Can I pass variables to a GNU Makefile as command line arguments? In other words, I want to pass some arguments which will eventually become variables in the Makefile.
You have several options to set up variables from outside your makefile:
From environment - each environment variable is transformed into a makefile variable with the same name and value.
You may also want to set -e option (aka --environments-override) on, and your environment variables will override assignments made into makefile (unless these assignments themselves use the override directive . However, it's not recommended, and it's much better and flexible to use ?= assignment (the conditional variable assignment operator, it only has an effect if the variable is not yet defined):
FOO?=default_value_if_not_set_in_environment
Note that certain variables are not inherited from environment:
MAKE is gotten from name of the script
SHELL is either set within a makefile, or defaults to /bin/sh (rationale: commands are specified within the makefile, and they're shell-specific).
From command line - make can take variable assignments as part of his command line, mingled with targets:
make target FOO=bar
But then all assignments to FOO variable within the makefile will be ignored unless you use the override directive in assignment. (The effect is the same as with -e option for environment variables).
Exporting from the parent Make - if you call Make from a Makefile, you usually shouldn't explicitly write variable assignments like this:
# Don't do this!
target:
$(MAKE) -C target CC=$(CC) CFLAGS=$(CFLAGS)
Instead, better solution might be to export these variables. Exporting a variable makes it into the environment of every shell invocation, and Make calls from these commands pick these environment variable as specified above.
# Do like this
CFLAGS=-g
export CFLAGS
target:
$(MAKE) -C target
You can also export all variables by using export without arguments.
The simplest way is:
make foo=bar target
Then in your makefile you can refer to $(foo). Note that this won't propagate to sub-makes automatically.
If you are using sub-makes, see this article: Communicating Variables to a Sub-make
Say you have a makefile like this:
action:
echo argument is $(argument)
You would then call it make action argument=something
From the manual:
Variables in make can come from the environment in which make is run. Every environment variable that make sees when it starts up is transformed into a make variable with the same name and value. However, an explicit assignment in the makefile, or with a command argument, overrides the environment.
So you can do (from bash):
FOOBAR=1 make
resulting in a variable FOOBAR in your Makefile.
It seems command args overwrite environment variable.
Makefile:
send:
echo $(MESSAGE1) $(MESSAGE2)
Example run:
$ MESSAGE1=YES MESSAGE2=NG make send MESSAGE2=OK
echo YES OK
YES OK
There's another option not cited here which is included in the GNU Make book by Stallman and McGrath (see http://www.chemie.fu-berlin.de/chemnet/use/info/make/make_7.html). It provides the example:
archive.a: ...
ifneq (,$(findstring t,$(MAKEFLAGS)))
+touch archive.a
+ranlib -t archive.a
else
ranlib archive.a
endif
It involves verifying if a given parameter appears in MAKEFLAGS. For example .. suppose that you're studying about threads in c++11 and you've divided your study across multiple files (class01, ... , classNM) and you want to: compile then all and run individually or compile one at a time and run it if a flag is specified (-r, for instance). So, you could come up with the following Makefile:
CXX=clang++-3.5
CXXFLAGS = -Wall -Werror -std=c++11
LDLIBS = -lpthread
SOURCES = class01 class02 class03
%: %.cxx
$(CXX) $(CXXFLAGS) -o $#.out $^ $(LDLIBS)
ifneq (,$(findstring r, $(MAKEFLAGS)))
./$#.out
endif
all: $(SOURCES)
.PHONY: clean
clean:
find . -name "*.out" -delete
Having that, you'd:
build and run a file w/ make -r class02;
build all w/ make or make all;
build and run all w/ make -r (suppose that all of them contain some certain kind of assert stuff and you just want to test them all)
If you make a file called Makefile and add a variable like this $(unittest)
then you will be able to use this variable inside the Makefile even with wildcards
example :
make unittest=*
I use BOOST_TEST and by giving a wildcard to parameter --run_test=$(unittest)
then I will be able to use regular expression to filter out the test I want my Makefile
to run
export ROOT_DIR=<path/value>
Then use the variable, $(ROOT_DIR) in the Makefile.
Related
I have a Makefile that defines docker-compose project.
