Passing makefile macros back using the $(shell)

[address@hidden]

gmake version 3.80 (no patches)

I was attempting to use the shell to generate some environmental 
variables for the makefile.  Because of the definition of the foreach
statement I cannot have spaces in the values.  I initially used an unused 
character that was translated back and forth. Now I need to use that character 
as part of the data.  It then occurred to me that maybe I can use a macro for 
my spaces.  I cannot seem to figure out how to get the macro to expand.  Is 
there some way to get the macro to expand?

empty:=
space:=${empty} ${empty}

$(foreach var,$(shell brand -e makefile),$(eval ${var}))

brand script
print "NUMOSVERSION:=5200"
print "export\${space}NUMOSVERSION"

The print from using the warning functio shows
NUMSOVERSION:=5200
export${space}NUMOSVERSION

Is there some reason why the generated export line would be invalid?  I would 
have thought the macro would need to be expanded before processing the line for 
syntax.

Thanks for any help,
Norman