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command-lineparametersmakefilearguments

How to pass argument to Makefile from command line?

How to pass argument to Makefile from command line?

I understand I can do

$ make action VAR="value"
$ value

with Makefile

VAR = "default"
action:
    @echo $(VAR)

How do I get the following behavior?

$ make action value
value

How about

$make action value1 value2
value1 value2
Solution

  • You probably shouldn't do this; you're breaking the basic pattern of how Make works. But here it is:

    action:
        @echo action $(filter-out $@,$(MAKECMDGOALS))

%:      # thanks to chakrit
    @:    # thanks to William Pursell

    EDIT:
    To explain the first command,

    $(MAKECMDGOALS) is the list of "targets" spelled out on the command line, e.g. "action value1 value2".

    $@ is an automatic variable for the name of the target of the rule, in this case "action".

    filter-out is a function that removes some elements from a list. So $(filter-out bar, foo bar baz) returns foo baz (it can be more subtle, but we don't need subtlety here).

    Put these together and $(filter-out $@,$(MAKECMDGOALS)) returns the list of targets specified on the command line other than "action", which might be "value1 value2".