"In this article, we analyze a fairly complicated
makefile. This makefile was captured from actual use in the wild,
and sections specific to that project have been removed for this
article.
This is a companion article to Introduction to make, and it
builds on the topics covered there. See Introduction for a simple
makefile and a guide on how to use and construct simple
makefiles.
Both the introduction and this advanced article focus on make as
a tool for developers. Sysadmins, make can be useful to you, too!
As we step through the makefile, think about how the techniques
here can be applied to rebuilding a configuration script, or an
installation script, or as an auto-updating tool."