Question

I have some .PHONY targets such as ‘clean’, ‘backup’, and ‘help’
the rule for some of these targets is very large.
For example:

   .PHONY: backup
    backup:
        @$(GREEN)
        @mkdir -p backup/include #make an backup include folder if it doesn't already exist
        @mkdir -p backup/src     #make a backup src folder if it doesn't already exist
        @mkdir -p backup/docs    #make a backup docs folder if it doesn't already exist

        @total=0; headerCount=0; sourceCount=0; documentCount=0; \
        for file in $(HEADER_PATH)*; do \
            if ls $$file[~] >/dev/null 2>&1; then \
                mv -fu $$file[~] backup/$$file; \
                let "headerCount+=1"; \
                echo $(DATE)[Backed Up] $$file~ >> $(LOG); \
            fi; \
        done; \
        for file in $(SOURCE_PATH)*; do \
            if ls $$file[~] >/dev/null 2>&1; then \
                mv -fu $$file[~] backup/$$file; \
                let "sourceCount+=1"; \
                echo $(DATE)[Backed Up] $$file~ >> $(LOG); \
            fi; \
        done; \
        for file in $(DOC_PATH)*; do \
            if ls $$file[~] >/dev/null 2>&1; then \
                mv -fu $$file[~] backup/$$file; \
                let "documentCount+=1"; \
                echo $(DATE)[Backed Up] $$file~ >> $(LOG); \
            fi; \
        done; \
        let "total= headerCount + sourceCount + documentCount"; \
        echo -n $(OUTPUT_PROMPT)" "; \
        if test $$total -eq 0; then \
            echo Nothing To Back up; \
        else \
            if test $$headerCount -eq $$total; then \
                echo -n $$total" "; \
                echo -n "Header"; \
                if test $$total -ge 2; then \
                    echo -n "s"; \
                fi; \
                echo " Backed Up"; \
            elif test $$sourceCount -eq $$total; then \
                echo -n $$total" "; \
                echo -n "Source"; \
                if test $$total -ge 2; then \
                    echo -n "s"; \
                fi; \
                echo " Backed Up"; \
            elif test $$documentCount -eq $$total; then \
                echo -n $$total" "; \
                echo -n "Document"; \
                if test $$total -ge 2; then \
                    echo -n "s"; \
                fi; \
                echo " Backed Up"; \
            else \
                $(UNDERLINE); echo $$total " Files Backed Up"; $(UNUNDERLINE); \
                if test $$headerCount -eq 1; then \
                    echo $(OUTPUT_PROMPT)" "$$headerCount header; \
                elif test $$headerCount -ge 2; then \
                    echo $(OUTPUT_PROMPT)" "$$headerCount headers; \
                fi; \
                if test $$sourceCount -eq 1; then \
                    echo $(OUTPUT_PROMPT)" "$$sourceCount source; \
                elif test $$sourceCount -ge 2; then \
                    echo $(OUTPUT_PROMPT)" "$$sourceCount sources; \
                fi; \
                if test $$documentCount -eq 1; then \
                    echo $(OUTPUT_PROMPT)" "$$documentCount document; \
                elif test $$documentCount -ge 2; then \
                    echo $(OUTPUT_PROMPT)" "$$documentCount documents; \
                fi; \
            fi; \
        fi;
        @$(DEFAULT_TEXT)

what the code does is not important, but I wanted to illustrate that it has macros in which ‘make’ must expand, and that it also performs shell code (bash), and that some indication on what the script did, is displayed in the terminal.
I want to put this script outside of ‘make’ in another directory, and turn that code into something like this:

.PHONY: backup
backup:
    @run scripts/backup.scr
    #or something similar to that

How can I put the rule of my target (which is makefile/bash code) into a separate file, and have make practically paste it in so that it runs how I had it originally?

I thought I might be able to use the “include” command inside ‘make’.
It looks like it is used to include other makefiles though..
maybe I should just paste the entire target/rule into another makefile, and then include that makefile into my main one?
Would that be the best way?

Answer 1

In your case, you have quite few output variables. It might be worth the hassle to separate the generation and execution, like:

clean : clean-script
    sh clean-script
    rm -f clean-script

clean-script : clean-script.in
     sed -e 's:[@]HEADER_PATH[@]:$(HEADER_PATH):g' $<.in > $@

And write clean-script.in as a clean sh script with a few substitutions.
If you use GNU make, you can of course build a list of output varables like:

clean-script : clean-script.in
     sed $(foreach var,$(SUBSTVARS),-e 's:[@]$(var)[@]:$($(var)):g') $<.in > $@