pdpmake – public domain implementation of make

This is a public domain implementation of make which follows the POSIX standard.

The code is based on Neil Russell’s public domain make, as submitted to the Usenet newsgroups net.sources and mod.sources in 1986. The basic data structures and algorithms remain but everything else has changed. This version is also dedicated to the public domain.

The problem with make is that it’s a tool for developers, and developers like to tinker with their tools. There are therefore many slightly different versions of make around. POSIX attempts to standardise their common behaviour but leaves a lot of the details unspecified or implementation dependent. It’s also rather lax, in that it allows extensions to exist provided they don’t interfere with the specified functionality.

This version implements the make utility as defined in both the 2017 and 2024 POSIX standards. The default build from source includes a number of extensions but a key feature of the program is that it can be switched to a strictly POSIX-compliant mode at runtime.

Website: frippery.org/make
Support:
Developer:
License: Public domain

pdpmake is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.

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