URL: <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?68404>
Summary: Line continuation without whitespace when warnings
flags are enabled
Group: make
Submitter: evincar
Submitted: Wed 27 May 2026 06:21:15 PM UTC
Severity: 3 - Normal
Priority: 5 - Normal
Item Group: Enhancement
Status: None
Privacy: Public
Assigned to: None
Open/Closed: Open
Discussion Lock: Unlocked
Component Version: None
Operating System: None
Fixed Release: None
Triage Status: None
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Follow-up Comments:
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Date: Wed 27 May 2026 06:21:15 PM UTC By: Jon Purdy <evincar>
The current manual (4.4.1 at the time of this writing) recommends using '$\'
at the end of a line for "Splitting Without Adding Whitespace".
var := one$\
word
This is very useful for controlling precisely where whitespace is inserted,
but as documented, it relies on the fact that the undefined variable '$ ' has
an empty expansion. Since I want to enable warnings about undefined variables,
I define this variable.
empty:=
space:=$(empty) $(empty)
$(space):=$(empty)
However, I also want to enable warnings about otherwise invalid variable
names, available in recent development versions. So I would suggest one of the
following.
1. Make '$ ' predefined and empty
2. Exempt '$ ' from the invalid name warning
3. Allow selectively disabling this warning for a single variable, or a
restricted scope
4. Add some other facility for line continuations with no whitespace, such as
adopting '$\' as syntax; this could allow preceding whitespace like '\'
outside of POSIX mode
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