Re: learning make

[Paul Smith]

On Wed, 2009-07-08 at 04:27 -0700, Payal wrote:
> Hello all
> I am not a C/C++ coder at all. I am a part-time sys adm which requires me to 
> use a lot
> of shell scripting and some perl. But for a long time I was intrigued to 
> learn make.
> 
> My question is - with my background, can I learn make or do I have to know 
> C/C++ beforehand?

You don't need to know any programming language to use make.

Make is a tool used to update a set of target files, based on changes to
a set of source files.  That's it.  Any time you have a situation where
you modify some files, then want to run a predefined set of steps to
update other files, you could use make.

People use make for all sorts of tasks that have absolutely nothing to
do with programming: updating web sites, creating documentation,
performing backups, and a whole host of other things we probably would
never think of.

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Paul D. Smith <address@hidden>          Find some GNU make tips at:
 http://www.gnu.org                      http://make.mad-scientist.us
 "Please remain calm...I may be mad, but I am a professional." --Mad Scientist