DevOps Beginner

What is Makefile?

A file containing build rules and commands that automates compilation and common project tasks using the make utility.

Makefiles define targets (tasks) with dependencies and shell commands. Running "make build" executes the build target. Make only rebuilds what has changed based on file timestamps, saving time on large projects.

Beyond compilation, Makefiles serve as project task runners: make test, make deploy, make clean. They provide a universal interface regardless of the underlying technology. Every developer can run make help to see available commands.

Related Terms

An architectural style where an application is composed of small, independent services that communicate over APIs.

Log Aggregation

The process of collecting, centralizing, and indexing log data from multiple sources for unified search and analysis.

Kubernetes ConfigMap

A Kubernetes object that stores non-sensitive configuration data as key-value pairs, injected into pods as environment variables or files.

Kubernetes Secret

A Kubernetes object for storing sensitive data like passwords, tokens, and certificates, with base64 encoding and optional encryption at rest.

Immutable Infrastructure

An approach where servers are never modified after deployment — changes require building and deploying entirely new server instances.

Chaos Engineering

The discipline of deliberately introducing failures into a system to test its resilience and identify weaknesses before they cause outages.

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