I suspect your code may already have all of this right in the source.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <mysql/mysql.h>
#include "base/logging.h"
#include "http/cookie.h"
// ... and so on.
Right there, you can translate that into a system header you can ignore, a system header for which you should add cflags and ldflags where appropriate (compiling vs. linking), and a couple of local libraries which need to be further investigated.
http/cookie.h and base/logging.h are then analyzed, along with http/cookie.cc and base/logging.cc, assuming they exist. Any #includes there are chased down in the same manner. This continues until everything has been resolved.
If you keep track of all of these things, then you will have a list of every object file which needs to be rolled up into the final binary. You also pick up all of the flags required to compile and/or link with those things by extension.
Obviously you have to handle the whole "rebuild if something changes" thing, but that's not particularly difficult, either. I wrote my own tool to do exactly this. I'm using it for my own (C++) projects, and it's been quite pleasant. It won't work for everyone, though.
As long as every c file has an h file with the exact same name, and every lib has precisely one so file, with the same name, I tend to agree. Although I know many projects for which this is not the case.
http/cookie.h and base/logging.h are then analyzed, along with http/cookie.cc and base/logging.cc, assuming they exist. Any #includes there are chased down in the same manner. This continues until everything has been resolved.
If you keep track of all of these things, then you will have a list of every object file which needs to be rolled up into the final binary. You also pick up all of the flags required to compile and/or link with those things by extension.
Obviously you have to handle the whole "rebuild if something changes" thing, but that's not particularly difficult, either. I wrote my own tool to do exactly this. I'm using it for my own (C++) projects, and it's been quite pleasant. It won't work for everyone, though.
I wrote about it here: http://rachelbythebay.com/w/2012/03/28/build/