Is there an option to output the "preprocessed" makefile, something equivalent to the GCC's -E option?
I have a project comprised of an hierarchy of dozens of modules, each with its makefile. The build is invoked from a master makefile. That master makefile contains includes, variable definitions, command line option dependent variables, etc.
So, essentially, I am looking for the processed makefile, including all substitutions.
Not that I'm aware of. The closest thing you can get to this is the output from make -qp (or similar) which will dump the make database out at you.
Part of the problem with this request is that many of the substitutions/etc. happen as targets are processed and the list of targets isn't necessarily known without actually attempting a build (at least to an extent) so it isn't necessarily possible to fully expand/etc. a makefile in-place.
The make -d output is also useful for certain incidental information related to how make has processed the makefiles but doesn't contain makefile contents directly.
Remake might also be able to provide some extra useful information.
If you are looking for the computed value of some assembled/etc. global make variable then this blog post by Eric Melski is likely to be very helpful.
tl;dr It adds a target like this to the Makefile (though there's more magic in the blog post so I suggest reading it).
print-%:
#echo '$*=$($*)'
#echo ' origin = $(origin $*)'
#echo ' flavor = $(flavor $*)'
#echo ' value = $(value $*)'
Though in personal use I replaced that first line with something more like this
#echo '$*=$(subst ','\'',$($*))'
to keep the quoting of the result correct.
Related
I want to retrieve some Values from AWS and use them afterwards in my Makefile. But for that purpose I need to remove the quotes.
I know different ways how to do that in Linux but not in Windows. The only hint I found is this: https://ss64.com/nt/syntax-dequote.html
But all my attempts to use it with my code have not worked so far.
The Code looks like this:
aws/project_name:
# $(eval PROJECT = $(shell aws ssm get-parameter --name "$(PROJECT_PARAMETER)" --query Parameter.Value))
#set PROJECT = %~1
# echo $(PROJECT)
When I run it the result is:
"MyProject"
Can someone give me hint pls how to strip the Double-quotes?
$(eval ) is a make function, not something which is evaluated as part of a shell script like your snippet suggests. Moreover you need to concatenate recipe shell lines with backslash, otherwise each line is executed in a separate shell process, thereby losing access to any variable instantiated in previous lines.
Another issue is the use of $(PROJECT) without quoting: make will replace this with its internal PROJECT variables' value before it goes to evaluate even the first line (see below) of your recipe. If you want to access the shell variable in this line, quote every use of $ with $$.
To answer your original question for replacement of "": $(patsubst "%",%,$(PROJECT)) would do that - you can wrap the whole $(shell ...) in it. but I suspect your troubles with what you are trying to achieve will not end there.
It is rather complicated to introduce make variable values in a running build in the right order. I'm stressing this again: At least you must keep in mind that make evaluates all of its own syntax (e.g. the $(eval ) call) always and entirely before it executes the recipe. Moreover, the order of evaluation of the rule is also split into two phases, see here: https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/Reading-Makefiles.html#Reading-Makefiles. If you don't understand the execution model of a makefile you will not be able to write controlled advanced scripting code in it.
One can do advanced scripting with make like you are trying, but I recommend a strict architectural approach for such makefiles - ad-hoc writing them will likely lead to chaos.
The current file could be written as:
aws/project_name: ;
# ';' reliably separates recipe lines from target & prerequisites
# we still need to $(eval) PROJECT because it is only accessible for other recipes this way
$(eval PROJECT = $(patsubst "%",%,$(shell aws ssm get-parameter --nam`enter code here`e "$(PROJECT_PARAMETER)" --profile enchomepage --query Parameter.Value)))
#echo $(PROJECT)
later_target: aws/project_name
# this should work now:
#echo $(PROJECT)
...but beware, this is exactly the part where such makefiles become hard to trace, becaus now you need to mentally follow the evaluation order, take care that variables used downstream are really $(eval )'ed upstream (they won't if the recipe isn't executed) thereby having sidestepped the usual contract which other programmers expect from a makefile.
I am trying to build a framework which is supposed to apply similar operations to different designs/projects. Therefore, I have a general Makefile which defines general targets used for most of the operations. The idea is then that each design has its own main Makefile. This main Makefile includes the general Makefile for the general functionality, defines some variables for some basic configuration of the general Makefile, but can also extend or override variables from the general Makefile or define new targets or override targets when they are not applicable.
