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Variables in GNU Make: Simple and Recursive

cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/4908824

There are two major flavours of variables in GNU Make: “simple” and “recursive”.

While simple variables are quite simple and easy to understand, they can be limiting at times. On the other hand, recursive variables are powerful yet tricky.

…

There is exactly one rule to recall when using recursive variables…

🧠 The value of a recursive variable is computed every time it is expanded.

JoYo ,
@JoYo@lemmy.ml avatar

it’s that illegal?

bahmanm OP ,
@bahmanm@lemmy.ml avatar

Uh, I’m not sure I understand what you mean.

JoYo ,
@JoYo@lemmy.ml avatar

RMS notoriously fought against variables in make

bahmanm OP ,
@bahmanm@lemmy.ml avatar

I think I understand where RMS was coming from RE “recursive variables”. As I wrote in my blog:

Recursive variables are quite powerful as they introduce a pinch of imperative programming into the otherwise totally declarative nature of a Makefile.

They extend the capabilities of Make quite substantially. But like any other powerful tool, one needs to use them sparsely and responsibly or end up w/ a complex and hard to debug Makefile.

In my experience, most of the times I can avoid using recursive variables and instead lay out the rules and prerequisites in a way that does the same. However, occasionally, I’d have to resort to them and I’m thankful that RMS didn’t win and they exist in GNU Make today 😅 IMO purist solutions have a tendency to turn out impractical.

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