Re: How to handle ':' in filenames?

[John Dill]

>
>On Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 1:08 PM, Lane Schwartz <address@hidden> wrote:
>> On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 10:29 PM, Peng Yu <address@hidden> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I'm trying to handle filenames with ':' in it. But neither of the
>>> following two ways work. Could anybody let me know if there is a way
>>> to hand filenames with ':' using make?
>>>
>>> .PHONY: all
>>>
>>> colon:=:
>>> foo:=abc_xyz.txt
>>> bar:=$(subst _,$(colon),$(foo))
>>>
>>> all: $(bar)
>>>
>>> $(bar):
>>>        touch $@
>>>
>>> #Neither the above nor the below works.
>>> #all: abc$(colon)xyz.txt
>>> #
>>> #abc$(colon)xyz.txt:
>>> #       touch $@
>>
>>
>> Do you have existing files (which have colons in their names) that you wish
>> to list as dependencies?
>>
>> Or do you wish to create new files which should have colons in their names?
>
>The example that I show is only for creating files with colons. But I
>want to handle both cases.

I don't have access to a system that supports colons in the name, but what 
about something like this (not tested explicitly with colons)?

all: $(if $(wildcard abc$(colon)xyz.txt,,abc_xyz.txt)

abc_xyz.txt:
        touch $(subst _,$(colon),$@)

Unfortunately, the $(wildcard) just checks for existence, but not 
'up-to-date-ness'.  Not sure if this is powerful enough to be useful to you.

Best regards,
John D.

<<winmail.dat>>