The only thing I’m really missing for my usecase with make is the ability to specify goals/targets other than files. E.g., I want a docker image to be present in the daemon. Basically, calling out to a function. (Probably somebody is going to correct me and say there is something there in the form of conditionals or something..)
Docker images can be stored as a file. And maybe are indeed stored on the file system as individual files as well. But building against a specific cr implementation for this seems too brittle.
That's easy to do, but if you want to make it compatible with incremental builds the best way is to create a "I did it already" empty file as a dependency marker. E.g. "build" a ". build/called/apt-install-deps" or whatever.
This is exactly how I do it now but it is brittle. If either my packages are changed, or the definition of what needs to be installed/pulled changes I need either remove the file or something.
I could maybe put all these definitions, packages etc in separate files and then have make watch the time stamps. That saves the issue of changing definitions but doesn’t help when things get deleted from under your feet.
