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Makefile is one of those tools that software developers use without thinking much about, and so it's not improved the same way as the code. You might have seen a Make or a Makefile in the root folder when you joined a codebase, and you might even find that there are make commands in your CI pipeline. Makefile is a powerful tool that has survived the passage of time because, in simple words, it makes the life of developers easier.
However, without knowing enough about it you might not be able to continue making other people's life easier, and might just stick with the file that already exists in your organization. Learning its basics is not too complex, and it will give you a lot of power to simplify commands and help others get to work in the codebase.
Makefile was initially designed to automate the creation (or making) of files, thus the name Make file. The idea is simple: add the name of the file that you want to create, named the target, followed by the shell commands that create it.
