No, it really can't. Nothing about C guarantees that the implementation will provide `make` (let alone that it will be POSIX make or BSD make or GNU make). Nor

No, it really can't. Nothing about C guarantees that the implementation will provide `make` (let alone that it will be POSIX make or BSD make or GNU make). Nor (going back to your original comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34244452 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34244452) is it guaranteed to be hosted on a system with dynamic linking. The OP library has a design such that the only build system you need is the preprocessor. That is a perfectly valid design decision, especially since this is explicitly for lighter-weight uses where GLib would be excessive. If you don't like it, don't use it. EDIT: Clang, for example, does not provide a `make` or guarantee a `make` exists. It will happily co-exist with BSD make on FreeBSD, or GNU make on macOS, or no make at all. I assume you concede on pkg-config, etc.