April 1976
Make build tool created
Stuart Feldman wrote Make at Bell Labs in April 1976 — the first tool to rebuild only what changed by tracking file dependencies.
What it was for
Make reads a Makefile listing targets and prerequisites — change one `.c` file and only its dependents recompile. Every C/C++ project, Linux kernelThe core of an operating system that manages hardware, memory, and processes — everything else depends on it. build, and countless CI pipelines still use Make or descendants (CMake, Ninja, GradleA build automation tool for Java, Kotlin, and Android projects using a flexible task model.). Example: `make` after editing `main.c` re-links the binary without rebuilding untouched objects.
Companies
- Bell Labs
Why it's here
Make invented dependency-driven builds — the pattern behind every modern build system.
Why it mattered
It stopped developers from shipping stale binaries because someone forgot to recompile.
What it solved
Manual rebuilds were error-prone; teams needed automatic tracking of which objects were out of date.
Media
ImageStuart FeldmanChristian Wirth, Wirthi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Related
- CMake releasedAugust 31, 2000
- Gradle first releasedApril 21, 2008
- Apache Ant first releasedJuly 19, 2000
- Bazel open-sourcedMarch 24, 2015
- Ninja build system open-sourcedFebruary 6, 2011
- Autoconf createdJune 1991