Question

I’ve seen some shell scripts in which they pass a file by writing the contents of the file in the same shell script. For instance:

if [[ $uponly -eq 1 ]]; then
    mysql $tabular -h database1 -u usertrack -pabulafia usertrack << END                                                                                           

    select host from host_status where host like 'ld%' and status = 'up';                                                                                          

END
     exit 0
fi

I’ve been able to do something similar in which I do:

python << END
print 'hello world'
END

If the name of the script is say myscript.sh then I can run it by executing sh myscript.sh. and I obtain my desired output.

Question is, can we do something similar in a Makefile? I’ve been looking around and they all say that I have do something like:

target:
        python @<<
print 'hello world'
<<

But that doesn’t work.

Here are the links where I’ve been looking:

http://www.opussoftware.com/tutorial/TutMakefile.htm#Response%20Files

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2369245/Makefile-Memo

Answer 1

You can do something like this:

define TMP_PYTHON_PROG
print 'hello'
print 'world'
endef

export TMP_PYTHON_PROG
target:
    @python -c "$$TMP_PYTHON_PROG"

First, you’re defining a multi line variable with define and endef. Then you need to export it to the shell otherwise it will treat each new line as a new command. Then you reinsert the shell variable using $$.