Migrating from Make

If you’re coming from GNU Make, this guide will help you translate your Makefiles to Jakefiles.

Syntax Changes

Make	Jake
target: deps	task target: [deps]
$(VAR)	{{VAR}}
.PHONY: target	task target: (automatic)
Tab required	4 spaces or tab
$@ (target name)	Use explicit name
$< (first dep)	Use explicit name
%.o: %.c	Write explicit rules

Key Differences

No Tab Sensitivity

Make requires tabs for indentation. Jake accepts either 4 spaces or a tab:

# Both work in Jake
task build:
    echo "Hello"  # 4 spaces

No .PHONY Required

In Make, you must declare .PHONY for non-file targets. In Jake, task recipes are always treated as phony:

# This is automatically phony - no declaration needed
task clean:
    rm -rf dist/

Explicit Variable Syntax

Make uses $(VAR) with many variants (${VAR}, $@, $<). Jake uses a single, clear syntax:

cc = "gcc"
cflags = "-Wall"

task build:
    {{cc}} {{cflags}} -c main.c

Dependencies in Brackets

Make lists dependencies after the colon. Jake uses [brackets] for task dependencies:

# Make: test: build
# Jake:
task test: [build]
    cargo test

Example Migration

Before (Makefile)

CC = gcc
CFLAGS = -Wall -O2

.PHONY: all clean test

all: build test

build: main.o utils.o
  $(CC) -o app main.o utils.o

%.o: %.c
  $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c $<

test: build
  ./test_runner

clean:
  rm -f *.o app

After (Jakefile)

cc = "gcc"
cflags = "-Wall -O2"

@default
task all: [build, test]
    echo "Done"

file app: main.o utils.o
    {{cc}} -o app main.o utils.o

file main.o: main.c
    {{cc}} {{cflags}} -c main.c -o main.o

file utils.o: utils.c
    {{cc}} {{cflags}} -c utils.c -o utils.o

task test: [build]
    ./test_runner

task clean:
    rm -f *.o app

What You Gain

Migrating from Make to Jake gives you:

1. Readable syntax - No more deciphering $@ and $<
2. Glob patterns - Use src/**/*.ts instead of listing every file
3. Parameters - Pass arguments to recipes with defaults
4. Conditionals - @if/@else without shell gymnastics
5. Imports - Organize large projects with namespaced imports
6. Better errors - Helpful messages with suggestions
7. Watch mode - Built-in file watching with -w

Migration Tips

1. Start with tasks - Convert your .PHONY targets to task recipes first
2. Convert file rules - Change pattern rules to explicit file recipes
3. Simplify variables - Replace Make’s variable variants with {{var}}
4. Add glob patterns - Use **/*.c instead of $(wildcard ...)
5. Remove workarounds - Delete shell tricks that Jake handles natively

See Also

• File Targets - Learn about file recipes
• Dependencies - Dependency syntax details
• Variables - Variable expansion