I've seen a few, but the only one I can remember off the top of my head is just[0].
So when you run a command it runs the dependencies then the commands, in full, every time.
I very much prefer that usually, because either the underlying tooling handles checking if all’s right or there is no such checking to do and it would be a problem.
But if you expect just to build your C project and handle not touching stuff which doesn’t need to be, you’ll be disappointed.
Rake is fully programmable in Ruby. Just is a bit less flexible, but it doesn't require learning Ruby, and it's quite pleasant to use.
There was an article specifically avout that on the interwebs but I can't find it anymore. These ones cover some bits as well, although they're a tad heavier on using Ruby code.