Make — Build Automation

Make is one of the oldest and most widely used build automation tools. It reads a Makefile that specifies how to derive the target program from source files using rules with dependency tracking.

Makefile Structure

# Variables
CC     = gcc
CFLAGS = -Wall -O2
TARGET = myapp

# Default target
all: $(TARGET)

# Link target
$(TARGET): main.o util.o
	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -o $@ $^

# Compile source files
%.o: %.c
	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c $< -o $@

# Clean build artifacts
clean:
	rm -f *.o $(TARGET)

# Phony targets
.PHONY: all clean

Common Patterns

Phony Targets Convention

.PHONY: all clean install test lint format

all: build

build:
	go build -o bin/app .

test:
	go test ./...

lint:
	golangci-lint run

install:
	cp bin/app /usr/local/bin/

clean:
	rm -rf bin/

Automatic Variables

Variable	Meaning
$@	Target name
$<	First prerequisite
$^	All prerequisites
$*	Stem of the pattern match
$?	Changed prerequisites

Conditional Builds

DEBUG ?= 0
ifeq ($(DEBUG), 1)
	CFLAGS += -g -DDEBUG
else
	CFLAGS += -O3
endif

Related Tools

• cmake — Cross-platform build system generator
• ninja — Fast, small build system (often used with cmake)
• meson — Modern build system
• just — Command runner (simpler alternative)