[bug #60538] Environment variable overrides explicit assignment

[Shareef Jalloq]

URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?60538>

                 Summary: Environment variable overrides explicit assignment
                 Project: make
            Submitted by: sjalloq
            Submitted on: Thu 06 May 2021 02:24:37 PM UTC
                Severity: 3 - Normal
              Item Group: Bug
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
       Component Version: 4.3
        Operating System: POSIX-Based
           Fixed Release: None
           Triage Status: None

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Details:

I'm not sure what is going on here as I'm not able to create a testcase that
highlights the same failure.  This issue only happens when calling Make from a
Python subprocess running inside a Cocotb test (a simulation framework for RTL
simulation).

I have a pretty simple Makefile where I set a variable *TESTNAME* using an
explicit assignment:

TESTNAME=mytest2

and what I'm seeing is that variable being overridden from a matching
environment variable.

I'm calling Make to run a simulation (make blah TESTNAME=mytest1) and from
within that simulation, the Python environment makes a second call to Make
using subprocess in order to build a dependency.  That dependency
(TESTNAME=mytest2) isn't being built because the TESTNAME is overridden to be
mytest1.

I've built a number of testcases to check this and can't replicate the
failure.

Also, if I use any other environment variable name aside from TESTNAME, it
works as expected.  So is there something special about that variable name? 
It's not reserved or something?

What mechanism could there be that would allow an explicit assignment be
overridden like this?

Thanks.




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