out | cut -f1 -d ' ') bytes."