tinymake.js

A tiny GNU Makefile subset runner for JS runtimes.

Why? Not all task runners scale gracefully. GNU Make does, and LLMs understand Makefiles very well.

Supported

• variables:
  • NAME = value
  • NAME := value
  • NAME ?= value
• exported variables:
  • export NAME = value
  • export NAME := value
  • export NAME ?= value
  • export NAME
  • export NAME OTHER_NAME
• .PHONY
• plain target rules
• dependencies
• tab-indented recipe lines
• inline recipe form: target: deps ; command
• multiple targets in one rule
• backslash line continuation at the end of a physical line
• variable references:
  • $(NAME)
  • ${NAME}
• automatic recipe variables:
  • $@ current target
  • $< first dependency
  • $^ unique dependencies joined by spaces
• supported functions:
  • $(realpath path...)
  • $(wildcard pattern...)
• command prefixes:
  • @ do not echo the command
  • - ignore non-zero exit code
  • + accepted and ignored
• CLI variable overrides like NAME=value
• -f FILE
• -n / --dry-run
• -h / --help
• default target selection from the first non-dot rule target

Not supported

• include
• define / multi-line macros
• pattern rules / implicit rules
• suffix rules
• conditionals like ifeq
• target-specific variables
• automatic dependency generation
• functions other than realpath and wildcard
• $(shell ...)
• timestamp-based rebuild checks
• exact GNU Make parsing and escaping edge cases
• full GNU Make compatibility

Behavior

• dependencies are executed depth-first
• a target runs at most once per invocation
• if a prerequisite has no rule but exists as a file, it is accepted
• recipe lines run in separate shell processes, like GNU Make
• rules with recipes run when requested; there is no file freshness logic
• circular dependencies are detected and fail the run
• duplicate recipe-bearing rules for the same target are rejected
• only exported variables are injected into the child process environment
• non-exported variables still expand inside recipes through $(NAME) / ${NAME}

Usage

node tinymake.js [options] [VAR=value ...] [target ...]
bun tinymake.js [options] [VAR=value ...] [target ...]
deno -A tinymake.js [options] [VAR=value ...] [target ...]

Examples:

node tinymake.js
node tinymake.js all
node tinymake.js -f Build.mk release
node tinymake.js NAME=world hello
node tinymake.js -n deploy

Example Makefile

export PATH := $(realpath ../node_modules/.bin):$(PATH)
NAME ?= world
OUT := dist
ASSETS := $(wildcard public/*.html) public/assets

.PHONY: all hello clean

all: hello build

hello:
	@echo Hello, $(NAME)

$(OUT):
	mkdir -p $(OUT)

build: $(OUT) src/index.js $(ASSETS)
	echo target=$@
	echo first=$<
	echo deps=$^
	node src/index.js > $(OUT)/app.txt

clean:
	rm -rf $(OUT)

Exit behavior

• parse errors exit with code 1
• runtime errors like missing rules or circular dependencies exit with code 1
• command failures exit with the child command status unless the line starts with -