JediMasterT:

You'll find the 'make' command on most versions of *nix, and it gives you a nice way to recompile anything that's out of date. If you're with the "in crowd", you might consider learning 'Ant' which is similar but different. (If I understand it correctly, rather than using a "horrible text file", it uses a horrible XML file to describe how to keep the project up-to-date.)

...roboticus

XML: a horribly-overengineered solution to a simple problem.

Update: 'nant' to Ant (NAnt is for .NET), thanks for the catch, Perlbotics.