Just Use Makefile — The Build Tool Every Project Already Has

Make Is Already Installed on Your Machine

Every project needs common commands. Put them in a Makefile.

Example

.PHONY: dev test build deploy

dev:
    npm run dev

test:
    npm test

build:
    npm run build

deploy: build
    rsync -avz dist/ server:/var/www/app/

install:
    npm install

setup: install
    echo "Ready!"

Usage

make dev      # Start dev server
make test     # Run tests
make deploy   # Build + deploy
make setup    # Full project setup

Why Makefile

• Works for ANY language (Python, Go, Rust, not just JS)
• Dependencies between tasks (deploy depends on build)
• Tab completion in most shells
• No npm required
• Already installed on every Unix machine

Python Makefile

dev:
    python -m uvicorn app:app --reload

test:
    pytest -v

lint:
    ruff check .

format:
    ruff format .

Every project. Every language. Just use Make.

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