The TOOLS.INI File

NMAKE32 can use a file named TOOLS.INI for initialization information. NMAKE32 looks for the TOOLS.INI file in the current directory, and then in the directory specified by the INIT environment variable. If NMAKE32 finds a TOOLS.INI file, it looks for the following section name:

[nmake]

Note: This section name is case-insensitive. If a TOOLS.INI file is to be processed, it must contain an "[nmake]" section, even if the section is empty. NMAKE32 will generate a warning if this section name is missing, and will attempt to process the BUILTINS.MAK file.

The only valid information the user can place in this section are macros and inference rules using the same format specified for description files. However, if a description file and TOOLS.INI both contain a definition for the same macro or inference rule with the same extensions, the definition in the description file overrides the definition in TOOLS.INI. The TOOLS.INI file can be used to customize default options for NMAKE32. For example, if an inference rule is needed for several description files, instead of modifying all the description files, the rule can be added to the TOOLS.INI file.

Example:

Given the following TOOLS.INI excerpt:

    [nmake]
    CFLAGS=
    .c.obj:
        $(CC) -c $(CFLAGS) $*.c

These lines:

Define the CFLAGS macro as a null string
Redefine the predefined inference rule to build .obj files from .c source files using the CFLAGS macro.

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