Understanding Makefile

While examining projects, I noticed that some projects, especially backend projects, have a Makefile file, which allows convenient encapsulation and calling of build commands.

I hadn’t learned about this tool before, so I’m documenting it here.

Features

1. Native support on Mac/Linux - once declared and created, you can execute it directly
   • For shell files, you still need to manually add execute permissions chmod +x *.sh
   • Using Node.js to implement build tools in projects is also possible, but there are still environmental dependencies
2. Supports variable parameter passing

Example

# Build frontend image make build version=1.0.0
build:
	docker build -t stacker/web:v$(version) .

For example, encapsulating the above command into a Makefile allows you to simply run make build version=1.0.0 whenever you want to package a new image file

Syntax Notes

• Recommended filename is Makefile, but makefile is also acceptable
• Only supports single-line comments
• Commands starting with @ indicate that the command output should not be printed

Common Errors

Makefile:5: *** missing separator. Stop.

Commands must be indented with tabs, not spaces

Reference Configurations

1. https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/-/blob/master/Makefile
2. https://github.com/jcsalterego/pngpaste/blob/master/Makefile