Self-Documented Makefile

Makefile

##--------------------
## Makefile Template
## Author:Fabio Rizzi
##--------------------
.DEFAULT_GOAL := help
args = `arg="$(filter-out $@,$(MAKECMDGOALS))" && echo $${arg:-${1}}`
export LANG?=en_US.UTF-8

VARIABLE:=\
	line1 \
	line2 \
	lineN \

.PHONY: print
print: ## print VARIABLE
	@for var in $(VARIABLE); do echo $$var; done

.PHONY: example
example: other_example ## make example -- <args> 
	@echo example args: $(call args,)

.PHONY: other_example
other_example: ## called by 'example'
	@echo other_example

.PHONY: help
help: ## Show this help
	@printf "\nusage : make <commands> \n\nthe following commands are available: \n\n"
	@grep -E '^[a-zA-Z_-]+:.*?## .*$$' $(MAKEFILE_LIST) | sort | awk 'BEGIN {FS = ":.*?## "}; {printf "\033[36m%-30s\033[0m %s\n", $$1, $$2}'
	@printf "\n"

Inspired from:

• https://marmelab.com/blog/2016/02/29/auto-documented-makefile.html
• https://gist.github.com/prwhite/8168133