+Substitution syntax
+-------------------
+
+In general & expands to the subdirectory name when used for a
+filename, and to the subdirectory name with / replaced with _ for
+variable names. (If your variables start with capital letters and
+your filenames with lowercase. Otherwise, use &/ or &_.)
+
+Note that & is processed *even in makefile comments*. The substitutor
+does not understand make syntax, or shell syntax, at all. However,
+the substitution rules are chosen to work well with constructs which
+are common in makefiles.
+
+In the notation below, we suppose that the substitution is being in
+done in a subdirectory sub/dir of the source tree. In the RH column
+we describe the expansion at the top level, which is often a special
+case (in general in variable names we call that TOP rather than the
+empty string).
+
+&CAPS => sub_dir_CAPS or TOP_CAPS
+&lc => sub/dir/lc or lc
+ Here CAPS is any ASCII letter A-Z and lc is a-z.
+ The assumption is that filenames are usually lowercase and
+ variables usually uppercase. Otherwise, use another syntax:
+
+&/ => sub/dir/ or nothing
+&_ => sub_dir_ or TOP_
+&. => sub/dir or .
+ (This implies that `&./' works roughly like `&/', although
+ it can produce a needless `./')
+
+&= => sub_dir or TOP
+
+&^lc => $(top_srcdir)/sub/dir/lc
+&^/ => $(top_srcdir)/sub/dir/
+&^. => $(top_srcdir)/sub/dir
+
+&~lc => $(top_srcdir)/lc
+&~/ => $(top_srcdir)/
+&~. => $(top_srcdir)
+
+In general:
+ ^ pathname of this subdirectory in source tree
+ ~ pathname of top level of source tree
+ / terminates the path escape } needed if next is
+ _ terminates the var escape } not letter or space)
+ . terminates path escape giving dir name (excluding /)
+ = terminates var escape giving only prefix part (rarely needed)
+ lwsp starts multi-word processing (see below)
+
+So pathname syntax is a subset of:
+ '&' [ '^' | '~' ] [ lc | '/' | '.' ]
+
+&& => && for convenience in shell runes
+
+&\& => & general escaping mechanism
+&\$ => $ provided for $-doubling regimes
+&\NEWLINE eats the newline and vanishes
+
+&$VARIABLE => $(sub_dir_VARIABLE) or $(TOP_VARIABLE)
+ VARIABLE is ASCII starting with a letter and matching \w+
+
+& thing thing... &
+&^ thing thing... &
+&~ thing thing... &
+ Convenience syntax for prefixing multiple filenames.
+ Introduced by & followed by lwsp where lc could go.
+ Each lwsp-separated non-ws word is prefixed by &/ etc.
+ etc. respectively. No other & escapes are recognised.
+ This processing continues until & preceded by lwsp,
+ or until EOL (the end of the line), or \ then EOL.
+
+&:<directive> <args>....
+ recognised at start of line only (possibly after lwsp)
+
+&:include filename filename should usually be [&]foo.sd.mk
+&:-include filename tolerate nonexistent file
+ RHS is &-expanded but filenames are relative to the top
+ srcdir. This implies that unqualified names are like &~/
+ whereas &/ is like &^/. &^ and &~ do not work here because
+ they expand to constructions involving literally
+ `$(top_srcdir)', but the RHS is not make-expanded.
+
+&!<lwsp> disables & until EOL (and then disappears)
+
+&# delete everything to end of line
+ (useful if the RHS contains unrecognised & constructions)
+
+&TARGETS_things
+ Handled specially. If mentioned at the start of a line
+ (possibly following whitespace), declares that this
+ subdir ought to have a target `things'. The rule will be
+ &/things:: $(&TARGETS_things)
+
+ You may extend it by adding more :: rules for the target,
+ but the preferred style is to do things like this:
+ &TARGETS_check += & test-passed.stamp
+
+ It is important to mention &TARGETS_things at least once in
+ the context of each applicable directory, because doing so
+ arranges that the *parent* will also have a `things' target
+ which recursively implies this directory's `things'.
+
+ Must be spelled exactly &TARGETS_things. &_TARGETS_things,
+ for example, is not magic. To make the target exist
+ without providing any prerequisites for it, write a line
+ containing just `&TARGETS_things +='.
+
+ `all' is extra special: every directory has an `all'
+ target, which corresponds to &TARGETS.
+
+&:warn [!]WARNTAG ...
+ Suppress (with !) or re-enable (without !) warnings tagged
+ WARNTAG (see section `Warnings', below). The suppression list
+ is reset at the start of processing in each subdirectory.
+ Warnings that appear at the end of processing are controlled
+ by the final warning state after processing all the toplevel
+ input files (including Final.sd.mk).
+
+&:local+global [&]VARIABLE ...
+ Suppresses the warning about seeing both VARIABLE and
+ &VARIABLE. Any & specified in the RHS is redundant: this
+ always affects both versions identically.
+
+&:changequote NEWQUOTE
+ changes the escape sequence from & to literally NEWQUOTE
+ NEWQUOTE may be any series of of non-whitespace characters,
+ and is terminated by EOL or lwsp. The whole line is
+ discarded.
+
+ After this, write NEWQUOTE instead of &, everywhere.
+ The effect is unscoped and lasts until the next setting,
+ or until the end of the current directory's Suffix.sd.mk.
+ It takes effect on &:include'd files too, so maybe set
+ it back before using &:include.
+
+ Notably
+ NEWQUOTENEWQUOTE => NEWQUOTENEWQUOTE
+ NEWQUOTE\NEWQUOTE => NEWQUOTE
+ NEWQUOTE\$ => $
+ NEWQUOTE:changequote & set escape back to &
+
+
+Dollar doubling and macro assistance
+------------------------------------
+
+&$+ Starts dollar-doubling
+&$- Stops dollar-doubling
+ Both are idempotent and local to the file or context.
+
+Sometimes we will show $'s being doubled inside another construct.
+This means the content of the construct is $-doubled: $-doubling is
+locally enabled, and restored afterwards.
+
+&:macro NAME => define NAME
+STUFF $ THINGS .. STUFF $$ THINGS
+&:endm .. endef
+ NAME is processed for &
+
+&${..$..} => ${eval ${call ..$$..}}
+ (matches { } pairs to find the end)
+ content is $-doubled (unless it contains &$- to turn that off)
+
+Together &:macro and &${...} provide a more reasonable macro facility
+than raw make. They solve the problem that make expansions cannot
+directly generate multiple rules, variable, etc.; instead, `$(eval )'
+must be used, but that re-expands the argument, meaning that all the
+literal text must be $-doubled. This applies to the macro text and to
+the arguments. Also `$(eval $(call ...))' is an unfortunate syntax.
+Hence &:macro and &${...}.
+
+While dollar-doubling:
+- - - - - - - - - - -
+
+$ => $$ including $'s produced by other
+ &-expansions not mentioned here
+
+&\$ => $
+&$NN => $(NN) where N are digits
+&$( => $(
+
+A few contexts do not support $-doubling, such as directive arguments
+or places where this might imply $-quadrupling. (There is no way to
+get $-quadrupling.)
+
+
~ian / subdirmk.git / blobdiff