Just in time for just

I'm committed to efficiency, reproducibility, and minimising risks in our projects. In this more technical post, I wanted to share one of the tools used to enhance productivity and processes in the data and analytics space. Today, I’m exploring the history and benefits of make (Makefile) and just (Justfile).

make was created in April 1976 at Bell Labs and quickly became a standard part of Unix systems. GNU Make, one of the most widely used implementations, was available for distribution by June 1988. As an aside, some developers embed Easter eggs or jokes within their Makefiles!

just is a modern alternative/complementary tool to make and was first released on GitHub in 2016. Justfiles are typically simpler and more user-friendly than Makefiles, focusing on running commands (recipes) rather than managing file dependencies. Just has gained popularity in recent years as a more straightforward build automation tool, especially for projects that don't require make's complex file-based rules. It does require the command line tool to be installed (e.g., via brew or similar), although it is often included standard with many Docker images.

Here is an example of a simple justfile. See just.systems for the detailed documentation.

I can help your team with their development best practices journey, please reach out.