Makefile: prevent infinite pattern recursion - makefile

I thought this is quite simple
%.png: ../figs/%.png
convert $? -resize '40%' $#
That is, I want to generate an image in this directory from the corresponding image in "../figs/" .
But, the above leads to an infinite chain of dependencies because ../figs/foo.png matches %.png and therefore make tries to check ../figs/../figs/foo.png, which matches %.png and therefore make tries to . . .
Eventually, make stops with "File name too long".
I must be missing something. What is a clean solution?

Kill the chain with an empty rule
%.png: ../figs/%.png
convert $? -resize '40%' $#
../figs/%.png: ;

All the answers above are quite interesting. However, I'll like to mention the terminal rule solution:
%.png:: ../figs/%.png
convert $? -resize '40%' $#
By changing to a double colon ::, we then mark the prerequisites terminal:
One choice is to mark the match-anything rule as terminal by defining it with a double colon. When a rule is terminal, it does not apply unless its prerequisites actually exist. Prerequisites that could be made with other implicit rules are not good enough. In other words, no further chaining is allowed beyond a terminal rule.
Note: only suitable for match-anything rules.
What are double-colon rules in a Makefile for?
GNU make seems to ignore non-terminal match-anything rules for intermediate files

user657267's solution is perfect. Another option is to use static pattern rules:
PNGS := $(patsubst ../figs/%.png,%.png,$(wildcard ../figs/*.png))
all: $(PNGS)
$(PNGS): %.png: ../figs/%.png
convert $< -resize '40%' $#
clean:
rm -f $(PNGS)
Computing the list of all targets from the list of all prerequisites has several nice side effects, like the prossibility of adding the all and clean targets, for instance.

Related

Makefile: how to set up prerequisites for two lists of files

I have two lists of files as prerequisites
input_i.xx
config_j.yy
and I need to run all of their combinations. A single one looks like this:
input1_config3.output: input1.xx config3.yy
run_script $^
Also in reality, their names are not numbered, but I already have their stems defined in INPUTS and CONFIGS. With that, I can generate all the targets together
TARGETS:=$(foreach input,$(INPUTS),$(foreach config,$(CONFIGS),$(input)_$(config).output))
But I have difficulty with the prerequisites. It seems I need to
get basename
split on _
add the extensions .xx and .yy
.SECONDEXPANSION
$(TARGETS): $(basename $#)
run_script $^
Can someone show me how to do that? Not sure if this the proper way, maybe a bottom-up way is easier?
make is not really suitable for keeping track of an M x N matrix of results. The fundamental problem is that you can't have two stems in a rule, so you can't say something like
# BROKEN
input%{X}_config%{Y}.output: input%{X}.xx config%{Y}.yy
As a rough approximation, you could use a recursive make rule to set a couple of parameters, and take it from there, but this is rather clumsy.
.PHONY: all
all:
$(MAKE) -$(MAKEFLAGS) X=1 Y=6 input1_config6.output
$(MAKE) -$(MAKEFLAGS) X=1 Y=7 input1_config7.output
$(MAKE) -$(MAKEFLAGS) X=2 Y=6 input2_config6.output
:
input$X_config$Y.output: input$X.xx config$Y.yy
run_script $^
It would be a lot easier if you provided a complete sample example with a complete set of targets and prerequisites and exactly what you wanted to happen.
Using .SECONDEXPANSION might work, but you're not using it correctly; please re-read the documentation. The critical aspect of .SECONDEXPANSION is that you have to escape the variables that you want to avoid expanding until the second pass. In your example you've not escaped anything, so .SECONDEXPANSION isn't actually doing anything at all here. However, as #tripleee points out it's not easy to use multiple variable values in a single target.
To do this more easily you'll probably want to use eval. Something like this:
define DECLARE
$1_$2.output: $1.xx $2.yy
TARGETS += $1_$2.output
endef
TARGETS :=
$(foreach input,$(INPUTS),$(foreach config,$(CONFIGS),$(eval $(call DECLARE,$(input),$(config)))))
$(TARGETS):
run_script $^
I have another solution using include and bash for loop.
include trees.mk
trees.mk:
#for input in $(INPUTS); do \
for config in $(CONFIGS); do \
echo $${input}_$$config.output : $${input}.xx $$config.yy; \
echo -e '\t run_scipt $$^ ';\
done \
done > $#
At the beginning, trees.mk doesn't exist. The double for loops write out the rule to the target using file redirection >$#.
I got this idea from Managing Projects with GNU Make, Third Edition By Robert Mecklenburg, on
page 56

