Question

when creating a Makefile, im trying to figure out how(if) i can change a variable based on the target.

So something likes this:

VER = $(if target=release then 1.0.0 elseif target=nightly then 20110411)

nightly:
    @@echo ${VER} >> version.txt

release:
    @@echo ${VER} >> version.txt

Answer 1

If your make is GNU make,
Target-Specific Variable
is allowed.
For example, in your question’s case, the following definitions will meet the
purpose:

nightly: VER = 20110411
release: VER = 1.0.0

nightly:
    @echo ${VER}

release:
    @echo ${VER}

Hope this helps