make is not limited to C/C++ programs. You can use it to organize shell commands as well.

a simple example of Makefile:

target: prerequisites
	echo "Hello, Xiamen!"

prerequisites:
	echo "Hello, Vancouver!"

Note: Makefiles must be indented using TABs and not spaces or make will fail.

Here is the output of running the above example:

$ make target
echo "Hello, Vancouver!"
Hello, Vancouver!
echo "Hello, Xiamen!"
Hello, Xiamen!
$ make prerequisites
echo "Hello, Vancouver!"
Hello, Vancouver!

Another example of Makefile :

hey: one two
	touch hey

one:
	touch one

two:
	touch two

clean:
	rm -f hey one two

Here is the output:

$ make hey
touch one
touch two
touch hey
$ make clean
rm -f hey one two