fabricate - Project Hosting on Google Code
http://code.google.com/p/fabricate/

fabricate is a build tool that finds dependencies automatically for any language

Uses file access times or strace to autodetect dependencies.

fabricate is a build tool that finds dependencies automatically for any language. It's small and just works. No hidden stuff behind your back. It was inspired by Bill McCloskey's make replacement, memoize, but fabricate works on Windows as well as Linux.

minimalist make replacement

Build automation dependency checking and fulfilling.

Most of the time, especially in the Windows and Mac OS X world, end users don't have to compile software. The programmers of the software write the code and then compile it into a "binary executable" for you.

Building software from source - that's a bit old-school, isn't it? Who wants to wrestle with the command line, hunting down dependencies and coaxing the GCC compiler into running properly? Well, it does sound like a strange thing to do in this world of binary packages and online repositories.

compile source but also explains how to deal with issues that come up