makex 20250501

Build tool

makex

Makex is a modern build and automation tool.

It makex stuff happen. 🙂

What Makex is used for

• Compiling software/applications/firmware
• Building file systems/trees/images/file archives
• Building and deploying websites and web applications
• Running things repeatably
• Replacing most or all of the other build systems

Features 🍩

• Task based
• Familiar Syntax
• File Hashing and Checksums
• Dependency Graphs
• Caching
• Workspaces
• Copy on Write

Links 🔗

• Documentation
• Installation Instructions
• Troubleshooting
• Support: Google Groups or [e-mail]

Requirements

• Python >= 3.9

Quick Start 🏎️

1. Install:

pip install makex

2. Define a Makex file and name it Makexfile (or makexfile, if you prefer):

task(
    name="hello",
    steps=[
        write("hello-world.txt", "Hello World!"),

        # you may also execute things:
        # execute("echo", "Hello World!"),
        
        # or just print things:
        # print("Hello World!"),
        
        # more actions can go here; 
        # such as copying, mirroring or archiving...
    ],
    outputs=[
        "hello-world.txt",
    ],
)

3. Run makex, specifying the task name:

makex run hello

4. A file at $PWD/_output_/hello/hello-world.txt shall have the following contents:

Hello World!

Read the documentation to learn more.

Limitations

• Mac support is not tested.
• Windows is not tested or supported (yet).

Pronunciation 🗣

Makex is pronounced "makes", ˈmeɪks, ˈmeɪkˈɛks (or just "make" 🙂)

Related

• Make

Coming Soon

• Dynamic Task/Resource Allocation
• Task Tags/Labels
• Regular Expressions
• Intellij/VSCode integration

This is an early release of Makex. Things may change. Those changes will be noted in the HISTORY file (especially major ones).

With that, Makex is being used extensively by us. We've created many tasks and Makex files, and we don't want to create more work. 🫡

If you have any problems, feel free to contact us.