Question

I’ve got the following Makefile:

#runs the working directory unit tests
test:
    @NODE_ENV=test; \
        mocha --ignore-leaks $(shell find ./test -name \*test.js);

#deploys working directory
deploy:
    @make test; \
    make deploy-git; \
    make deploy-servers;

#deploys working to git deployment branch
deploy-git:
    @status=$$(git status --porcelain); \
    if test "x$${status}" = x; then \
        git branch -f deployment; \
        git push origin deployment; \
        echo "Done deploying to git deployment branch."; \
    else \
        git status; \
        echo "Error: cannot deploy. Working directory is dirty."; \
    fi

deploy-servers:
#   for each server
#       @DEPLOY_SERVER_IP = "127.0.0.1"; \
#       make deploy-server

#deploy-server:
#   connect to this server with ssh
#   check if app is already running
#   stop the app on the server if already running
#   set working directory to app folder
#   update deployment git branch
#   use git to move head to deployment branch
#   start app again

Note that deploy-servers and deploy-server are just dummies for now. This is what the deploy command should do:

1. run the tests (make test), exit on failure
2. push current head to deployment branch (make deploy-git), exit on failure
3. pull deployment branch on servers (make deploy-servers)

You can see this in the Makefile as:

deploy:
    @make test; \
    make deploy-git; \
    make deploy-servers;

The issue is that I am not sure how to prevent make deploy-git from executing when make test fails, and how to prevent make deploy-servers from executing when the tests fail or when make deploy-git fails.

Is there a clear way to do this, or should I resort to using shell files or write these tools in a normal programming language?

Answer 1

The exit status of a shell command list is the exit status of the last command in the list. Simply turn your command list into separate single simple commands. By default, make stops when a command returns nonzero. So you get what you want with

deploy:
    @make test
    make deploy-git
    make deploy-servers

Should you ever want to ignore the exit status of a simple command, you can prefix it with a dash:

 target:
     cmd1
     -cmd2 # It is okay if this fails
     cmd3

Your make manual has all the details.