GNU Make

The classic Unix build automation tool.

Make builds programs (and other artefacts) from source by following dependency rules in a Makefile. Each rule names a target file, the prerequisite files it depends on, and the shell commands to produce the target. When invoked, make rebuilds only the targets whose prerequisites are newer than the target itself.

The original make was written by Stuart Feldman at Bell Labs in 1976 and shipped with Version 7 Unix. GNU Make is the GNU project's implementation, with extensions such as conditional directives and a wider built-in function library, and is the version used by the Linux kernel and most GNU packages.

License: GPL-3.0-or-later

Category: Build system

Website: https://www.gnu.org/software/make/

Install

Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install make
Fedora/RHEL:   sudo dnf install make
Arch:          sudo pacman -S make
macOS:         ships in Xcode Command Line Tools

Authors

Stuart Feldman (original make, 1976)
GNU Make maintainers (Paul Smith and others)

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