On Sun, May 08, 2005 at 10:17:11PM -0400, Michael Marsh wrote: > On 5/8/05, Kamaraju Kusumanchi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi > > Using Debian sid. I have an alias in my .bashrc say something like > > > > alias x="y" > > > > This command is executing fine on a bash shell (ie I can use x). But > > when I use x in a makefile, it is not getting expanded to y. Is this a > > future? How can I overcome this limitation? > > Unless you've told it otherwise, make isn't using bash, it's using sh. > While sh is probably a symlink to bash, when invoked as "sh" it > doesn't read your .bashrc (nor the system default). You can change > this behavior with the SHELL variable in your makefile: > > SHELL := /bin/bash > > In general, though, it's better to set everything that you need in the > makefile, since relying on your aliases makes your makefile highly > non-portable. I usually do something like (using your example): > > X := y > > and then using $(X) instead of the alias x in commands.
In addition to what's been said, also note that - if you're explicitly asking bash to execute the script - it holds that "Aliases are not expanded when the shell is not interactive, unless the expand_aliases shell option is set using shopt..." (man bash). So, if you write #!/bin/bash alias ll='ls -l' ll you'll get "ll: command not found", while the next two incantations work as many people would expect: #!/bin/sh alias ll='ls -l' ll #!/bin/bash shopt -s expand_aliases alias ll='ls -l' ll Thus, depending on the details of usage, it's kind of a feature... But don't worry, you're not the first to overlook that little phrase in the man page :) Almut -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
