This article spotlights alternative tools to make, a utility which controls the generation of executables and other non-source files of a program from the program’s source files.
The software featured here is free and open source. All tools provide a command-line interface (CLI) unless otherwise stated.
| Alternatives to make | |
|---|---|
| CMake | Build system generator |
| SCons | Software construction tool |
| Maven | Build automation tool used primarily for Java projects |
| Premake | Simple build configuration |
| Ninja | Small build system with a focus on speed |
| just | Save and run project-specific commands |
| pdpmake | Public domain implementation of make which follows the POSIX standard |
Other build systems are covered in this roundup.
Are we missing any open source alternatives to make? Please let us know.
All the CLI tools in this series.
| Alternatives to CLI tools |
|---|
| age // awk // bc // cal // cat // cd // chmod // cksum // cloc // cmp // compress // cp // cron // curl // cut // date // dd // df // diff // dig // du // fdisk // file // find // free // ftp // grep // gzip // hexdump // history // jq // kill // less // locate // ls // lsof // make // man // more // mv / ping // ps // psql // rename // rm // sed // split // ssh // stow // strings // sudo // sysctl // tail // talk // tar // telnet // time // top // touch // traceroute // tree // uname // uniq // uptime // vi // watch // Wget // who // whois // xargs |
 LinuxLinks helps you discover the best free and open source software for Linux. Explore our extensive collection of recommended applications, including alternatives to popular proprietary software.We also publish software reviews, Linux tutorials, hardware reviews, free programming books and articles covering the wider open source community. Browse our Linux resources to discover more. Know a useful free and open source Linux application we haven't covered? Suggest a program for inclusion. Has your software been featured on LinuxLinks? Display one of our Featured on LinuxLinks badges on your website or GitHub README. |
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Although not really an alternative, there’s autotools., tools designed to assist in making source code packages portable to many Unix-like systems.