Workaround for GNU Make 3.80 eval bug

Question

I\'m trying to create a generic build template for my Makefiles, kind of like they discuss in the eval documentation.

I\'ve run into a known bug with GNU Make 3.80.

Answer 1

lol hacks

ifneq (3.81,$(shell (echo $(MAKE_VERSION); echo 3.81) | sort | head -n1))

make-3.81/make:
        wget -nc http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/make/make-3.81.tar.gz
        gzip -cd make-3.81.tar.gz | tar xvf -
        cd make-3.81 && ./configure --prefix=$$(pwd)
        $(MAKE) -C make-3.81 make

%: make-3.81/make
        make-3.81/make $@

else

# rest of your makefile

endif

Seriously though, there can't possibly be anything preventing you from installing 3.81, even if it is only locally.

Answer 2

Perhaps nobody needs this any more, but I guess clever use of include could overcome this kind of limitation.

Replace define PROGRAM_template with something like:

define PROGRAM_template
__template_arg := $(1)
include PROGRAM_template.mk
endef

Create PROGRAM_template.mk to implement the core of the template macro:

$(__template_arg)_SRC_DIR = $(SRC_DIR)$(__template_arg)/
$(__template_arg)_SRC_FILES = $(wildcard $($(__template_arg)_SRC_DIR)*.c)
$(__template_arg)_OBJ_FILES = $($(__template_arg)_SRC_FILES:.c=.o)

$($(__template_arg)_OBJ_FILES) : $($(__template_arg)_SRC_FILES)
__template_arg :=

Of course, this is a bit ugly (use of global variable to pass argument to what technically is a macro). I like the first answer better... :-)