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Article #1109

gmake incompatiblity with AT&T/USL make

#1109
From: Rick Richardson
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 06:32
28 lines
1422 bytes
The following makefile fragment doesn't work the same in gmake 3.62
compared with AT&T/USL make on SVR2 (including derivatives HP/UX and
AIX), SVR3.X, and SVR4.X.

XXX=
VAR=foo
$(XXX)VAR=bar

In traditional "make", VAR gets the value "bar".  But in gmake,
VAR gets the value "foo", and a variable called "$(XXX)VAR"
is created with the value "bar".  Apparently, macros aren't
being expanded on the left side of the equals.

This rather bizarre syntax is used in leiu of conditions in
traditional make.  XXX is set to null (as shown above), or
to XXX=# (usually, from an included file), which has the effect
of commenting out the second assignment to VAR.

Although gmake has conditionals, it would be nice if the old way
still worked.

-Rick

-- 
Rick Richardson		Email: rick@digibd.com	This space intentionally
Senior Staff Engineer	Fax:   (612) 943-0803	blank until 1996 elections.
DigiBoard, Inc.		Tel:   (612) 943-5383
Eden Prairie, MN	Radio: N0NMY
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Message-ID: <1992Nov18.063201.508@digibd.com>
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!digibd.COM!rick

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Newsgroups: gnu.utils.bug
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!digibd.COM!rick
From: rick@digibd.COM (Rick Richardson)
Subject: gmake incompatiblity with AT&T/USL make
Message-ID: <1992Nov18.063201.508@digibd.com>
Sender: gnulists@ai.mit.edu
Organization: DigiBoard Incorporated, Eden Prairie, MN
Distribution: gnu
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 06:32:01 GMT
Approved: bug-gnu-utils@prep.ai.mit.edu
Lines: 29