My favourite (ab)use of `make` is as a batch runner: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32441602
This (ab)use of `make` runs multiple times a day, every day, and works perfectly every time.
The inspiration of this was an (ab)use of `make` as a way to paralellize Linux system startup: https://web.archive.org/web/20110606144530/http://www.ibm.co...