Check if a program exists from a Makefile

Question

How can I check if a program is callable from a Makefile?

(That is, the program should exist in the path or otherwise be callable.)

It could be used to chec

Answer 1

Cleaned up some of the existing solutions here...

REQUIRED_BINS := composer npm node php npm-shrinkwrap
$(foreach bin,$(REQUIRED_BINS),\
    $(if $(shell command -v $(bin) 2> /dev/null),$(info Found `$(bin)`),$(error Please install `$(bin)`)))

The $(info ...) you can exclude if you want this to be quieter.

This will fail fast. No target required.