Makefile to build shared library - c++

Question

I've been building a C++11 library, and the number of header/source files has grown to the point where compiling programs invoking it, entails passing 20+ .cpp files to g++. I've been reading up on shared libraries and it seems to be the best solution.
However, as headers/source change frequently, I'm hoping to create a makefile that would automatically generate all the .so files from the headers and source.
To better demonstrate what I'm trying to do, I'll take one of my sub-libraries, Chrono and show how I would do this manually.
I first create the object files like so,
$ g++ -std=c++11 -fPIC -g -c -Wall ../src/Chrono/cpp/DateTime.cpp
$ g++ -std=c++11 -fPIC -g -c -Wall ../src/Chrono/cpp/Schedule.cpp
$ g++ -std=c++11 -fPIC -g -c -Wall ../src/Chrono/cpp/Duration.cpp
$ g++ -std=c++11 -fPIC -g -c -Wall ../src/Chrono/cpp/DayCount.cpp
So that I now have DateTime.o, Schedule.o, Duration.o, and DayCount.o in the current directory. I then create the .so file,
$ g++ -shared -Wl,-soname,libChrono.so.1 -o libChrono.so.1.0.1 DateTime.o Schedule.o Duration.o DayCount.o -lc
I then go,
$ rm ./*.o && ldconfig -n ./
So that my working directory now contains, libChrono.so.1.0.1 and the symlink libChrono.so.1.
There are quite a few subdirectories I need to do this for, so you can see that this quickly grows inefficient whenever changes to headers/source are made. I would be grateful if anyone can help me design a makefile that accomplishes all this simply by invoking make.
Thanks!
UPDATE:
Based on goldilock's advice and some digging, I managed to bang together:
CXX=g++
CFLAGS=-std=c++11
TARGET=./lib/libChrono.so.1.0.1
CHRONODIR=./src/Chrono
CHRONOSRC=$(wildcard $(CHRONODIR)/cpp/*.cpp)
CHRONOOBJ=$(join $(addsuffix ../obj/, $(dir $(CHRONOSRC))), $(notdir (CHRONOSRC:.cpp=.o)))
all: $(TARGET)
#true
clean:
#-rm -f $(TARGET) $(CHRONOOBJ)
./lib/libChrono.so.1.0.1: $(CHRONOOBJ)
#echo "======================="
#echo "Creating library file $#"
#echo "======================="
#$(CXX) -shared -Wl,-soname,$(join $(basename $#), .1) -o $# $^ -l
#echo "-- $# file created --"
$(CHRONODIR)/cpp/../obj/%.o : $(CHRONOSRC)
#mkdir -p $(dir $#)
#echo "============="
#echo "Compiling $<"
#$(CXX) $(CFLAGS) -fPIC -g -Wall -c $< -o $#
4 .o files are produced in lib/ but I get multiple definition complaints from ld. Before I was compiling the object files separately, but this unwinds CHRONOOBJ on one line. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Fortunately you included the origin of your problem:
I've been building a C++11 library, and the number of header/source files has grown to the point where compiling programs invoking it, entails passing 20+ .cpp files to g++.
Because this reveals a potential XY problem. The straightforward solution to this is to put object files into an archive (aka. a static library) and use that.
GNU make has an implicit rule for creating C++ .o files. It amounts to this:
%.o: %.cpp
$(CXX) $(CPPFLAGS) $(CXXFLAGS) -c $<
Meaning, if you make DateTime.o in a directory with a makefile that doesn't redefine this, it will make DateTime.o. You may want to add things to $(CXXFLAGS) however, e.g.:
CXXFLAGS += -Wall -Wextra --std=c++11
If you intend to stick with the shared lib route, -fPIC can go there too. That one line could be your entire makefile.
However, you also want to put these together, so you must first declare all the objects and a rule for combining them:
OBJS = DateTime.o Schedule.o Duration.o
libChrono.a: $(OBJS)
ar crvs $# $^
This last line (see man ar) creates the archive (libChrono.a) containing all the objects in $(OBJS). You can then use this with whatever program by placing it in the same directory (or a directory in the library path) and linking -lChrono. Only the necessary parts will be extracted and compiled in. This saves you having to maintain a shared lib in a system directory.
If you still think you need a shared lib, $# and $^ are automatic variables; you can use similar methodology to create a .so, something along the lines of:
SO_FLAGS = -shared
libChrono.so.1.0.1: $(OBJS)
$(CXX) $(SO_FLAGS) -Wl,-soname,libChrono.so.1 -o $# $^ -lc
If that is your first rule, make will take care of everything: building first the objects and then the library. Notice this one has excluded your normal $(CXXFLAGS) to duplicate exactly the compiler line from the question.