What is a Makefile and how does it work?

If you want to run or update a task when certain files are updated, the make utility can come in handy. The make utility requires a file, Makefile (or makefile), which defines set of tasks to be executed. You may have used make to compile a program from source code. Most open source projects use make to compile a final executable binary, which can then be installed using make install.

Read more: https://opensource.com/article/18/8/what-how-makefile