Using sh in makefiles

[Doug Gwyn]

In article <1991 at dalcs.UUCP> silvert at dalcs.UUCP (Bill Silvert) writes:
-Would like advice on how to use shell commands (such as if...) in
-makefiles.  I know that it all has to be on one line, but the only way I
-can make a command work is through a kludge like:
-
-test:
-	echo "if x;then y;fi" | sh
-
-which seems pretty roundabout.  Is this the only way to do it?

I really don't understand why you've had any problems:

test:
	if x; then y; fi

OR

test:
	if x ; \
	then	y ; \
	fi

Perhaps you're using one of those antique versions of UNIX that has a
"make" and shell that conspire to report that the "if" command has
failed; if so, just use a dash prefix on the command:

test:
	-if x; \
	then	y; \
	fi

I would like to once again plea that people posting problems
tell us what version of UNIX they're running, since there are
several and they don't all behave the same way.