onMaking

My life in the Unix® shell has been closely tied to make, the program used to construct dependent files from rules on their depencencies.

I've long felt the shell was suitable for the task. In 1984, while at INteractive Systems, Dan Franklin introduced me to the newer paradidm, using the ls command. The bash shell, if not the ksh, have added a test on file modification times to give those shells the facility to perform make functionality.

In addition to my work on the Unix shell, the make application done in the shell, is worth a separate commonplace book.

This is that book. Here I'll round up and tie together the pieces of my make-work.