Question

I want to create a makefile variable that is a multi-line string (e.g. the body of an email release announcement). something like

ANNOUNCE_BODY=' Version $(VERSION) of $(PACKAGE_NAME) has been released  It can be downloaded from $(DOWNLOAD_URL)  etc, etc' 

But I can’t seem to find a way to do this. Is it possible?

Answer 1

Yes, you can use the define keyword to declare a multi-line variable, like this:

define ANNOUNCE_BODY Version $(VERSION) of $(PACKAGE_NAME) has been released.  It can be downloaded from $(DOWNLOAD_URL).  etc, etc. endef 

The tricky part is getting your multi-line variable back out of the makefile. If you just do the obvious thing of using "echo $(ANNOUNCE_BODY)", you’ll see the result that others have posted here — the shell tries to handle the second and subsequent lines of the variable as commands themselves.

However, you can export the variable value as-is to the shell as an environment variable, and then reference it from the shell as an environment variable (NOT a make variable). For example:

export ANNOUNCE_BODY all:     @echo "$$ANNOUNCE_BODY" 

Note the use of $$ANNOUNCE_BODY, indicating a shell environment variable reference, rather than $(ANNOUNCE_BODY), which would be a regular make variable reference. Also be sure to use quotes around your variable reference, to make sure that the newlines aren’t interpreted by the shell itself.

Of course, this particular trick may be platform and shell sensitive. I tested it on Ubuntu Linux with GNU bash 3.2.13; YMMV.