Software builds are a core part of the software development lifecycle. Builds are where source files are converted into executable software products. The classic tool for automating software builds is the Unix "make" program, which was invented around 1974 to reduce software build times for C programs on the new Unix operating system. Make programs decide whether source files need rebuilding based by using text Makefiles that contain dependency trees, and by comparing timestamps on source files and object files. Beginning in the 1980s, integrated development environments (IDEs) began to do software builds of IDE "project files" themselves, reducing the need for people to write traditional makefiles for software builds of IDE projects. However, makefiles are still very useful for software build operations that go beyond individual IDE projects, and so many modern IDEs generate external makefiles for IDE projects. Around the turn of the millennium (2000), a new generation of build manage- Category ID : 59058