How to get exit status of a shell command used in GNU Makefile?

Question

I have a makefile rule in while I am executing a linux tool. I need to check the exit status of the tool command, and if that command fails the make has to be aborted.

I tried checking with $?, $$? \$? etc in the makefile. But they gives me syntax error when makefile runs.

What is the right way to do this ?

Here is the relevant rule in Makefile

    mycommand \     if [ $$? -ne 0 ]; \     then \         echo "mycommand failed"; \         false; \     fi 

Answer 1

In the makefile-:

mycommand || (echo "mycommand failed $$?"; exit 1) 

Each line in the makefile action invokes a new shell - the error must be checked in the action line where the command failed.

If mycommand fails the logic branches to the echo statement then exits.

Answer 2

Here are a couple of other approaches:

---

shell & .SHELLSTATUS

some_recipe:     @echo $(shell echo 'doing stuff'; exit 123)     @echo 'command exited with $(.SHELLSTATUS)'     @exit $(.SHELLSTATUS) 

Output:

$ make some_recipe  doing stuff command exited with 123       make: *** [Makefile:4: some_recipe] Error 123 

It does have the caveat that the shell command output isn't streamed, so you just end up with a dump to stdout when it finishes.

---

$?

some_recipe:     @echo 'doing stuff'; sh -c 'exit 123';\     EXIT_CODE=$$?;\     echo "command exited with $$EXIT_CODE";\     exit $$EXIT_CODE 

Or, a bit easier to read:

.ONESHELL:  some_recipe:     @echo 'doing stuff'; sh -c 'exit 123'     @EXIT_CODE=$$?     @echo "command exited with $$EXIT_CODE"     @exit $$EXIT_CODE 

Output:

$ make some_recipe  doing stuff                   command exited with 123       make: *** [Makefile:2: some_recipe] Error 123 

It's essentially one string of commands, executed in the same shell.