Make, more than just program files

February 2005

Make: More Than Just Program Files

The make utility commonly used for handling software building can also be employed in a variety of ways a lot of people (including developers) never really think about. It can even be used to manage cvs.

Managing Documentation

A lot of documenation requires the ability to reparse text written in one form to another. The most complicated of texts are likely (but not limited to) XML and TeX reformatting. It can, however, be used in other ways. A simple rule for dumping html into lynx output is a good one; which often comes in handy when an original document is in HTML format and it often arises that a conversion to text might be handy after an update to it. Here is a simple Makefile that does the chore.


# Resume Makefile

LYNX=lynx
RESUME=resume
HTML=$(RESUME).html
TEXT=$(RESUME).txt

text:
	$(LYNX) -dump $(HTML) > $(TEXT)

While that is a rather simplistic demonstration, it proves the point that make can be used for a wide variety of things. Here is an example of a somewhat more elaborate Makefile that handles html to postscript convserions and postscript to pdf.


# Resume Makefile

RESUME=resume
HTML=$(RESUME).html
TEXT=$(RESUME).txt
POSTSCRIPT=$(RESUME).ps
PDF=$(RESUME).pdf

LYNX=lynx
HTML_PS=html2ps
PS_PDF=ps2pdf

all: text postscript pdf

text:
	$(LYNX) -dump $(HTML) > $(TEXT)

postscript:
	$(HTML_PS) $(HTML) -o $(POSTSCRIPT)

pdf: postscript
	$(PS_PDF) $(POSTSCRIPT) > $(PDF) 

clean:
	rm -f $(PDF) $(POSTSCRIPT) $(TEXT)

Now the resume, originally in html format can be updated to other formats without much effort. Note that the pdf target has a dependancy, the postscript target since ps2pdf uses the postscript formatted document as input.

Managing Tasks

Another use for make is managing some tasks where it might make sense. In the following scenario, a $HOME is being archived and sent off to an archive directory (which could be an NFS, smbmount or other filesystem).


# A $HOME Archiver without a shell script

home_archive:
	tar czvf /mnt/arhives/current/home.tgz /home/jdoe

Of course, the above is a bit too simple and a wee bit ambiguous. Now for something slightly more refined.


USER=jdoe
HOMEDIR=/home/$USER
ARCHIVE_NAME=$USER.tgz
TAR=/bin/tar
TAR_ARGS=czvf
DESTDIR=/mnt/archives

home_archive:
	$(TAR) $(TAR_ARGS) $(DESTDIR/$ARCHIVE_NAME) $(HOMEDIR)

For multiple home directories, using a lot of macros can save time and simplifying where appropiate.


HOMEDIR=/home
TAR="/bin/tar czvf"
DESTDIR=/mnt/archives/current

all: john_doe jane_doe webmin

john_doe:
	$(TAR) $(DESTDIR/$@.tgz) $HOMEDIR/$@)

jane_doe:
	$(TAR) $(DESTDIR/$@.tgz) $HOMEDIR/$@)

webmin:
	$(TAR) $(DESTDIR/$@.tgz) $HOMEDIR/$@)

Summary

Make, while ultimately designed for program build management can also be used for a variety of other tasks such as document conversion and maintenance, running frequent processes and even file management.