make

In our [last installment][1] we presented a very simple Makefile and taught make how to make sandwich, visiting a few key concepts on the way (automatic variables, pattern rules). For our toolchain to adapt to different situations (out of bread or out of butter? go do the groceries!) and to present some more concepts let’s teach make a few more tricks. Before a good chef starts working in the kitchen he will make sure the kitchen is nice and clean, so let’s teach make how to clean the kitchen (while conforming to the best practices outlined by the make documentation as well as the user’s expectation. [Mehr]

As far as build systems are concerned, this article will not present anything particularly new – instead, we will focus on some piece of software that one might even considered “done”. “Done” in the sense that it is essentially bug-free and feature-complete. How many software products do you know (apart from TeX) that can be considered this way? With a plethora of “new”, “modern” or just plain “fancy” build systems, GNU Make is the old veteran of them all. [Mehr]