It essentially assembles me a command:
COMMAND := docker-compose --project-name=$(PREFIX) --file=$(FILE_PATH)
up:
$(COMMAND) up -d
I would like to add a target named dc to which I would be able to pass any arguments I want.
I know there is one solution:
target:
$(COMMAND) $(ARGS)
And then call it with make target ARGS="--help" for example.
But isn't there an easier way like in bash $# ? I would like to skip the ARGS=... part and send everything to the command after target name.
Not really. The make program interprets all arguments (that don't contain =) as target names to be built and there's no way you can override that. So even though you can obtain the list of arguments given on the command line (via the GNU make-specific $(MAKECMDGOALS) variable) you can't prevent those arguments from being considered targets.
You could do something like this, which is incredibly hacky:
KNOWN_TARGETS = target
ARGS := $(filter-out $(KNOWN_TARGETS),$(MAKECMDGOALS))
.DEFAULT: ;: do nothing
.SUFFIXES:
target:
$(COMMAND) $(ARGS)
(untested). The problem here is you have to keep KNOWN_TARGETS up to date with all the "real" targets so you can remove them from the list of targets given on the command line. Then add the .DEFAULT target which will be run for any target make doesn't know how to build, which does nothing. Reset the .SUFFIXES meta-target to remove built-in rules.
I suspect this still will have weird edge-cases where it doesn't work.
Also note you can't just add options like --help to the make command line, because make will interpret them itself. You'll have to prefix them with -- to force make to ignore them:
make target -- --help
Another option would be to add a target like this:
target%:
$(COMMAND) $*
Then you can run this:
make "target --help"
But you have to include the quotes.
In general I just recommend you reconsider what you want to do.
You could write a bash wrapper script to do what you'd like:
#/bin/bash
make target ARGS=\"$#\"
The reason you don't want to do it in make, is that make parses the command line parameters before it parse the makefile itself, so by the time you read the makefile, the targets, variables, etc have already been set. This means that make will have already interpreted the extra parameters as new targets, variables etc.
A target that re-run make containerized
.PHONY: all containerized
ifeq ($(filter containerized,$(MAKECMDGOALS)),containerized)
.NOTPARALLEL: containerized
MAKEOVERRIDES ?=
containerized: ## Build inside a container
#docker run image_with_make make $(MAKEOVERRIDES) $(filter-out containerized,$(MAKECMDGOALS))
else
# other targets here
all: xxxx
endif
Executing
make containerized all runs make all in container
The first answer is correct, no passthru of args. However, here is a plausible path for experimentation, use of branch by include selection:
# Makefile:
COMMAND := $(PYTHON) this_shit_got_real.py
LOCAL_MK ?= local.mk
# '-' important, absence of LOCAL_MK is not cause for error, just run with no overrides
- include $(LOCAL_MK)
target:
$(COMMAND) $(ARGS)
Now see how you add branching with env:
echo "ARGS=--help">>local.mk
# make target
And the other cli controlled branch
echo "ARGS=--doit">>runner.mk
# LOCAL_MK=runner.mk make target
I have a complex, legacy Makefile which I need to run inside of a Docker container. Essentially, I need the Makefile to call itself again, except I need to prepend "docker run ...".
The end user may make multiple targets, and multiple command line variables and options may also be specified, so I need to duplicate the entire command-line call to make - not just recall each target.
I'm expecting something of the form:
<BLACK_MAGIC>:
docker run my_image make <COMPLETE_ORIGINAL_MAKE_COMMAND_LINE>
Suggestions?
Thanks!
Rename the makefile to something else and use the following as a stub
FLAGS := $(if $(MAKEFLAGS),-$(MAKEFLAGS))
.SUFFIXES:
.PHONY: all
%:: all ;
all:
docker run my_image $(MAKE) -f Makefile.old $(FLAGS) $(MAKEOVERRIDES) $(MAKECMDGOALS)
Make removes certain flags from MAKEFLAGS in recipes so they need to be copied in the main body
.SUFFIXES: clears the suffix list in case make tries to apply one of its implicit rules
Make all a .PHONY target just in case the folder contains a file named all
Make other targets depend on all with %:: to avoid invoking make multiple times
Since command line variables won't be placed in MAKEFLAGS until the recipes are invoked they need to be added in separately with MAKEOVERRIDES, we can't use MAKEFLAGS directly due to the first point.
