Make: use of := and shell under HP-UX

[David Webb (MAX)]

Once again I am struggling with a GNU makefile and converting it to run under HP-UX. In a GNU makefile I can create a variable as follows:

# Get information about our OS
OSTYPE := $(shell uname -s)

Under HP-UX this bombs. I found some documentation indicating that the := relates to a conditional variable under HP-UX, i.e. completely different to the way GNU make uses it.

Is there a simple way to convert this GNU code to HP-UX?

Thanks in advance.

Dave

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom dave,

Try the uname command.

OSTYPE=$(uname -a)

You will adjust it for what you need in the variable.

SEP

[A. Clay Stephenson · Accepted solution]

The gmake convention is that "=" is a recursive assignment whereas ":=" is a static assignment. The conditional assignment is "?=". Probably the easist method is to install gmake but in this case, you should be able to
simply: OSTYPE=`uname -s`

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Gmake is nice and all that but it's kinda like the "improvements" to cron that Linux has made. If you are planning to be portable, don't mess with stuff that has been in place for decades. Any makefiles that I use, use standard (meaning "classic") syntax that work under standard make and gmake equally well. There are things that gmakes does to make certain tasks easier but those things come at the expense of portability.

[David Webb (MAX)]

Thanks for responses.

Using

OSTYPE = `uname -s'

seems to do what I need. Sorry it's so simple, I thought I had tried all the possibilities of simple things like this, but obviously not.

Thanks again.

Dave

[David Webb (MAX)]

I meant to say:

Using

OSTYPE = `uname -s`

worked (last apostrophe).

Thanks again.

Dave