Sometimes it can be useful to know if a command exists from a Makefile.
For this we can use the command tool:
some-target:
@command -v foo >/dev/null 2>&1 || { echo >&2 "missing foo"; exit 1; }
foo
In this example, if the foo binary is not available, it will print the message and exit.
Note the @ before the command binary, it's used to hide its execution.