How to check a string whether contain a substring in Makefile commands

I want to check whether a string variable contains a specified substring in the Makefile. The purpose is to clean the sub folders.
I used the below code, but it did not work.
SERVICES_LIST = A_Service B_Service C_Service #example
SPECIFIC_SERVICE_LIST = A_Service B_Service
clean:
#list='$(SERVICES_LIST)';for subdir in $$list;do \
echo "clean in $$subdir";\
if [[ "*$$subdir*" == "$(SPECIFIC_SERVICE_LIST)" ]];then\
make $$subdir clean;\
fi;\
done;\
This hasn't much to do with make, because substantially all the logic involved is expressed in the shell language. In particular, you seem to be assuming bash.
The problem is here:
if [[ "*$$subdir*" == "$(SPECIFIC_SERVICE_LIST)" ]];then\
You seem to by trying to match (make's expansion of) "$(SPECIFIC_SERVICE_LIST)" against a glob pattern formed as (make's expansion of) "*$$subdir*". But the left-hand side is quoted, so it is not interpreted as a pattern, and the == operator performs (exact) string matching, not pattern matching.
One of the main ways to apply such pattern-matching tests in the shell language is with a case construct, because the selection expressions used with it are always interpreted as globs. That might look like so in your makefile:
case "$(SPECIFIC_SERVICE_LIST)" in *$$subdir*) make $$subdir clean ;; esac
But the whole thing seems pretty non-idiomatic. Generally speaking, a makefile is tuned to the project. Even if it is dynamically generated in part or in whole, it is reasonable and appropriate to design your build system so that the clean target can do something more like this:
clean:
for subdir in $(SPECIFIC_SERVICE_LIST); do make -C $$subdir clean; done
... or maybe like this:
clean: clean_services
...
clean_services:
for subdir in $(SPECIFIC_SERVICE_LIST); do make -C $$subdir clean; done
I would make it more make way by defining a target for cleaning up any supported service and then call all required clean targets as a prerequisite to clean. This has additional advantage to make clean in parallel when running with -j option as opposed to strictly sequential shell loop.
$ cat Makefile
SERVICES_LIST = A_Service B_Service C_Service #example
SPECIFIC_SERVICE_LIST = A_Service B_Service
.PHONY: $(addsuffix -clean, $(SERVICES_LIST))
$(addsuffix -clean, $(SERVICES_LIST)): %-clean:
$(MAKE) -C $* clean
.PHONY: clean
clean: $(addsuffix -clean, $(SPECIFIC_SERVICE_LIST))

Always process outermost file extension (and strip extensions along the way)

I have a bunch of different source files in my static HTML blog. The outermost extensions explain the format to be processed next.
Example: Source file article.html.md.gz (with target article.html) should be processed by gunzip, then by my markdown processor.
Further details:
The order of the extensions may vary
Sometimes an extension is not used (article.html.gz)
I know how to process all different extensions
I know that the final form is always article.html
Ideally I would have liked to just write rules as follows:
...
all-articles: $(ALL_HTML_FILES)
%: %.gz
gunzip ...
%: %.md
markdown ...
%: %.zip
unzip ...
And let make figure out the path to take based on the sequence of extensions.
From the documentation however, I understand that there are constraints on match-all rules, and the above is not possible.
What's the best way forward? Can make handle this situation at all?
Extensions are made up examples. My actual source files make more sense :-)
I'm on holiday so I'll bite.
I'm not a fan of pattern rules, they are too restricted and yet too arbitrary at the same time for my tastes. You can achieve what you want quite nicely in pure make:
.DELETE_ON_ERROR:
all: # Default target
files := a.html.md.gz b.html.gz
cmds<.gz> = gzip -d <$< >$#
cmds<.md> = mdtool $< -o $#
define rule-text # 1:suffix 2:basename
$(if $(filter undefined,$(flavor cmds<$1>)),$(error Cannot handle $1 files: [$2$1]))
$2: $2$1 ; $(value cmds<$1>)
all: $2
endef
emit-rule = $(eval $(call rule-text,$1,$2))# 1:suffix 2:basename
emit-hierachy = $(if $(suffix $2),$(call emit-rule,$1,$2)$(call emit-hierachy,$(suffix $2),$(basename $2)))# 1:suffix 2:basename
emit-rules = $(foreach _,$1,$(call emit-hierachy,$(suffix $_),$(basename $_)))# 1:list of source files
$(call emit-rules,${files})
.PHONY: all
all: ; : $# Success
The key here is to set $files to your list of files.
This list is then passed to emit-rules.
emit-rules passes each file one-at-a-time to emit-hierachy.
emit-hierachy strips off each extension in turn,
generates the appropriate make syntax, which it passes to $(eval …).
emit-hierachy carries on until the file has only one extension left.
Thus a.html.md.gz becomes this make syntax:
a.html.md: a.html.md.gz ; gunzip <$< >$#
a.html: a.html.md ; mdtool $< -o $#
all: a.html
Similarly, b.html.gz becomes:
b.html: b.html.gz ; gunzip <$< >$#
all: b.html
Neato, or what?
If you give emit-rules a file with an unrecognised extension (c.html.pp say),
you get a compile-time error:
1:20: *** Cannot handle .pp files: [c.html.pp]. Stop.
Compile-time? Yeah, before any shell commands are run.
You can tell make how to handle .pp files by defining cmds<.pp> :-)
For extra points it's also parallel safe. So you can use -j9 on your 8 CPU laptop, and -j33 on your 32 CPU workstation. Modern life eh?

