Gnu Make: A Program for Directing Recompilation

Unless you've got your eyes closed, sooner or later you're going to have a software build that fails because a makefile doesn't do what you expected. Actually you probably just expected it to work, and didn't think you'd have to actually read and understand this language which isn't C, C#, Java, or Ruby. But, like the stuck bolt on the motorcycle in Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, GNU Make is what stands between the Linux software developer and his compiled software project. In roughly 150 pages of tireless clarity, Stallman and McGrath explain every detail of GNU Make. Bonus chapters at the end include a good coding standard "Chapter 14: Makefile Conventions", and a quick reference. Which will actually be useful once you've read the book.

Initially, I thought Make was merely a utility that allowed you to execute commands based on customizable file interdependencies and their associated time stamps. Occaisionally I heard about other features, such as being able to write loops, or using string pattern subsitutions, or generating dependencies automatically. I never really saw a Makefile book, so I took a look at this one in a store and it seemed to be reasonably complete and reasonably priced. I don't write Makefiles often, but when I do, I find this book quite useful. I usually find a shortcut or feature that I previously did not know about such as being able to assign command line output to a variable, etc. The chapter on Implicit Rules is always a nice refresher for the few times I do write a Makefile. Overall, this book has been a good reference and with a notable author as well.

I'll add to the positive remarks of other reviewers that this book will help you understand why features that work with one version of make do not work with another. The section "Features of GNU 'make'" contains information on which features came from which 'make' implementation; this gives the reader some historical context and information that not all 'make' programs are created equal. This information is especially valuable when working with a number of different 'make' utilities from different vendors (happily, GNU make runs on almost any platform most users are likely to encounter, and installing GNU make on a machine may be much easier than wrestling with the differences between 'make' implementations).I refer to this book (or the info version from within emacs) regularly. I have found it extremely helpful while trying to figure out how another Makefile works, while trying to figure out how to accomplish a particular task with 'make', and just for general knowledge about the tool. I found the sections on suffix rules and pattern rules to be particularly informative.One final note: by purchasing this book you are helping to support free software, as the book is published by GNU Press, the publishing department of the Free Software Foundation.

This is an excellent book for software developers who want to write Makefile seriously. I have read other make books, including "Managing Projects with make" and "Mastering Make". None of them present core of Makefile to readers. From newsgroup comp.unix.shell one can know that there are still a lot of people who are struggling for writting their own real Makefile. Richard and Roland are national outstanding experts in this area!

In the ideal world a make script resides in the /usr/local/ directory branch. It invokes one or two include files found in the project directory for the purposes of customization. GNU Make is capable of this, and other feats. But, without reading the documentation, it's nearly impossible to extract the full power of this essential tool.This book provides enough of an introduction to make that the newbie can immediately start crafting useful makefiles. For the consumate meddler, there is plenty of info on all kinds of features which allow make to be used to manage nearly every aspect of software and documentation creation.Originally I downloaded the PDF and had it printed out at Kinkos. Having it in a book worked better. Do yourself a favor and get the book.