Makefile assign variable passed from command line

Question

Is it possible to assign a variable that has also been passed from the command line?

I tried the following Makefile:

testvar := newassign

.PHONY: all
all:
    @echo $(testvar)

If I execute make, the output is the expected newassign. However, if I execute make testvar=asd, the output is asd, while I expect this to also be newassign.

I use GNU Make 4.1.

Try the docs: gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/Values.html — MadScientist
– MadScientist, Commented May 1, 2019 at 11:55

Aart Stuurman · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-01 08:37:53Z

2

This apparently an intentional feature. Command line options always have precedence over assignments inside the Makefile. If you want to force assignment, you can use override.

override testvar := newassign

.PHONY: all
all:
    @echo $(testvar)

answered May 1, 2019 at 8:37

Aart Stuurman

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