GNU Make - Extracting job parameters and passing it to another process - makefile

This is what I'm trying to do in my Makefile:
MAKE_381 := $(TOOLS)/bin/make-381
default:
cd proj && $(MAKE_381)
MAKE_381 refers to the version of make v3.81 binary. This is required since the proj directory contains Makefiles which are compatible only with v3.81 and nothing newer or older.
I need to have this Makefile always use make v3.81 to build proj independent of the version of GNU make the developer has installed on his/her system.
Invoking MAKE_381 works but with one caveat, any extra parameters like number of parallel jobs, are not passed to MAKE_381. I could not find any documentation on how to extract this information.
I'm aware of MAKEFLAGS variable in GNU make, which I understand should contain any extra parameters passed to make from command line, but somehow I find this value to be empty.
I do not wish to hardcode the number of jobs passed to MAKE_381, instead the parameter should be passed through based on the initial Makefile invoked.

All you have to do is prefix the command line with a + character, so make knows that you're invoking another sub-make process:
default:
+ cd proj && $(MAKE_381)
If your command used the variable MAKE directly then this would be automatic, but since you're using a different variable name (MAKE_381), you have to do it explicitly.

Related

How to save make argument in a variable

I am working on a (GNU) Makefile and need to save arguments in a variable.
Like if I give the command make projectX, then I need to assign projectX to some variable.
I tried to assign projectX like this, assuming that argument 1 would be projectX.
PRODUCT := "$1"
But this does not work.
What is the best way to assign make arguments in a variable?
From the GNU make manual:
Make will set the special variable MAKECMDGOALS to the list of goals you specified on the command line. If no goals were given on the command line, this variable is empty. Note that this variable should be used only in special circumstances.
And note that usually you would/should/must use $# to refer to the target of a rule.
You can also assign variables in make command line:
make PRODUCT=bla
Which is often used for debug/release builds:
make # builds debug version
make MODE=release # builds release version

How to prevent make from communicating any variable to a submake?

I am unable to prevent make from communicating any variables to a submake. I've read the manual and I've followed their advice (resetting MAKEOVERRIDES and MAKEFLAGS) but it's still not working has I think it should.
Consider the following prototype Makefile:
${warning $(MAKEOVERRIDES)}
${warning $(MAKEFLAGS)}
${warning $(VAR)}
none:
$(MAKE) -f Makefile MAKEOVERRIDES= MAKEFLAGS= all
all:
echo done!
If I make VAR=10 none, I get the following:
Makefile:2: VAR=10
Makefile:3:
Makefile:4: 10
make -f Makefile MAKEOVERRIDES= MAKEFLAGS= all
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/adriano/sandbox/makes'
Makefile:2:
Makefile:3:
Makefile:4: 10
echo done!
done!
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/adriano/sandbox/makes'
Meaning that make is communication VAR to the submake. Is this the correct behaviour?
I've tried unexport VAR and bash -c make ... without any luck.
EDIT: I've modified none's recipe to: bash -c "echo $$MAKEOVERRIDES $$MAKEFLAGS $$VAR" ; make ...
This way I found out that VAR is actually being passed through the environment that make creates for the commands to be executed and not through the other variables (the other variables are also passed this way to make).
I think my question now is: how can I create a fresh shell/environment to run my sub make?
EDIT: Someone asked why am I trying to this; I'll try to answer to that here.
I have a "module" which uses a variable named CONFIG. In order to build this module I need to build another partially unrelated "module" which also uses CONFIG, but with a different value. The problem is that when I try to build the "sub-module" CONFIG contains the value of the "super-module." I could specify CONFIG when making the "sub-module" however both modules use many variables with the same name and trying to specify them all would make the modules tightly coupled which is something I cannot afford.
How can this be so difficult...
This is wrong:
none:
$(MAKE) -f Makefile MAKEOVERRIDES= MAKEFLAGS= all
These variables (MAKEOVERRIDES and MAKEFLAGS) are set in the environment by the parent make to be passed down to the sub-makes. Setting overrides on these values inside the recipe won't help, because make has to set the environment for the recipe before it actually starts the commands in the recipe (of course).
You have to override/remove these values in the parent makefile, so that those changes are seen by the parent make before it constructs the sub-make's environment:
MAKEOVERRIDES =
none:
$(MAKE) -f Makefile all
There's no perfect way to do this. However, you can play a trick that will work most of the time:
unexport $(shell echo '$(MAKEOVERRIDES)' | sed 's/=[^ ]*//g')
MAKEOVERRIDES =
The first line tries to unexport all the variables in MAKEOVERRIDES and the second line resets MAKEOVERRIDES. There are a few issues with this. One is that if MAKEOVERRIDES is empty, it will use "unexport" by itself which unexports everything. That can be easily worked around by sticking some bogus variable before the shell function. The other is that if any variable's value contains whitespace, the expansion will consider it a variable to be unexported. That's probably OK, but it's odd.
I can't think of any better way to do it.
You don't really say why you want to do this. Have you considered doing something different, such as running the commands where you want to have a "vanilla" environment using env; for example if you want to run a command with a limited and specific set of env vars, you can run:
test:
env -i PATH='$(PATH)' LANG='$(LANG)' runMyCommand --with --my arguments
Unfortunately some versions of env use - instead of -i; check your man page.
Alternatively, you can try to start a login shell which will re-read the user's shell setup environment from scratch:
test:
/bin/sh -lc 'runMyCommand --with --my arguments'
EDIT: It's difficult because what you're asking to do (restrict the environment of the sub-make) is tricky.
Luckily based on your description, it doesn't seem necessary. Make has a hierarchy of importance for finding variable values. The command line is the highest level (well, there's override but we'll ignore that). After that comes variables set in the makefile itself. And last and lowest comes variables imported from the environment (well, default variables are even lower but we'll ignore that too).
So if your goal is to allow the variables in the sub-makes to not be affected by command line variables given to the upper-level makes, then all this rigmarole of getting the variables out of the environment is not necessary. Variables set in the sub-makefiles will take precedence over the values in the environment. So all you have to do is get rid of the variables set on the command line, which I've already shown how to do above, by setting MAKEOVERRIDES.

