What are makefiles - make install

Question

I see in Linux these things, but what is it?:

./configure  
make  
make install

etc etc.

Answer 1

configure checks if you have all the prerequisites/dependencies to build the software.

make does the actual compilation.

make install installs the software in the correct location.

Answer 2

make is part of the build system commonly used in unix type systems - binutils.

It looks at make files which hold configuration information and build targets.

Specifically -

• ./configure - this is a script that sets up the environment for the build
• make - calls make with the default build target. Normally builds the app.
• make install - calls make with the install build target. Normally installs the app.