make
Learn the basics of makefile and how to use the make utility for building your applications in Linux with a sample C project.
My hope is for you to see that Make is an automation/orchestration tool that can be used in place of other modern build tools, and will help to strengthen your understanding and ability to use the terminal/shell environment (which is a big plus in my opinion, and helps open up many avenues of technical progression). Whole books have been written on the topic of Make and writing Makefiles so Mark will leave it up to you to investigate further beyond this post if he manages to kindle your interest.
A look at one of the most popular build systems for C and C++.