RE: Help with GNUMAKE on PC platform - command line lenght limitations

[Ron.E.Gaskins]

Background:
GNUMAKE 3.80 on a Windows 2000 platform built with MSVC.


Experiment to determine size of command buffer:
Have not determined exact size yet but appears to be around 2K.  The attached 
(results1.txt) captures an experiment to erase multiple files.  While the 
command line is lengthy, it does not approach the 6K boundary indicated in 
previous e-mail.

 <<results1.txt>> 

Problems with $(EVAL):
Assume a legacy application, APPX, that accepts one filename as an argument.  I 
need GNUMAKE to call APPX for each file in $(FILES).  If I solve this problem I 
also have resolution to the above problem of command line too long for the 
erasing of multiple files.  It appears that the $(EVAL) is just what I need to 
do the job.  However, the syntax rules do not agree with my documentation.  Is 
the following correct?

$(foreach FILE, $(FILES), $(eval echo))

The above results in "missing separator" error.  Is there a better solution?  
Please advise.  





 -----Original Message-----
From:   Eli Zaretskii [mailto:address@hidden 
Sent:   Thursday, July 31, 2003 1:01 AM
To:     Gaskins, Ron E
Cc:     address@hidden
Subject:        Re: Help with GNUMAKE on PC platform - command line lenght 
limitations

> Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 09:50:01 -0500
> From: "Ron.E.Gaskins" <address@hidden>
> 
> >What version of Windows is that?  I think all modern Windows versions allow 
> >much longer command lines.
> 
> Windows 2000.  If I bring up a command window and start typing the buffer 
> fills up around 2K characters and ignores the keyboard.

That's a different matter: the size of the shell's keyboard input
buffer has very little to do with the maximum length of command lines
it can accept from another program.

So please try invoking, say, the ECHO command (or some other harmless
Windows program) from within Make with long command lines, and see
what maximum length of commands you can use there.

> What about the GNUMAKE $(eval) command?  It seems to be exactly what I need 
> but it is not completely documented and when I attempt to use it I always get 
> a "missing separator" error.  Any thoughts about $(eval)?

What did you try, exactly, and what did Make complain about?

Btw, please don't remove the mailing list from the CC: header, as
others could chime into this thread.

results1.txt
Description: results1.txt