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0 pointshedora3y ago0 comments

The point of make is that it's not only useful for building software. Take a look at the built-in implicit rules:

https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/Catalogue...

There are two things to note: (1) you can turn them off so they don't get in the way of other use cases, (2) they include non-build stuff like version control, linting, and document generation.

There's also a whole chapter on ar file maintenance. This is mostly useful for linking these days, but ar is the precursor to tar, so this used to also be useful for running filesystem backups:

https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/Archives....

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vehementi3y ago

Your point is that make has uses beyond that. That is not "the point of make"

lelandbatey3y ago

No, that absolutely is the point of `make`. You quoted the "overview of make" page[0] which does say "The make utility automatically determines which pieces of a large program need to be recompiled, and issues commands to recompile them."

However, that same page, about 5 lines down, expands to say:

> Indeed, 'make' is not limited to programs. You can use it to describe any task where some files must be updated automatically from others whenever the others change.

Which is exactly what the original poster is claiming.

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