Edit

Share via


NMAKE Reference

The Microsoft Program Maintenance Utility (NMAKE.EXE) is a command-line tool included with Visual Studio. It builds projects based on commands that are contained in a description file, usually called a makefile.

NMAKE must run in a Developer Command Prompt window. A Developer Command Prompt window has the environment variables set for the tools, libraries, and include file paths required to build at the command line. For details on how to open a Developer Command Prompt window, see Use the MSVC toolset from the command line.

What do you want to know more about?

Running NMAKE

Makefile contents and features

Sample Makefile

Description blocks

Commands in a Makefile

Macros and NMAKE

Inference rules

Dot directives

Makefile preprocessing

See also

Use the MSVC toolset from the command line
Additional MSVC Build Tools
Visual Studio Projects - C++
Debugging in Visual Studio
C/C++ Building Reference