Computer Careers Book
Friday, October 13, 2006
UNIX make update
This article updates the information at:
make for Not Yet Techies
Originally, make was a UNIX utility program to maintain C program files to prevent unnecessary recompilation. However, it's proven useful for maintaining any set of files with interdependencies, including the NIS (Network Information System), which uses make to hold information on users.
make is a standard UNIX utility which doesn't seem to undergo any change, from what I've been able to dig up. There is an open source GNU version of make which has some advanced functions not found in make itself.
Also, there's a GNAT Make program called gnatmake.
When started, make looks for a makefile in your target directory. This makefile is a set of make commands. It describes what set of files can be built and how to build them. There're four types of lines in a makefile:
Target lines
Shell command lines
Macro lines
make Directive lines
make
make
