[mitjafelicijan]

I totally get it. I know the feeling. I have written some complex Makefiles in the past for C projects that looked completely horrid.

For smaller projects I like make and people who work with me and know me always first check Makefile to see what is there and what the project is about. I use it as a launchpad for installing dependencies and things like that.

And it's all about what is appropriate for that project. Something a shell script is better. Sometimes soemthing else. So I completely understand what you are saying.

[simonmic]

Appreciate you saying so mitjafelicijan. You're right, it's all about what is appropriate for the project at a given time.

[simonmic]

For anyone interested (though to compare you really need to work with them over a period of time):

Here's a fairly simple thousand line Makefile: https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/2d35b1051/Makef... (and https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/2d35b1051/Makef...)

that was converted to a Justfile: https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/43c93eb37/Justf...

And here's a more powerful kind of makefile using a full programming language: https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/43c93eb37/Shake...

And here are two multicommand shell scripts:

https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/43c93eb37/bin/f...

https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/43c93eb37/bin/t...

that were converted to a justfile: https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/43c93eb37/bin/j...