So the simplified directory structure looks something like this:
<Root Dir>
| -- targets.mk
| -- design1
| -- Makefile
| -- design2
| -- Makefile
The simplified general Makefile targets.mk looks something like this
${FF_LIST}: ${SRC_FILES}
#echo "Extract FF List for ${DESIGN_NAME}"
.PHONY: get_ff_list
get_ff_list: ${FF_LIST}
#echo "Get FF list for ${DESIGN_NAME} from ${FF_LIST}"
And the simplified design specific Makefile looks something like this:
include ../targets.mk
DESIGN_NAME = design1
FF_LIST = ./misc/ff_list.csv
With this implementation, I have the problem now, when calling the target get_ff_list within the design1 directory, that the recipe for the get_ff_list target is executed but the prerequisites are not, although the echo prints the right file.
user:/tmp/make_test/design1$ make get_ff_list
Get FF list for design1 from ./misc/ff_list.csv
It seems like that the target ${FF_LIST} is not expanded correctly. I can understand that during the time I am including the targets.mk Makefile this variable does not exist. However, my understanding of Makefile's recursive variable declaration with = should expand the variable every time the variable is used (as it is done and seems to work within the recipe itself).
I could include the targets.mk Makefile at the end after the configuration/setting the variables, like:
DESIGN_NAME = design1
FF_LIST = ./misc/ff_list.csv
include ../targets.mk
This seems to work and solve this particular issue. However, when I also want to extend or override variables/targets from the general Makefile, then it becomes a bit less obvious where to include it. Especially, if I am not the only one using the framework and other users create there own new designs.
Maybe this is even not a good way to use Makefiles to begin with. I would also be happy to get suggestions of better ways to implement this.
However, my understanding of Makefile's recursive variable declaration with = should expand the variable every time the variable is used (as it is done and seems to work within the recipe itself).
No. Read the section of the manual on How make Reads a Makefile to understand when variables are expanded immediately, and when the expansion is deferred.
The simplest way to do what you want is for the include targets.mk to come at the end of the Makefile, not at the beginning. If that's not feasible then you'll have to split the main makefile into two parts, one that sets variables and is included first, and the other that defines rules and is included last.
I'm working on a rather large project in pure C, and for various reasons we are not using CMake.
We have a good system which uses various shell commands to require very little maintanence. It will automatically find new headers and C files and add the headers to the dependencies and will compile the C files and include them in the output. However, we've gotten to the point where any changes we make to the header files becomes a problem because it requires a recompilation of the entire project, rather than just the C files that include it directly or indirectly.
I've worked on a system to ensure that the only header files which are added as dependencies are ones which are required by the C file itself (recursively up the tree).
I had thought I would be able to solve this myself, but it seems that make has rather inconsistent rules for expansion of variables.
The solution I came up with was to try to use ag and get all the includes out of the file. This works as intended, and I pipe it into tr so that I can ensure that no newlines are added, thereby messing up make. The issue that I'm having though is in determining which file to search in. This is the recipe that it's using for the section in question:
$(GAMEOBJDIR)/%.o : $(GAMEDIR)/%.c $(shell ag -o '(?<=(^#include "))(.*?)(?=("$$))' $(GAMEDIR)/%.c | tr '\n' ' ')
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(if $(RELEASE),$(RELFLAGS),$(DBFLAGS)) -c -o $# $<
The problem is that $(GAMEDIR)/%.c is expanding to src/game/%.c and not src/game/<filename>.c. I'm unsure how to fix this issue based on the expansion rules of make.
Once I can figure this out I'll be able to make sure this walks up the chain of header files too, but until I can get this figured out I have no reason to work on that.
Make's rules for expansion are completely consistent... but sometimes they aren't what people want. That's not the same thing :)
Rules for expansion are explained in the manual. In your case you're working with a prerequisite list which means the variables are expanded as the makefile is parsed. That includes the shell command and all other variables. Because you are working with a pattern rule, it means that at the time the makefile is parsed it doesn't match any particular file, it's just defining the pattern rule itself. So, % can't be expanded here. It will be expanded later, when make starts walking the dependency graph and trying to locate ways to build targets.
In general your method cannot work efficiently. You could defer the expansion of these parts of the prerequisites list using Secondary Expansion. However, that means every time make wants to TRY to use this pattern it will run these commands--that will just be slow.
Have you considered using a more standard way to manage detecting prerequisites? Try reading this description for example to see if it would work for you.
