Editing Make (software) (section)

== Dependency tracking ==
Makefile consist of dependencies and a forgotten or an extra one may not be immediately obvious to the user and may result in subtle bugs in the generated software that are hard to catch. Various approaches may be used to avoid this problem and keep dependencies in source and makefiles in sync. One approach is using the compiler to keep track of dependencies changes. GCC can statically analyze the source code and produce rules for the given file automatically by using the {{Code|-MM}} switch. The other approach would be makefiles or third-party tools that would generate makefiles with dependencies (e.g. [[Automake]] toolchain by the [[GNU Project]], can do so automatically). 

Another approach is to use meta-build tools like [[CMake]], [[Meson (software)|Meson]] etc.