C++ development on linux - where do I start?

What are recommended guides on creating a make file, how do I compile from this makefile (do I call g++ myself, do I use 'make'?)

You build from the makefile by invoking "make". And inside your makefile, you compile and link using g++ and ld.

Looking at other linux software, they almost always seem to have a 'configure' file. What exactly does it do? Does it only check if the required libraries are installed or does it more than just checking requirements?

It's a script usually used to set up various things based on the environment being used for building. Sometimes it's just a basic shell script, other times it invokes tools like Autoconf to discover what is available when building. The "configure" script is usually also a place for the user to specify various optional things to be built or excluded, like support for experimental features.

How do I link libraries, and how does this relate to my makefile or g++ parameters? In windows I would compile the library, include some header files, tell my linker what additional lib file to link, and copy a dll file. How exactly does this process work in linux?

ld is the GNU linker. You can invoke it separately (which is what most makefiles will end up doing), or you can have g++ delegate to it. The options you pass to g++ and ld determine where to look for included headers, libraries to link, and how to output the result.

Recommendations for code editors? I am currently using nano and I've heard of vim and emacs, but don't know what the benefits of them are over eachother. Are there any others, and why would I consider them over any of the previous three? Note: I am not looking for an IDE.

Vim and Emacs are very flexible editors that support a whole bunch of different usages. Use whatever feels best to you, though I'd suggest you might want a few minimal things like syntax highlighting.

Just a note to go with MandyK's answers.

Creating make files by hand is usually a very unportable way of building across linux distro's/unix variants. There are many build systems for auto generating make files, building without make files. GNU Autotools, Cmake, Scons, jam, etc.

Also to go more in depth about configure.

• Checks available compilers, libraries, system architecture.
• Makes sure your system matches the appropriate compatible package list.
• Lets you specify command line arguments to specialize your build, install path, option packages etc.
• Configure then generates an appropriate Makefile specific to your system.

What are recommended guides on creating a make file, how do I compile from this makefile (do I call g++ myself, do I use 'make'?)

I learned how to write makefiles by reading the GNU Make manual.

Looking at other linux software, they almost always seem to have a 'configure' file. What exactly does it do? Does it only check if the required libraries are installed or does it more than just checking requirements?

The configure file is usually associated with autotools. As the name of the script suggests, it allows you to configure the software. From the perspective of the developer this mostly means setting macros, which determine variables, which libraries are available, and such. It also tests for the availability of libraries. In the end the script generates a GNU Makefile, which you can then use to actually build and install the software.

The GNU build system is only one of many. I don't particularly like the GNU build system as it tends to be slower than others, and generates an ugly Makefile. Some of the more popular ones are CMake, Jam (Boost Jam might be of interest for C++) and waf. Some build systems simply generate Makefiles, while others provide a completely new build system. For simple projects writing a Makefile by hand would be easy, but "dependency checking" (for libraries, etc) would also have to be done manually.

Edit: Brian Gianforcaro also pointed this out.