I have a project that involves sub-directories with sub-makefiles. I'm aware that I can pass variables from a parent makefile to a sub-makefile through the environment using the export command. Is there a way to pass variables from a sub-makefile to its calling makefile? I.e. can export work in the reverse? I've attempted this with no success. I'm guessing once the sub-make finishes its shell is destroyed along with its environment variables. Is there another standard way of passing variables upward?
The short answer to your question is: no, you can't [directly] do what you want for a recursive build (see below for a non-recursive build).
Make executes a sub-make process as a recipe line like any other command. Its stdout/stderr get printed to the terminal like any other process. In general, a sub-process cannot affect the parent's environment (obviously we're not talking about environment here, but the same principle applies) -- unless you intentionally build something like that into the parent process, but then you'd be using IPC mechanisms to pull it off.
There are a number of ways I could imagine for pulling this off, all of which sound like an awful thing to do. For example you could write to a file and source it with an include directive (note: untested) inside an eval:
some_target:
${MAKE} ${MFLAGS} -f /path/to/makefile
some_other_target : some_target
$(eval include /path/to/new/file)
... though it has to be in a separate target as written above because all $(macro statements) are evaluated before the recipe begins execution, even if the macro is on a later line of the recipe.
gmake v4.x has a new feature that allows you to write out to a file directly from a makefile directive. An example from the documentation:
If the command required each argument to be on a separate line of the
input file, you might write your recipe like this:
program: $(OBJECTS)
$(file >$#.in) $(foreach O,$^,$(file >>$#.in,$O))
$(CMD) $(CMDFLAGS) #$#.in
#rm $#.in
(gnu.org)
... but you'd still need an $(eval include ...) macro in a separate recipe to consume the file contents.
I'm very leery of using $(eval include ...) in a recipe; in a parallel build, the included file can affect make variables and the timing for when the inclusion occurs could be non-deterministic w/respect to other targets being built in parallel.
You'd be much better off finding a more natural solution to your problem. I would start by taking a step back and asking yourself "what problem am I trying to solve, and how have other people solved that problem?" If you aren't finding people trying to solve that problem, there's a good chance it's because they didn't start down a path you're on.
edit You can do what you want for a non-recursive build. For example:
# makefile1
include makefile2
my_tool: ${OBJS}
# makefile2
OBJS := some.o list.o of.o objects.o
... though I caution you to be very careful with this. The build I maintain is extremely large (around 250 makefiles). Each level includes with a statement like the following:
include ${SOME_DIRECTORY}/*/makefile
The danger here is you don't want people in one tree depending on variables from another tree. There are a few spots where for the short term I've had to do something like what you want: sub-makefiles append to a variable, then that variable gets used in the parent makefile. In the long term that's going away because it's brittle/unsafe, but for the time being I've had to use it.
I suggest you read the paper Recursive Make Considered Harmful (if that link doesn't work, just google the name of the paper).
Your directory structure probably looks like this:
my_proj
|-- Makefile
|-- dir1
| `-- Makefile
`-- dir2
`-- Makefile
And what you are doing in your parent Makefile is probably this:
make -C ./dir1
make -C ./dir2
This actually spawns/forks a new child process for every make call.
You are asking for updating the environment of the parent process from its children, but that's not possible by design (1, 2).
You still could work around this by:
using a file as shared memory between two processes (see Brian's answer)
using the child's exit error code as a trigger for different actions [ugly trick]
I think the simplest solution is using standard out from a sub Makefile.
Parent Makefile
VAR := $(shell $(MAKE) -s -C child-directory)
all:
echo $(VAR)
Child Makefile
all:
#echo "MessageToTheParent"
I have a Variable in make that is dependant on a file that must be built before the variable can be set, is there a way to get this to work?
parsable_file: dependancies
commands to make parsable_file
targets=$(shell parse_cmd parsable_file)
$(targets): parsable_file
command to make targets
.phony: all
all:$(targets)
If I run $ make parsable_file && make all this will work (I get an error that parse_cmd cant find parsable_file but it works), but just make all will not work. Is there a Make idiom for this?
Set the variable in a file that you include in the main makefile and include a rule in the main makefile for how to build it (the one you already have should be fine).
I believe that will do what you want.
See Including Other Makefiles and How Makefiles Are Remade (which is linked from the first section) for more details on this concept.
Also, unless parseable_file has a usage independent from that parse_cmd call, it should be possible to do the creation and the parsing at the same time and just have the resulting makefile contain the correct value for $(targets) in one step.