How to show the makefile after it's been preprocessed? For example, if we have two makefiles:
# Makefile
include Makefile2
# Makefile2
a:a.c
gcc -o a a.c
Then <preprocessor> Makefile should give:
a:a.c
gcc -o a a.c
It's similar to what a C preprocessor does (gcc -E). Is there such a makefile preprocessor?
You didn't specify for which make tool you are writing makefile. Assuming that it is GNU make, you can try running makefile with -n (--just-print) option See Command-Line Options chapter here. That will show what make is going to execute without execution (however, the commands needed for evaluation of variables will be executed). This is probably the closest to what you want to see.
This causes make to read the makefile and print every command it would
normally execute to update the target but without executing them.
Apart from that there is $(warning ) function to debug makefiles. You can place it almost to any part in makefile and the following will show you the values of all defined variables in that place:
$(warning Variables HERE: .VARIABLES)
I have a makefile in a directory of mine which builds scripts with certain environment variables set. What if I want to create another makefile in the same directory with different environment variables set? How should I name the two make files? Does makefile.1 and makefile.2 work? How do I call them?
You can give sensible names to the files like makefile.win and makefile.nix and use them:
make -f makefile.win
make -f makefile.nix
or have a Makefile that contains:
win:
make -f makefile.win
nix:
make -f makefile.nix
and use make win or make nix
You can name makefile whatever you want. I usually name it like somename.mk. To use it later you need to tell make what makefile you want. Use -f option for this:
make -f somename.mk
Actually you can have two set of environment variables in the same make file. for example
COMPILER = gcc
CCFLAGS1 = -g
CCFLAGS2 = -Wall
a: main.c
${COMPILER} ${CCFLAGS1} main.c
b: test.c
${COMPILER} ${CCFLAGS2} test.c
then you can just say make a or make b. Depending on what you want.
Also it is possible with -f flag to call which makefile you want to call.
You can do something like this rather than using multiple makefiles for the same purpose. You can pass the environment or set a flag to the same makefile. For eg:
ifeq ($(ENV),ENV1)
ENV_VAR = THIS
else
ENV_VAR = THAT
endif
default : test
.PHONY : test
test:
#echo $(ENV_VAR)
Then you can simply run the make command with arguments
make ENV=ENV1
I have two makefiles in the same directory. Many of the recipes have identical names and here are two solutions:
1. Prefix in make
proja_hello:
#echo "hello A"
projb_hello:
#echo "hello N"
2. Keep two separate files
Project A has makefile. Type make hello.
Project B has a separate make file called projb.mk. Type bmake hello.
This works since I've added alias bmake ='make -f projb.mk to my .bashrc. Note! This command can be called anywhere but only works where projb.mk exists.
Note! You lose autocompletion of make with the alias and typing make -f projb.mk hello is not better than typing make projb_hello.
I'm using GNU make, and including a 3rd party library in a project that has a build system that goes berserk if CFLAGS is defined in the environment when it is called. I like to have CFLAGS defined in my environment for other reasons. The library's build is being invoked from another makefile, so that I say e.g.:
3rdparty:
$(MAKE) -f Makefile.3rdparty
But I would like to be sure that CFLAGS is unset when I invoke make on the 3rd party Makefile. The nearest thing I can find is to say:
CFLAGS:=
But this still leaves CFLAGS set in the environment, it's just an empty string. Apart
from doing something hideous like saying:
3rdparty:
bash -c "unset CFLAGS; $(MAKE) -f Makefile.3rdparty"
Is there an easy way to "unset" the CFLAGS variable from within my primary makefile, so that it isn't present at all in the environment when the third party library is invoked?
Doesn't the following work for you?
unexport CFLAGS
3rdparty:
$(MAKE) -f Makefile.3rdparty
As of version 3.82 make has an "undefine" directive:
undefine CFLAGS
This can be problematic if you need the variable to be defined for other commands in the recipe and only don't want it defined in the submake. Another solution is to use env - to invoke the submake and explicitly set any environment variables you need set in the submake, eg:
env - PATH="$$PATH" LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$$LD_LIBRARY_PATH" $(MAKE) -f Makefile.3rdparty
To unset an Environment variable in linux.
Use:
export -n MY_ENV_VARIABLE