Beyond Makefiles: GNU make is For More Than Just Compiling

“To get its instructions, make looks for a file called makefile
or Makefile, which contains definitions for constructing different
targets. You specify the target on the command line, and then make
carries out the actions for that target (e.g. make install will
carry out the commands for the install target). However, the
makefile also specifies a set of files on which each target
depends, and the commands will be run only if those files have been
modified since the last time this target was generated. Otherwise,
make will not do anything.”

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