automatically generating file dependency information frompython tools

[Moosebumps]

>
> In answer to the question you /almost/ asked:
>
> http://www.google.com/search?q=python+make+replacement
>

That is definitely of interest to me, but I would want to go one step
further and automatically generate the dependency info.  I haven't looked
specifically at these make replacements, but I would assume you have to use
a makefile or specify dependency info in some form like a text file.  What I
am looking for is a way to automatically generate it from the source code of
the individual tools that the make program will run, or by running the tools
in some special mode where they just spit out which files they will
read/write.

MB