Making GNU Make a better Task Runner
I know this could be considered blasphemous, but I constantly find myself using Make as a task runner. I have written my own task runner in the past, but somehow I always end up using make. I went, and I put together 3 quality of life snippets I use all the time and put it in a single makext.mk file that can be included in other Makefiles and wrote a basic readme for it. This is not meant to be a replacement for other task runners, but I do think it can be useful to some of you. https://github.com/mitjafelicijan/makext Check it out and see if it makes sense to you. Thanks…
Making GNU Make a better Task Runner launched on May 12, 2024 with 98 votes, #504 of 4,539 launches that month and more than 90% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 2 years on.
In plain words
Makext is a collection of quality-of-life enhancements for GNU Make that improve its use as a task runner. It consists of three utility snippets packaged in a single makext.mk file that can be included in existing Makefiles. Designed for developers who prefer using Make for task automation, it is not intended to replace dedicated task runners but rather to enhance Make's usability for those already relying on it.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
Makext is a collection of extensions for Makefiles that enhance the functionality of GNU Make in projects - mitjafelicijan/makext
In the maker’s words, at launch
I know this could be considered blasphemous, but I constantly find myself using Make as a task runner. I have written my own task runner in the past, but somehow I always end up using make. I went, and I put together 3 quality of life snippets I use all the time and put it in a single makext.mk file that can be…
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Task – A task runner / simpler Make alternative written in Go2018 · github.com · ▲13A fast, cross-platform build tool inspired by Make, designed for modern workflows. - task/README.md at main · go-task/task
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A developer's machine accumulates tools fast. A Rust CLI you compiled last year, a Python formatter installed via `uv`, a language server pulled from npm, a terminal emulator from a curl script, a Go binary built from source. Each came from a different package manager, each with its own install incantation you half-remember. I wanted a way to declare what I need without adopting a complex system like Nix or Ansible just for a single laptop. The result was a plain old Makefile. I wrote a short post on using Make (along with a tiny bash script and fzf) to create a searchable, single-command…
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Source: Show HN post ↗ · launch text quoted in part
