How to generate targets in a Makefile by iterating over a list?

Question

CODE:

LIST=0 1 2 3 4 5
PREFIX=rambo

# some looping logic to interate over LIST

EXPECTED RESULT:

rambo0:
    sh rambo_script0.s         


        

Answer 1

If you're using GNU make, you can generate arbitrary targets at run-time:

LIST = 0 1 2 3 4 5
define make-rambo-target
  rambo$1:
         sh rambo_script$1.sh
  all:: rambo$1
endef

$(foreach element,$(LIST),$(eval $(call make-rambo-target,$(element))))

Answer 2

Use text-transforming functions. With patsubst you can make quite general transformations. For constructing filenames, addsuffix and addprefix are both convenient.

For the rules, use pattern rules.

The overall result might look something like this:

LIST = 0 1 3 4 5
targets = $(addprefix rambo, $(LIST))

all: $(targets)

$(targets): rambo%: rambo%.sh
    sh $<

Answer 3

Just my 2 cents to @Idelic answer, if you need to use some Make $cmd you must escape them using $$ e.g.

LIST = 0 1 2 3 4 5
define make-rambo-target
$(info create target: $(addprefix rambo_script, $(addsuffix .sh, $1)).)
rambo$1: $$(addprefix rambo_script, $$(addsuffix .sh, $1))
    sh $$<
endef

all: $(addprefix rambo, $(LIST))

$(foreach element, $(LIST), $(eval $(call make-rambo-target,$(element))))

output:

$ make
create target: rambo_script0.sh.
create target: rambo_script1.sh.
create target: rambo_script2.sh.
create target: rambo_script3.sh.
create target: rambo_script4.sh.
create target: rambo_script5.sh.
sh rambo_script0.sh
sh rambo_script1.sh
sh rambo_script2.sh
sh rambo_script3.sh
sh rambo_script4.sh
sh rambo_script5.sh

note: here rules "are seen" by Make as

rambo0: $(addprefix rambo_script, $(addsuffix .sh, 0))
    sh $<

But here we could have written without escaping i.e.

rambo$1: $(addprefix rambo_script, $(addsuffix .sh, $1))
    sh $$<

So rule "are seen" as:

rambo0 : rambo_script0.sh
    sh $<

when Make parse it.