How to Makefile for dummies. Like me.

Makefile

##
##  A Sample Makefile
##
##  I worked on a pretty good Makefile once, so here's a sample in case I want to do one again.
##  Comments are above their relavant sections.
##

##
##  SHELL - declare the path to the shell you would like to run this shell as
##
SHELL = /bin/bash

##
##  Declare variables at the top, because you are a professional. I think the screamo-case is just
##  convention, but it seems like a good one.
##
SOME_VARIABLE = "this-is-a-thing"

##
## So these two help .... helpers are just sugar to let the user see what targets are available. In
## order for targets to show up in the list they have to be followed by a comment on the same line,
## like,
##
##      public-target: __private-target __other-private-target # comment explaining what this is
##
## or
##
##      __private-target: # explain what's going on here
##        @some-command
##        some-other-command -v "that does a thing"
##        /etc/etc/etc

help:
	@echo Public targets:
	@grep -E '^[^_]{2}[a-zA-Z_-]+:.*?## .*$$' $(MAKEFILE_LIST) | sort | awk 'BEGIN {FS = ":.*?## "}; {printf "  \033[36m%-20s\033[0m %s\n", $$1, $$2}'

help-private:
	@echo "Private targets: "
	@grep -E '^__[a-zA-Z_-]+:.*?## .*$$' $(MAKEFILE_LIST) | sort | awk 'BEGIN {FS = ":.*?## "}; {printf "  \033[35m%-20s\033[0m %s\n", $$1, $$2}'

##
##  Usually after the help ... helpers ... I put the "public targets". They're not really less hidden
##  that the "private" ones, but I try to keep them one word that's easy to type and break them into
##  smaller parts and make those the "private" targets
##

public: __public-header __public-info  ## An example of a public target

##
##  The only difference between "public" and "private" is the two underscores in front of the target
##  name (__like-so). Here I'm usually try to break up the "public" targets into smaller parts and
##  then compose them using the "public" targets. I think you get the idea.
##

__public-info: ## some info about the public target
	@echo
	@echo -e "\033[1;32m[  Public Target  ]\033[0m"
	@echo -e "Commands that start with @ (like @command-name) won't be echo'd to the screen."
	@echo -e "Leaving the @ off the command will echo it to the screen, which makes it easier "
	@echo -e "to see what ran. But things like @echo just clog up the output".
	@echo

##
##  What is any tool without some ASCII art illustration? In that spirit I like to provide headers
##  for my targets.
##
__public-header:
	@echo -e "\033[32m"
	@echo "  ███████          ██       ██ ██        "
	@echo "  ░██░░░░██        ░██      ░██░░         "
	@echo "  ░██   ░██ ██   ██░██      ░██ ██  █████ "
	@echo "  ░███████ ░██  ░██░██████  ░██░██ ██░░░██"
	@echo "  ░██░░░░  ░██  ░██░██░░░██ ░██░██░██  ░░ "
	@echo "  ░██      ░██  ░██░██  ░██ ░██░██░██   ██"
	@echo "  ░██      ░░██████░██████  ███░██░░█████ "
	@echo "  ░░        ░░░░░░ ░░░░░   ░░░ ░░  ░░░░░  "
	@echo -e "\033[0m"
	@echo