How to include makefiles dynamically?

Is it possible to include Makefiles dynamically? For example depending on some environment variable? I have the following Makefiles:
makefile
app1.1.mak
app1.2.mak
And there is an environment variable APP_VER which could be set to 1.1.0.1, 1.1.0.2, 1.2.0.1, 1.2.0.2.
But there will be only two different makefiles for 1.1 and 1.2 lines.
I have tried to write the following Makefile:
MAK_VER=$$(echo $(APP_VER) | sed -e 's/^\([0-9]*\.[0-9]*\).*$$/\1/')
include makefile$(MAK_VER).mak
all: PROD
echo MAK_VER=$(MAK_VER)
But it does not work:
$ make all
"makefile$(echo", line 0: make: Cannot open makefile$(echo
make: Fatal errors encountered -- cannot continue.
UPDATE:
As far as I understand make includes files before it calculates macros.
That's why it tries to execute the following statement
include makefile.mak
instead of
include makefile1.1.mak
You have two problems: your method of obtaining the version is too complicated, and your include line has a flaw. Try this:
include app$(APP_VER).mak
If APP_VER is an environmental variable, then this will work. If you also want to include the makefile called makefile (that is, if makefile is not the one we're writing), then try this:
include makefile app$(APP_VER).mak
Please note that this is considered a bad idea. If the makefile depends on environmental variables, it will work for some users and not others, which is considered bad behavior.
EDIT:
This should do it:
MAK_VER := $(subst ., ,$(APP_VER))
MAK_VER := $(word 1, $(MAK_VER)).$(word 2, $(MAK_VER))
include makefile app$(MAK_VER).mak
Try this:
MAK_VER=$(shell echo $(APP_VER) | sed -e 's/^\([0-9]*\.[0-9]*\).*$$/\1/')
MAK_FILE=makefile$(MAK_VER).mak
include $(MAK_FILE)
all:
echo $(MAK_VER)
echo $(MAK_FILE)
Modifying the outline solution
Have four makefiles:
makefile
app1.1.mak
app1.2.mak
appdummy.mak
The app.dummy.mak makefile can be empty - a symlink to /dev/null if you like. Both app.1.1.mak and app.1.2.mak are unchanged from their current content.
The main makefile changes a little:
MAK_VER = dummy
include makefile$(MAK_VER).mak
dummy:
${MAKE} MAK_VER=$$(echo $(APP_VER) | sed -e 's/^\([0-9]*\.[0-9]*\).*$$/\1/') all
all: PROD
...as now...
If you type make, it will read the (empty) dummy makefile, and then try to build the dummy target because it appears first. To build the dummy target, it will run make again, with APP_VER=1.1 or APP_VER=1.2 on the command line:
make APP_VER=1.1 all
Macros set on the command line cannot be changed within the makefile, so this overrides the line in the makefile. The second invocation of make, therefore, will read the correct version-specific makefile, and then build all.
This technique has limitations, most noticeably that it is fiddly to arrange for each and every target to be treated like this. There are ways around it, but usually not worth it.
Project organization
More seriously, I think you need to review what you're doing altogether. You are, presumably, using a version control system (VCS) to manage the source code. Also, presumably, there are some (significant) differences between the version 1.1 and 1.2 source code. So, to be able to do a build for version 1.1, you have to switch from the version 1.1 maintenance branch to the version 1.2 development branch, or something along those lines. So, why isn't the makefile just versioned for 1.1 or 1.2? If you switch between versions, you need to clean out all the derived files (object files, libraries, executables, etc) that may have been built with the wrong source. You have to change the source code over. So why not change the makefile too?
A build script to invoke make
I also observe that since you have the environment variable APP_VER driving your process, that you can finesse the problem by requiring a standardized 'make invoker' that sorts out the APP_VER value and invokes make correctly. Imagine that the script is called build:
#!/bin/sh
: ${APP_VER:=1.2.0.1} # Latest version is default
case $APP_VER in
[0-9].[0-9].*)
MAK_VER=`echo $APP_VER | sed -e 's/^\(...\).*/\1/'`
;;
*) echo "`basename $0 .sh`: APP_VER ($APP_VER) should start with two digits followed by dots" 1>&2;
exit 1;;
esac
exec make MAK_VER=$MAK_VER "$#"
This script validates that APP_VER is set, giving an appropriate default if it is not. It then processes that value to derive the MAK_VER (or errors out if it is incorrect). You'd need to modify that test after you reach version 10, of course, since you are planning to be so successful that you will reach double-digit version numbers in due course.
Given the correct version information, you can now invoke your makefile with any command line arguments.
The makefile can be quite simple:
MAK_VER = dummy
include app$(MAK_VER).mak
all: PROD
...as now...
The appdummy.mak file now contains a rule:
error:
echo "You must invoke this makefile via the build script" 1>&2
exit 1
It simply points out the correct way to do the build.
Note that you can avoid the APP_VER environment variable if you keep the product version number under the VCS in a file, and the script then reads the version number from the file. And there could be all sorts of other work done by the script, ensuring that correct tools are installed, other environment variables are set, and so on.

