If you are new to make, or are looking for a general
introduction, read the first few sections of each chapter, skipping the
later sections. In each chapter, the first few sections contain
introductory or general information and the later sections contain
specialized or technical information.
The exception is section An Introduction to Makefiles,
all of which is introductory.
If you are familiar with other make programs, see section Features of GNU make, which lists the enhancements GNU
make has, and section Incompatibilities and Missing Features, which explains the few things GNU make lacks that
others have.
For a quick summary, see section Summary of Options, section Quick Reference, and section Special Built-in Target Names.