makefile-help
An easy way to add an auto-generated make help target to your Node.js project's Makefile.
This makes make command discovery nicer, while still using the same make tool that's available in pretty much every dev environment. If you're looking for something a bit more powerful, but at the expense of installing something new, check out tj/mmake!
Example
For a makefile like...
ifneq ($(wildcard ./node_modules),)
include ./node_modules/makefile-help/Makefile
endif
# Run commands with the node debugger. (default: false)
DEBUG ?= false
ifeq ($(DEBUG),false)
node = node
else
node = node debug
endif
# Remove all of the derived files.
clean:
@ rm -rf ./node_modules ./lib
# Compile the source with babel.
lib:
@ ./node_modules/.bin/babel-cli --out-dir ./lib ./src
# Start the development server.
start:
@ $(node) ./server/index.jsRunning make help will print out...
$ make help
Usage:
make <target> [flags...]
Targets:
clean Remove all of the derived files.
help Show this help prompt.
lib Compile the source with babel.
start Start the development server.
Flags:
DEBUG Run commands with the node debugger. (default: false)
Installation
yarn add makefile-helpnpm install --save makefile-helpUsage
To use it, include this module's Makefile in your own...
ifneq ($(wildcard ./node_modules),)
include ./node_modules/makefile-help/Makefile
endifAnd then run...
$ make helpThe help command will auto-populate from targets that look like:
# This comment will show up for the target in the help.
target:And also for flag definitions like:
# This comment will show up for the flag in the help.
FLAG ?=