for sub in $(SUBMAKES); but $(SUBMAKES) is empty

[Alexander Farber]

Hi,

does anybody please know, how to deal with the following problem?
I have several GNU makefiles which call other makefiles like this:

    MMPFILES =
    SUBMAKES = $(foreach FILE, $(MMPFILES), $(FILE).$(PLAT).mbs)
    all clean: $(SUBMAKES)
            for sub in $(SUBMAKES); do \
                    $(MAKE) -f $$sub $@; \
            done

For few of the makefiles the MMPFILES variable is empty (as above).
This still works on some Linux-PC's here but fails on others:

    boclu21:group {557} gmake -f Makefile.WINS.mbs
    for sub in ; do \
            gmake -f $sub all; \
    done
    /bin/sh: -c: line 1: syntax error near unexpected token `;'
    /bin/sh: -c: line 1: `for sub in ; do  gmake -f $sub all;  done'
    gmake: *** [all] Error 2

Looks like the reason is the bash version. 
The line below works fine on 2.05b.0(1):

    bolinux72:calimero {321} for sub in; do echo gmake -f $sub all; done
    bolinux72:calimero {322} 
 
But on the PC with the GNU bash 2.05.8(1) it fails:

    boclu21:group {323} for sub in; do echo gmake -f $sub all; done
    bash: syntax error near unexpected token `;'

Any suggestions please?

Regards
Alex