Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.programmer
> What's the correct way to set/use variables in make?
>
> Or, what's wrong with the following:
>
> test:
>         fls=`ls`
>         echo aaa $(fls) bbbb

Your "fls" is being set in a subshell, and then the next line invokes a different subshell, which has no knowledge of the first. To make that work, you either make fls a _make_ variable, for which all caps is a usual convention (but only a convention):

FLS=   `ls`

test:
        echo aaa $(FLS) bbb

Or, if you don't need to access the variable any where else in the makefile, it's a little more efficient to simply continue the shell command on another line:

test:
        fls=`ls`; \
        echo aaa $$(fls) bbb

Note that we need to escape the `$', to prevent "make" from trying to
expand the variable before the shell sees it. With only one `$', it
would likely come out `echo aaa bbb' (unless "fls" were also a make
variable, which is less likely to happen if you stick to the convention
of all caps for make variables.

Frederick

variables in Makefile 

use $$fls instead of $$(fls) !

	!!

right 

$ make -f make.pkg
(set -vx; pwd=`pwd`; pwd=`basename $pwd`; cd ..; ls $pwd/* | grep -Ev 'make\.pkg|\.dxt|~' | archh bakfl $pwd -h)
pwd
++ pwd
+ pwd=/home/tong/bin/pf/fileh-1.0
basename $pwd
++ basename /home/tong/bin/pf/fileh-1.0
+ pwd=fileh-1.0
+ cd ..
+ ls fileh-1.0/fdispatch.pm fileh-1.0/fileh.README fileh-1.0/fileh.diz fileh-1.0

wrong 

$ make -f make.pkg
(set -vx; pwd=`pwd`; pwd=`basename $(pwd)`; cd ..; ls $(pwd)/* | grep -Ev 'make\.pkg|\.dxt|~' | archh bakfl $(pwd) -h)
pwd
++ pwd
+ pwd=/home/tong/bin/pf/fileh-1.0
basename $(pwd)
pwd
+++ pwd
++ basename /home/tong/bin/pf/fileh-1.0
+ pwd=fileh-1.0
+ cd ..
pwd
++ pwd
+ ls /home/tong/bin/pf/FromText.pm /home/tong/bin/pf/HTML /home/tong/bin/pf/RCS /home/tong/bin/pf/argv_show.pl /home/tong/bin/pf/bibh.pl /home/tong/bin/pf/bt2td