makefile extension

Question

I wanted to create a makefile. So I wrote instructions in a notepad file.
But what extension should I give while saving this file?

Answer 1

If you run:

make 

this program will look for a file named makefile in your directory, and then execute it. If you have several makefiles, then you can execute them with the command:

make -f MyMakefile 

Answer 2

By default, The GNU Make tries some particular names, no using any extension. You can specify file with any name to it. But if you want syntax highlighting in some editors, you can use an extension.

There is a wildcard rule for recognizing make files in Geany editor:

Make=*.mak;*.mk;GNUmakefile;makefile;Makefile;makefile.*;Makefile.*;