dividing outputs in make by filename

I am processing some files and want to at one point create two categories depending on the filename so I can compare the two. Is this possible in a makefile?
%.output1: %.input
ifneq (,$(findstring filename1,$(echo $<)))
mv $<.output1 $#
endif
%.output2: %.input
ifneq (,$(findstring filename2,$(echo $<)))
mv $<.output2 $#
endif
%.output_final: %.output1 %.output2
do_something
I think there is two things wrong with this code:
There is a mistake in the ifneq line.
%.output1 %.output2 will always use the same filename - it may not be possible to do this in 'make' and this may require ruffus.
You have tab-indented the ifneq line so make doesn't consider it a make directive and is considering it a shell command and attempting to pass it to the shell to execute (hence the shell error you removed in your recent edit).
Use spaces (or no indentation) on that line to have make process it correctly. That being said having done that you cannot use $< in the comparison as it will not be set at that point.
$(echo) is also not a make function. You have mixed/confused processing times. You cannot combine make and shell operations that way. (Not that you need echo there to begin with.)
If you want the comparison to happen at shell time then do not use make constructs and instead use shell constructs:
%.output1: %.input
if [ filename1 = '$<' ]; then
mv $<.output1 $#
fi
Though that is also incorrect as $< is %.input and $# is %.output1 for whatever stem matched the %. That rule should probably look more like this (though I'm having trouble understanding what you are even trying to have this rule do so I may have gotten this wrong).
%.output1: %.input
# If the stem that matched the '%' is equal to 'filename1'
if [ filename1 = '$*' ]; then
# Then copy the prerequisite/input file to the output file name.
cp $< $#
fi
I'm not sure I understand your second question point. The % in a single rule will always match the same thing but between rules it can differ.
This %.output_final: %.output1 %.output2 target will map the target file foo.output_final to the prerequisite files foo.output1 and foo.output2. But will also map any other *.output_final file to appropriately matching prerequisite files.

Can prerequisites in a static pattern rule be filtered?

I'm trying to limit $(all_possible_inputs) to $(relevant_inputs). $(all_possible_inputs) is a concatenation of multiple files from other included makefiles. The following functions correctly (the perl scripts know how to ignore the extra inputs), but everything is rebuilt if a single input changes:
$(step2_outputs): $(data)/%.step2: $(routines)/step2.%.pl $(all_possible_inputs)
perl $^ > $#
UPDATE: Filter must match more than one *.step1 file. If step1 produced:
A.foo.step1
A.bar.step1
B.foo.step1
B.bar.step1
B.baz.step1
Then step2's rules should expand to:
A.step2: routines/step2.A.pl A.foo.step1 A.bar.step1
B.step2: routines/step2.B.pl B.foo.step1 B.bar.step1 B.baz.step1
Logically, this is what I want to work:
$(step2_outputs): $(data)/%.step2: $(routines)/step2.%.pl $(filter $(data)/%.*.step1,$(all_possible_inputs))
perl $^ > $#
The % is supposed to match the static pattern rule stem. The * is supposed to be a wildcard (which I'm aware won't work). I believe the problem is that filter repurposes '%', so the filter expression fails. I thought it might be solvable with Secondary Expansion, but I tried this, and the filter still returned the empty string:
UPDATE: I switched the examples to use $$* based on Beta's good suggestion:
.SECONDEXPANSION:
$(step2_outputs): $(data)/%.step2: $(routines)/step2.%.pl $$(filter $(data)/$$*.%.step1,$(all_possible_inputs))
perl $^ > $#
This is running on gnu make 3.81 in a linux environment.
Your third method works for me, but you can try this: instead of % (which is expanded in the first phase) use $$*
.SECONDEXPANSION:
$(step2_outputs): $(data)/%.step2: $(routines)/step2.%.pl $$(filter $(data)/$$*.step1,$(all_possible_inputs))
perl $^ > $#

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