Makefiles are great but do try not to get carried away. Years ago I tried to create a pure GNU Make framework, only to realize I was effectively reinventing autoconf. That was the moment I finally understood what the GNU autotools had been made for.

Makefiles are eerily lisplike turing tarpits. GNU Make even has metaprogramming capabilities. Resisting the urge to metaprogram some unholy system inside the makefile can be difficult. The ubiquitousness of GNU Make makes it quite tempting.