Re: a couple questions about variable assignment and wildcards

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Mon, 7 Jun 2004, Paul D. Smith wrote:

> %% "Robert P. J. Day" <address@hidden> writes:
> 
>   rpjd>   objects = *.o
>   rpjd>   objects := $(wildcard *.o)
> 
>     vs.
> 
>   rpjd>   objects = $(wildcard *.o)
>   rpjd>   objects := *.o
> 
>   rpjd> the first again, i would guess, is a deferred assignment, with
>   rpjd> the actual value of '$(wildcard *.o)' which will be evaluated
>   rpjd> when used.  how can i print the actual value of a variable
>   rpjd> without having it evaluated?
> 
> If you have GNU make 3.80 you can use the $(value ...) function.  If you
> don't, you can't do it.

i'm about to upgrade from FC1 to FC2, so i may get make 3.80 in the 
process.  if not, i'll just manually upgrade.
 
>   rpjd> and that last statement is an immediate assignment, right?  so
>   rpjd> that the wildcard expansion is done before assignment, as long
>   rpjd> as something matches that pattern.
> 
> GNU make doesn't do wildcarding when expanding a variable that contains
> a "*".  The result of evaluating that value is always the literal string
> '*.o'.
> 
> The wildcarding may be done by the user of that string, but it isn't
> handled during the expansion of the variable.

gotcha.  thanks.

rday