Re: semi-colon in makefiles?

[Paul D. Smith]

%% Martin Naskovski <address@hidden> writes:

  mn> CLASSPATH = c:\apps\JSDK2.0\lib\jsdk.jar;c:\apps\javalibs\MD5.jar

  mn> JFLAGS=-classpath $(CLASSPATH) -deprecation -g

  mn> COMPILE.java=$(JAVAC) $(JFLAGS)

  mn> .java.class:
  mn>   @echo ----------------- $(HOSTNAME) javac $< -----------------------
  mn>   $(COMPILE.java) $<

  mn> When I run make, it fails to interpret the semi-colong that
  mn> separates MD5.jar and jsdk.jar as a literal, and it thinks it's
  mn> some dependency or some other command and it fails to compile my
  mn> .java file properly. How do I get 'make' to treat the semi-colon
  mn> as a literal and not as some implicit rule? I looked all over the
  mn> documentation, and maybe I missed it- or maybe this is a bug.

You didn't provide any information on the error you got, but I'll bet
it's not a make error.

Make doesn't treat semicolons as special in any way in the places you've
used it above (the value of a variable or in the command script).

Make simply sends the text of the command you tell it to run to the
shell it's using, and waits to see what the result is.  It doesn't
interpret or process the command in any way, except to expand make
variable references.

-- 
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