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

[Noel Yap]

This is a shell issue, not a make issue.

It sounds like on some of your platforms, the shell emits errors when there's 
nothing to loop through.  If you have control over the shell that's running, 
change that, if not, change the action.

Noel

Alexander Farber wrote:

> Hi,
>
> thanks for your help! But aside from the discussion
> about the recursive makefiles (I really don't have a
> choice at the moment and have to use them ), is this 
> below supposed to work or not?
>
>
>     linux72:afarber {331} cat Makefile
>     SUBMAKES=
>
>     all:
>             for i in $(SUBMAKES); do \
>                     echo $$i; \
>             done
>
> It fails for me on some Linux PCs and HP-UX machines 
> (with bash 2.05) and works on others (bash 2.05b, 3.0):
>
>     boclu21:afarber {53} gmake
>     for i in ; do \
>             echo $i; \
>     done
>     /bin/sh: -c: line 1: syntax error near unexpected token `;'
>     /bin/sh: -c: line 1: `for i in ; do  echo $i;  done'
>     gmake: *** [all] Error 2
>
> Do I really have to modify my makefiles to contain:
>
>     all clean: $(SUBMAKES)
>             test -z "$(SUBMAKES)" || for sub in "$(SUBMAKES)"; do \
>                     $(MAKE) -f $$sub $@; \
>             done
>
> This feels so awkward to me. How do others deal with this?
>
> Regards
> Alex
>
>
> On Fri, Sep 17, 2004 at 12:11:54PM -0400, Noel Yap wrote:
>
> > Short-term answer: you could change the action to test the contents of 
> > $(SUBMAKES) prior to doing the for loop:
> >
> >         if [ ! -z "$(SUBMAKES)" ]
> >         then
> >                 for sub in ...
> >                 do
> >                 done
> >         fi
> >
> >
> > Long-term answer: don't use recursive make.  See 
> > http://aegis.sourceforge.net/auug97.pdf.
> >
> > Alexander Farber wrote:
> >
> > > 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 `;'
>
>
>
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