ONLamp: make: The Evolution and Alternatives

“The make utility is an enticing servant, always there and
always accommodating. Like the indispensable sidekicks found in
many novels and movies, make starts out as the underappreciated
supplicant to whom you throw a few odd jobs, and then gradually
takes over the entire enterprise.

“I had reached the terminal stage of putting make at the center
of every project I touched when Steve Talbott, my supervisor and
the author of the original O’Reilly classic Managing Projects with
make, noticed my obsession and asked me to write the second
edition…”

Complete
Story