What this does is build a simple LaTeX + BibTeX document, and outputs a PDF or a PS document. It is available for download here

For those who don’t know makefiles, here’s a basic rundown of usage:

1. Put latex_makefile in the directory of your document, and rename it to Makefile.
2. Open up Makefile in a text editor, set TRG to the name of your document (without the .tex), and set HASBIB to yes if you have a BibTeX bibliography, or no if not.
3. Save and exit your text editor.
4. Run make in the directory of your document. This will spell-check your document, and then generate a PDF file of whatever your document name is.

This is a rather simple makefile, so it should work almost anywhere, as long as the variables are configured.

There are two other modes of operation, instead of the default:

• make print also runs the dvi generated by LaTeX through dvips, which by default sends the generated postscript to the default printer (at least on OS X). I do not expect this to be portable; hack in your own printing functions if you want it.
• make clean cleans the directory of the clutter left behind by running LaTeX, but it doesn’t remove your source TeX or BibTeX files.

I wrote it on Mac OS 10.4.9 for gmake, with latex, dvipdf, and dvips out of fink. I know that latex is available almost anywhere, and dvipdf is available on Fedora Core and OS X. My FC6 installation only shows dvipdf, so printing support will be iffy.