I have been using Makefile from spinning up docker containers to setting up local dev environment venv (yeah I know I should be using docker-compose) and I can safely say its still one of the best tools out for automating tasks.
Recently I included Makefile into this repo so that I can build/publish/run hugo site easily without having to look through documentation on which command to run for local-server or build assets.
Interesting problem I ran into was how to read “user input” in Makefile and use that input to do something.
In my case I wanted to read name of new blog from user and run underlying hugo commmand to create a new markdown page in posts/
Thankfully StackOverflow and this articlealready had me covered 😊 and I was able to overcome this using following:
# file: Makefile.hugo
.PHONY: create-new-post
create-new-post:
@echo "got a name for new post?"; \
read POSTNAME; \
echo "creating new post $$POSTNAME"
You might look at above code and ask why commands need to be chained together? Answer is that each command in Makefile run in its own subshell and that results in variable unable to survive. Putting them on single line or chaining them works.
Bonus ⭐
Here’s list of useful Makefiles that I use across my projects:
Python
# Makefile 'python'
# ref: https://venthur.de/2021-03-31-python-makefiles.html
# system python interpreter. used only to create virtual environment
PY = python3
VENV = venv
BIN=$(VENV)/bin
# make it work on windows too
ifeq ($(OS), Windows_NT)
BIN=$(VENV)/Scripts
PY=python
endif
$(VENV): requirements.txt
$(PY) -m venv $(VENV)
$(BIN)/pip install --upgrade -r requirements.txt
touch $(VENV)
@echo "virtualenv created."
@echo "activate venv in current session by running -> . ./$(BIN)/activate "
.PHONY: $(VENV)
clean:
rm -rf $(VENV)
Terraform
# Makefile 'terraform'
# ref: https://www.sapranidis.gr/working-with-terraform-and-makefile/
SHELL:=/bin/bash
all: plan
clean:
rm -f /tmp/plan_stg
get:
@echo "Updating modules"
@terraform get -update
format:
@echo "Format existing code"
@terraform fmt
show:
@echo "Showing plan to apply"
@terraform show /tmp/plan_stg
plan: format get
@echo "Checking Infrastracture"
@terraform plan -out /tmp/plan_stg
$(MAKE) confirm
$(MAKE) apply
apply:
@echo "Applying changes to Infrastracture"
@terraform apply /tmp/plan_stg
@echo "Clean up after myself"
$(MAKE) clean
confirm:
@read -r -t 5 -p "Type y to apply, otherwise it will abort (timeout in 5 seconds): " CONTINUE; \
if [ ! $$CONTINUE == "y" ] || [ -z $$CONTINUE ]; then \
echo "Abort apply." ; \
exit 1; \
fi
help:
@echo "Usage: make plan"
@echo "After applying terraform plan it prompt if to apply the changes."
@echo "Other commands: "
@echo " * make show - to list what the plan will apply "
@echo " * make clean - delete the executed plan, so no files left behind "
@echo " * make get - update the teffarom modules"
@echo " * make format - execute terraform fmt"
Go
# Makefile 'go'
# ref: https://golangdocs.com/makefiles-golang
BINARY_NAME=my-awesome-app
all: build test
run:
go build -o bin/${BINARY_NAME} *.go
./bin/${BINARY_NAME}
build:
GOARCH=amd64 GOOS=darwin go build -o bin/${BINARY_NAME}-darwin *.go
GOARCH=amd64 GOOS=linux go build -o bin/${BINARY_NAME}-linux *.go
GOARCH=amd64 GOOS=window go build -o bin/${BINARY_NAME}-windows *.go
clean:
go clean
rm bin/${BINARY_NAME}-darwin
rm bin/${BINARY_NAME}-linux
rm bin/${BINARY_NAME}-windows
dep:
go mod download
vet:
go vet
test:
go test -v *.go