Make provides incremental execution of the build graph. It is aware of the dependency graph, and the state of inputs and outputs. It will (ideally) only execute

Make provides incremental execution of the build graph. It is aware of the dependency graph, and the state of inputs and outputs. It will (ideally) only execute the minimal build rules necessary. A shell script that checks file mtimes to determine what has already been built, and therefore what can be skipped, is close in spirit. Make variants like GNU Make have additional functionality, like automatic concurrent execution of parts of the build graph.