In defense of the Makefiles, it's a known quality. They are indeed arcane and somewhat fragmented (BSD/GNU use different conventions; plan9 mk is a far cleaner

In defense of the Makefiles, it's a known quality. They are indeed arcane and somewhat fragmented (BSD/GNU use different conventions; plan9 mk is a far cleaner solution), but you only need to learn them once, and things you've learned about make in the 80s is mostly still relevant in 2023. It's a dragon you only need to defeat once.