The Big Picture

The make tool is called kmk and is a modified GNU make.

When invoked (without the -f option) this will happen:

1. kmk will look for Makefile.kmk, makefile.kmk, GNUmakefile, makefile or Makefile in that order and read the first it finds.
2. In the makefile there are include statements which in turn will cause header.kmk and footer.kmk to be loaded.
3. header.kmk will setup a bunch of useful variables and load the first Config.kmk or config.kmk file in the directory tree starting from the makefile directory and up to DEPTH.
4. footer.kmk will generate make goals from the target lists and target properties defined in the makefile.
5. kmk will start at the default goal (all_recursive) and resolve all its prerequisites.
6. This will cause the list of passes in DEFAULT_PASSES to be iterated, recusing into subdirectories if configured to do so for each pass.

The Target Lists

kBuild will by default pick up and process the following target lists:

1. BLDPROGS - build programs, e.g. programs that will be used later in the build process and will run on the build platform. Will by default be compiled with the BUILD_PLATFORM as target.
2. LIBRARIES and IMPORT_LIBS - object libraries.
3. DLLS - dynamic link libraries and shared objects.
4. PROGRAMS - program binaries.
5. SYSMODS - system modules, kernel extentions, device drivers, etc.
6. OTHERS - user defined targets.
7. INSTALLS - installation targets. This can be excluded from the default pass by adding DEFAULT_PASSES := $(filter-out INSTALLS,$(DEFAULT_PASSES)) to the relevant Config.kmk.
8. PACKING - the packing goals. These are the prerequisties for the packing pass.

TODO: More details.

The Target Properties

Each target has a number of properties which kBuild will look for. Some of these properties will come from the template if used, others will be picked up from the relevant tool and sdks. Which properties kBuild looks for depends on which target list the target was picked up in.