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Automatic Variables

Suppose you are writing a pattern rule to compile a ‘.c’ file into a ‘.o’ file: how do you write the ‘cc’ command so that it operates on the right source file name? You cannot write the name in the command, because the name is different each time the implicit rule is applied. What you do is use a special feature of make, the automatic variables. These variables have values computed afresh for each rule that is executed, based on the target and dependencies of the rule. By example, you would use ‘$@’ for the object file name and ‘$<’ for the source file name.

The following is a list of automatic variables.

$@
The file name of the target of the rule. If the target is an archive member, then ‘$@’ is the name of the archive file. In a pattern rule that has multiple targets (see Introduction to Pattern Rules), ‘$@’ is the name of whichever target caused the rule’s commands to be run.

$%
The target member name, when the target is an archive member. See Using make to Update Archive Files. For example, if the target is ‘foo.a(bar.o)’ then ‘$%’ is‘bar.o’ and ‘$@’ is ‘foo.a’. ‘$%’ is empty when the target is not an archive member.

$<
The name of the first dependency. If the target got its commands from an implicit rule, this will be the first dependency added by the implicit rule (see Using Implicit Rules).

$?
The names of all the dependencies that are newer than the target, with spaces between them. For dependencies which are archive members, only the member named is used (see Using make to Update Archive Files).

$ˆ
The names of all the dependencies, with spaces between them. For dependencies which are archive members, only the member named is used (Using make to Update Archive Files). A target has only one dependency on each other file it depends on, no matter how many times each file is listed as a dependency. So if you list a dependency more than once for a target, the value of ‘$ˆ’ contains just one copy of the name.

$+
This is like ‘$ˆ’, but dependencies listed more than once are duplicated in the order they were listed in the makefile. This is primarily useful for use in linking commands where it is meaningful to repeat library file names in a particular order.

$*
The stem with which an implicit rule matches (see How Patterns Match). If the target is ‘dir/a.foo.b’ and the target pattern is ‘a.%.b’ then the stem is ‘dir/foo’. The stem is useful for constructing names of related files.

In a static pattern rule, the stem is part of the file name that matched the ‘%’ in the target pattern.

In an explicit rule, there is no stem; so ‘$*’ cannot be deter-mined in that way. Instead, if the target name ends with a recognized suffix (see Old-Fashioned Suffix Rules), ‘$*’ is set to the target name minus the suffix. For example, if the target name is ‘foo.c’, then ‘$*’ is set to ‘foo’, since ‘.c’ is a suffix. gnu make does this bizarre thing only for compatibility with other implementations of make. You should generally avoid using ‘$*’ except in implicit rules or static pattern rules.

If the target name in an explicit rule does not end with a recognized suffix, ‘$*’ is set to the empty string for that rule.

‘$?’ is useful even in explicit rules when you wish to operate on only the dependencies that have changed. For example, suppose that an archive named ‘lib’ is supposed to contain copies of several object files. This rule copies just the changed object files into the archive:

lib: foo.o bar.o lose.o win.o
ar r lib $?

Of the variables previously listed, four have values that are single file names, and two have values that are lists of file names. These six have variants that get just the file’s directory name or just the file name within the directory.

The variant variables’ names are formed by appending ‘D’ or ‘F’, respectively. These variants are semi-obsolete in GNU make since the functions dir and notdir can be used to get a similar effect (see Functions for File Names). Note, however, that the ‘F’ variants all omit the trailing slash which always appears in the output of the dir function.

The following is a list of the variants.

‘$(@D)’
The directory part of the file name of the target, with the trailing slash removed. If the value of ‘$@’ is ‘dir/foo.o’ then ‘$(@D)’ is‘dir’. This value is ‘.’ if ‘$@’ does not contain a slash.

‘$(@F)’
The file-within-directory part of the file name of the target. If the value of ‘$@’ is‘dir/foo.o’ then ‘$(@F)’ is‘foo.o’. ‘$(@F)’ is equivalent to ‘$(notdir $@)’.

‘$(*D)’
‘$(*F)’
The directory part and the file-within-directory part of the stem; ‘dir’ and ‘foo’ in this instance.

‘$(%D)’
‘$(%F)’
The directory part and the file-within-directory part of the target archive member name. This makes sense only for archive member targets of the form ‘archive(member)’ and is useful only when member may contain a directory name. (See Archive Members as Targets.)

‘$(<D)’
‘$(<F)’
The directory part and the file-within-directory part of the first dependency.

‘$(ˆD)’
‘$(ˆF)’
Lists of the directory parts and the file-within-directory parts of all dependencies.

‘$(?D)’
‘$(?F)’
Lists of the directory parts and the file-within-directory parts of all dependencies that are newer than the target.

We use a special stylistic convention when we discuss these automatic variables; we write “the value of ‘$<’”, rather than “the variable, <” as we would write for ordinary variables such as objects and CFLAGS. We think this convention looks more natural in this special case. Do not assume it has a deep significance; ‘$<’ refers to the variable named ‘<’ just as ‘$(CFLAGS)’ refers to the variable named ‘CFLAGS’. You could just as well use ‘$(<)’ in place of ‘$<’.