imake is a C preprocessor interface to the make utility for Unix Systems. Imake is used to generate Makefiles from a template, a set of cpp macro functions, and a per-directory input file called an Imakefile. This allows machine dependencies (such as compiler options, alternate command names, and special make rules) to be kept separate from the descriptions of the various items to be built. The C Programming Language, Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, the original edition that served for many years as an informal specification of the language The C programming language is a standardized imperative computer programming language developed in the early 1970s by Dennis Ritchie for use on the Unix operating system. ... make is a utility that automates the process of converting files from one form to another, doing dependency tracking and invoking external programs to do additional work as needed. ... Wikibooks has more about this subject: Guide to UNIX Unix or UNIX is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T Bell Labs employees including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and Douglas McIlroy. ... The C preprocessor is a preprocessor for the C programming language. ... A diagram of the operation of a typical multi-language compiler. ...

Imake grew out of the X Window System and has been part of its distribution since Version 11. With the release of X.org X11R7.0, it is being replaced by GNU autotools. KDE 3. ... The GNU build system, also called the GNU Autotools is a suite of tools produced by the GNU project that assist in making packages portable to many UNIX-like systems. ...

External links

imake FAQ at the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center