Bug with semicolon in target specific variable?

[Bhatt, Milan C]

Hello,

 

It seems GMAKE doesn't like having semicolons within the value of a target specific variable.

 

 

a : SOME_VAR := c; d

a :

       @echo $(SOME_VAR)

 

The above exampe gives me the following error:

 

c
/bin/sh: d: Execute permission denied.
gmake: *** [a] Error 127

 

So it prints 'c' as expected and then tries to execute 'd' as if it were a command.  As a workaround I used quotes around the entire value of the target specific variable and everything seemed to work fine until I hit about 130 or more characters:

 

 

a : SOME_VAR := "c; d; eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"    # 'e' x 130+ characters

a :

       @echo $(SOME_VAR)

 

 

Once there are more than a 130 characters  AND there is a semicolon within the quoted string, I get this error message:

 

Makefile:3: Malformed per-target variable definition
Bus error (core dumped)

 

 

This error disappears once I remove the semicolon from the variable.  Any ideas?

 

Thanks,

Milan