Makefile: Streamlining Tasks with Wrapper Functions

In makefile, you can define tasks and run them individually

make run-task1 run-task2 run-task3

run-task1:
	@echo "run task 1"

run-task2:
	@echo "run task 2"

run-task3:
	@echo "run task 3"

When you want to run tasks from another tasks (e.g. make run-all-tasks), you can

• use makefile prerequisites mechanism

run-all-tasks: run-task1 run-task2 run-task3

• use sub-command line with $(MAKE)

run-all-tasks:
	@$(MAKE) run-task1
	@$(MAKE) run-task2
	@$(MAKE) run-task3

You can also create a wrapper task to run all tasks with a specific naming.

This will enable you to don’t known all task names. Useful when using include mechanism in your makefile.

include makefile-with-run-tasks.mk

run-all-tasks:
	@grep -E '^[\.a-zA-Z0-9_%-]+:.*$$' $(MAKEFILE_LIST) \
		| cut -d ":" -f2 | grep "^run-task" | sort -u \
		| xargs $(MAKE)

So when you run it, the run-all-tasks task will run all run-task tasks.

$ make run-all-tasks
run task 1
run task 2
run task 3