How does "make" app know default target to build if no target is specified?

Most Linux apps are compiled with:
make
make install clean
As I understand it, the make command takes names of build targets as arguments. So for example install is usually a target that copies some files to standard locations, and clean is a target that removes temporary files.
But what target will make build if no arguments are specified (e.g. the first command in my example)?
By default, it begins by processing the first target that does not begin with a . aka the default goal; to do that, it may have to process other targets - specifically, ones the first target depends on.
The GNU Make Manual covers all this stuff, and is a surprisingly easy and informative read.
To save others a few seconds, and to save them from having to read the manual, here's the short answer. Add this to the top of your make file:
.DEFAULT_GOAL := mytarget
mytarget will now be the target that is run if "make" is executed and no target is specified.
If you have an older version of make (<= 3.80), this won't work. If this is the case, then you can do what anon mentions, simply add this to the top of your make file:
.PHONY: default
default: mytarget ;
References:
https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/How-Make-Works.html
GNU Make also allows you to specify the default make target using a special variable called .DEFAULT_GOAL. You can even unset this variable in the middle of the Makefile, causing the next target in the file to become the default target.
Ref: The Gnu Make manual - Special Variables
bmake's equivalent of GNU Make's .DEFAULT_GOAL is .MAIN:
$ cat Makefile
.MAIN: foo
all:
#echo all
foo:
#echo foo
$ bmake
foo
See the bmake(1) manual page.

How can I ignore command line variable assignment in a recursive build?

I'm trying to glue two build systems together. Both are recursive (rules in the makefile use make to call other makefiles to build components of the project).
I'll call them 'A' and 'B' where 'A' builds the application and 'B' builds libraries used by 'A'.
The top level makefile in A calls 'make TARGET=whatever' which means that all the recursively-invoked bits of the build inherit the value of TARGET as a read-only variable, including the build system from B, which is called as part of the recursive build.
I don't want this to happen in the build system for 'B' (which come from a different project) as the makefiles there use TARGET for their own purposes and the build fails since TARGET has the wrong value and is read-only.
I can only see two solutions to this, neither of which is palettable;
1) Rename TARGET to something else in the makefile in A that sets it and in the makefiles in A that use it, to avoid the clash with the lower levels of the build system.
2) Use the 'override' directive everywhere in the makefiles in B where the TARGET variable is set, to override its read-only status.
Anyone got any better ideas? - ideally, I want nothing to be inherited by the B's build system from A's, except those options I explicitly pass to the B build system from A.
Incidentally, I'm using GNU Make v3.80.
You could set MAKEOVERRIDES to nothing in the second-level makefile in A.
callb:
cd subdir && $(MAKE) MAKEOVERRIDES=
This passes down the normal commandline parameters like -k and -s but not commandline variable definitions.
Or you use the historical MFLAGS which is the same as MAKEFLAGS except MFLAGS doesn't contain the commandline variable definitions.
callb:
cd subdir && $(MAKE) $(MFLAGS)
Details about this two options can be read here: The GNU Make Manual
Perhaps you can use the "unexport" directive to prevent TARGET from being propagated to B's makefile?
At the point where build system A invokes build system B, do not use '${MAKE}' directly; invoke a shell script that invokes build system B (possibly after sanitizing the environment).
To achieve the behaviour where the commands are executed by 'make -n', prefix the command line in the makefile with '+' (similar to prefixing the line with '#' or '-').
It sounds like you have modified the A makefile to recursively invoke the B makefile, and thus your problem. Why not instead introduce a new toplevel makefile which recursively invokes the B makefile, and then recursively invokes the A makefile? For example, combined.mk:
all:
$(MAKE) -f Makefile.B
$(MAKE) -f Makefile.A
That way the B makefile inherits nothing from the A makefile.

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