Python Script Executed with Makefile

Question

I am writing python scripts and execute them in a Makefile. The python script is used to process data in a pipeline. I would like Makefile to execute the script every time I make a change to my python scripts.

Does anyone have an idea of how to do this?

Answer 1

That's not a lot of information, so this answer is a bit vague. The basic principle of Makefiles is to list dependencies for each target; in this case, your target (let's call it foo) depends on your python script (let's call it do-foo.py):

foo: do-foo.py
    python do-foo.py > foo

Now foo will be rerun whenever do-foo.py changes (provided, of course, you call make).

Answer 2

And in case when the scripts that need to be run don't produce any useful output file that can be used as a target, you can just use a dummy target:

scripts=a.py b.py c.py
checkfile=.pipeline_up_to_date

$(checkfile): $(scripts)
    touch $(checkfile)
    echo "Launching some commands now."

default: $(checkfile)