Re: Enhancement request regarding make variable names

[Paul D. Smith]

%% address@hidden (Dale R. Worley) writes:

  drw> It would be a useful thing if Make variable names were forbidden to
  drw> contain slash (`/'), as well as `:', `#', and `='.

Unfortunately this is not a compatible change, and so can't be accepted.

I personally know of many environments where variables with "/" in the
name are used; for example, people implementing non-recursive make
solutions often generate variable names that contain directory paths in
them, to make them unique.

  drw> The reason I make this request is that I was rebuilding a Linux
  drw> kernel in a directory named (more or less)
  drw> `/auto/LABEL=Backup/linux-2.4.20-24.8.test4'.  The Linux kernel
  drw> makefile expands out the full path of the files it is working
  drw> with, rather than using relative names, so at one point, it
  drw> generated a Makefile rule looking something like this:

  drw> cciss.h: \
  drw>    /auto/LABEL=Backup/linux-2.4.20-24.8.test4/include/linux/genhd.h \
  drw>    /auto/LABEL=Backup/linux-2.4.20-24.8.test4/drivers/block/cciss_cmd.h
  drw>  @touch cciss.h

Yes, I see the problem.

The best solution would be if the kernel builds could be changed to be a
little more robust, say by quoting "=" signs with "\".

Other than that, or allowing you to disable the feature altogether
(which might break something else, I don't know), I don't see any good
alternatives :-/.

-- 
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