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Make (software)
In software development, Make is a command-line interface software tool that performs actions ordered by configured dependencies as defined in a configuration file called a makefile. It is commonly used for build automation to build executable code (such as a program or library) from source code. But, not limited to building, Make can perform any operation available via the operating system shell.
Make is widely used, especially in Unix and Unix-like operating systems, even though many competing technologies and tools are available, including similar tools that perform actions based on dependencies, some compilers and interactively via an integrated development environment.
In addition to referring to the original Unix tool, Make is also a technology since multiple tools have been implemented with roughly the same functionality – including similar makefile syntax and semantics.
Stuart Feldman created Make while at Bell Labs. An early version was completed in April 1976. Feldman received the 2003 ACM Software System Award for authoring Make.
Feldman describes the inspiration to write Make as arising from a coworker's frustration with the available tooling of the time:
Make originated with a visit from Steve Johnson (author of yacc, etc.), storming into my office, cursing the Fates that had caused him to waste a morning debugging a correct program (bug had been fixed, file hadn't been compiled, cc *.o was therefore unaffected). As I had spent a part of the previous evening coping with the same disaster on a project I was working on, the idea of a tool to solve it came up. It began with an elaborate idea of a dependency analyzer, boiled down to something much simpler, and turned into Make that weekend. Use of tools that were still wet was part of the culture. Makefiles were text files, not magically encoded binaries, because that was the Unix ethos: printable, debuggable, understandable stuff.
— Stuart Feldman, The Art of Unix Programming, Eric S. Raymond 2003
Before Make, building on Unix mostly consisted of shell scripts written for each program's codebase. Make's dependency ordering and out-of-date checking makes the build process more robust and more efficient. The makefile allowed for better organization of build logic and often fewer build files.
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Make (software) AI simulator
(@Make (software)_simulator)
Make (software)
In software development, Make is a command-line interface software tool that performs actions ordered by configured dependencies as defined in a configuration file called a makefile. It is commonly used for build automation to build executable code (such as a program or library) from source code. But, not limited to building, Make can perform any operation available via the operating system shell.
Make is widely used, especially in Unix and Unix-like operating systems, even though many competing technologies and tools are available, including similar tools that perform actions based on dependencies, some compilers and interactively via an integrated development environment.
In addition to referring to the original Unix tool, Make is also a technology since multiple tools have been implemented with roughly the same functionality – including similar makefile syntax and semantics.
Stuart Feldman created Make while at Bell Labs. An early version was completed in April 1976. Feldman received the 2003 ACM Software System Award for authoring Make.
Feldman describes the inspiration to write Make as arising from a coworker's frustration with the available tooling of the time:
Make originated with a visit from Steve Johnson (author of yacc, etc.), storming into my office, cursing the Fates that had caused him to waste a morning debugging a correct program (bug had been fixed, file hadn't been compiled, cc *.o was therefore unaffected). As I had spent a part of the previous evening coping with the same disaster on a project I was working on, the idea of a tool to solve it came up. It began with an elaborate idea of a dependency analyzer, boiled down to something much simpler, and turned into Make that weekend. Use of tools that were still wet was part of the culture. Makefiles were text files, not magically encoded binaries, because that was the Unix ethos: printable, debuggable, understandable stuff.
— Stuart Feldman, The Art of Unix Programming, Eric S. Raymond 2003
Before Make, building on Unix mostly consisted of shell scripts written for each program's codebase. Make's dependency ordering and out-of-date checking makes the build process more robust and more efficient. The makefile allowed for better organization of build logic and often fewer build files.