Command line variable to GNU make using sh not working

Question

Works:

make -f Makefile.custom CFLAGS="-DFLAG_ONE -DFLAG_TWO" clean target

What does not work is

FLAGS="-DFLAG_ONE -DFLAG_TWO"
make -f Makefile.custom CFLAGS=$FLAGS clean target

Error: It starts to think that -D is an argument to make and fails.

Tried: Using escape characters

FLAGS="\"-DFLAG_ONE -DFLAG_TWO\""

Any help would be appreciated.

--UPDATE--

This is a workaround but the question still remains open.

CFLAGS="-DFLAG_ONE -DFLAG_TWO"
export CFLAGS
make -f Makefile.custom clean target

William Pursell · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-22 15:27:20Z

1

Quoting is necessary:

FLAGS="-DFLAG_ONE -DFLAG_TWO"
make -f Makefile.custom CFLAGS="$FLAGS" clean target

answered Nov 22, 2012 at 15:27

William Pursell

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jacekmigacz · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-22 14:19:57Z

1

CFLAGS="-DFLAG_ONE -DFLAG_TWO" make -f Makefile.custom clean target

And simple Makefile:

all:
        echo ${CFLAGS}

...will print:

-DFLAG_ONE -DFLAG_TWO

...thus it does work.

edited Nov 22, 2012 at 14:19

answered Nov 22, 2012 at 14:08

jacekmigacz

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3 Comments

PravinCG Over a year ago

it says -DFLAG_TWO not found

William Pursell Over a year ago

@PravinCG If this does not work for you, most likely you are using csh or tcsh. In that case, you must either stop using csh (recommended) or use env: env CFLAGS=... make ...

William Pursell Over a year ago

@PravinCG Or you are omitting the double quotes on the value you are attempting to assign to CFLAGS

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