run VS just

I've been using Run [0] for this purposes.

[0]: https://github.com/TekWizely/run

To the extent that posts like these evolve into discussing the merits of Make as a task runner, I would like to offer my tool for review:

* https://github.com/TekWizely/run

I built it to feel like make, but be better at managing tasks and wrappers.

If you are evaluating task runners and appreciate the simplicity of Make's syntax, I hope you'll give Run a try.

I invite you take a look at Run, a similar tool that I maintain:

* https://github.com/TekWizely/run

Support for including other Runfiles was recently introduced, with support for globbing and the ability to indicate if an error should be generated if no files are found.

Unrelated to this topic, I invite you take a look at my project which a tool purpose-built to be a better version of what your makefile became:

Run: Task runner that helps you easily manage and invoke small scripts and wrappers

https://github.com/TekWizely/run

Defining commands feels like make, but comes with a bunch of extras targeted at the needs of a task-runner.

I hope you'll check it out!

This looks like an interesting way to manage scripts globally. I could even see it able to manage n-sub-commands deep (vs usual "command sub-command" - maybe it already does?) by just trying to resolve each argument as a dir until you find a script to execute.

If you're interested in ways to better-manage small scripts and wrappers more locally, please take a look at my project, Run:

https://github.com/TekWizely/run

For those looking for a powerful task runners that feel like a makefile, please take a look at Run:

https://github.com/TekWizely/run

It's better a managing and invoking tasks and generates help text from comments.

Most projects I've worked on included a bunch of scripts for common tasks (installing dependencies, starting/stopping dev servers, testing and deploying changes, and so on). There are a few tools designed for this, such as Just (https://just.systems/) and Task (https://taskfile.dev/), and I know some people use Make as a task runner (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40333481), but I've always preferred the simplicity and universality of shell scripts.

Bin CLI is a tool I wrote to add some of the niceties of these tools to shell scripts: it works even when you're currently in a subdirectory, only requires you to type enough of the command (script) name to uniquely identify it, and allows aliases to be defined. It also allows a project's commands to be listed (along with some help text), supports subcommands, and supports tab completion of command names. Of course scripts can be written in other languages too, just by adding the appropriate shebang.

Collaborators/contributors who don't have Bin CLI installed can just run the scripts directly - so I can enjoy the benefits without adding a hard dependency or extra barrier to entry. However, I also added support for defining one-liner scripts/aliases in a config file (much like "npm run" scripts are defined in package.json) for times when I want to avoid creating many trivial/wrapper scripts for common tasks.

It is implemented as a single Bash script, with minimal dependencies, small enough to keep in my Dotfiles repo (62 KB). I also made .deb and .rpm packages so it can easily be installed system-wide.

I find `just` to be better suited than `make` for this use case: https://github.com/casey/just

The siblings comment is good too, and often I'll put all the various commands into a subdir, and `just` is just an interface to that, particularly so if the script gets complex.

Then, `just` is really a signal "hey, this repo supports this interface" and things like `just -l` for discoverability.

I don't like makefiles, but I've been enjoying justfiles: https://github.com/casey/just

I started using just [0] on my projects and have been very happy so far. It is very similar to make but focused on commands rather than build outputs.

Define your recipes and then you can compose them as needed.

[0] https://github.com/casey/just

just - https://github.com/casey/just

Welp there is absolute chaos in that thread -- guess it's not an April Fools joke.

I wonder if relying on CI for anything other than provisioning machines is a mistake -- maybe we should have never moved from doing things from local scripts written in $LANGUAGE.

That said, I'm probably biased since I'm a massive fan of things like `make` and more appropriately for the current age, `just`[0]

[0]: https://github.com/casey/just

> When a command has some cognitive requirements I create a script with some ${1:-default} values and I store them all in $PATH enabled local/bin

I would consider using just for this:

https://github.com/casey/just

Your coworker's experience is more principled: Make is a mediocre tool for executing commands. It wasn't ever designed for that. Although it is pretty common to see what you are mentioning in projects because it doesn't require installing a dependency.

For a repo where an easy to install (single binary) dependency is a non-issue, consider using just. [1] You get `just -l` where you can see all the command available, the ability to use different languages, and overall simpler command writing.

[1] https://github.com/casey/just