GNU Make is an open source tool to control the generation of executables and other non-source files of a program from the program’s source files. GNU Make gets the knowledge of how to build a program from a file called the makefile. This file lists all the non-source files and the ways of computing them from other files. While writing a program, the programmer requires to write a makefile for the program so that it becomes possible to use GNU Make to build and install the program.

GNU Make comes with a number of advantages. It enables the users to build and install Make package without knowing the details of how it is done. Make automatically figures out the files it needs to update and determines the proper order for updating files. So, if you change some source files and then run Make, it doesn’t require recompiling all the programs.

GNU Make is not limited to any particular language. For each non-source file in the program, the makefile specifies the shell commands to compute it. Make is not limited to building a package. It can also be used to control installing or deinstalling a package, generate tags tables for it.

GNU Make is free software, can be downloaded from the GNU FTP site ftp.gnu.org or one of its mirrors. You can also buy the GNU Source Code CD-ROM from the Free Software Foundation.

GNU Make was written by Richard Stallman and Roland McGrath and has been maintained and updated by Paul Smith since version 3.76 (1997).