Question

I am executing the following command in Makefile:-

@ls export_mojave/marker_*.tcl > export_mojave.list
@for file in `cat export_mojave_tcl_files.list`; do \
    diff $$file bk_marker > $$file.diff ; \
    if ! [ -s $$file.diff ]; then\
        rm -f $$file.diff ; \
    else \
        echo $$file >> marker.fill.tcl.diff; \
    fi \
done ;

If there exists some file related to the above expression in the mentioned directory,
it will run fine but if there does not exits any files matching to above expression, It is marking an error. Is there anything exists like “catch” in Makefile?

Answer 1

If you need to skip error in makefiles’ rule, then prefix command with ‘-‘ sign:

-@ls .... > some_file || echo Error: no file;
if [ -e some_file ] ....

Or modify to be more in make-style:

FILES := $(shell ls ...)
ifeq ($(FILES),)
$(error no files)
endif
....

target:
    $(foreach file,$(FILES), ...)