[BUG] undefined variable used in recipe before undefine directive

Alejandro Colomar <[email protected]> Wed, 10 Sep 2025 22:33:41 +0200

Newsgroups	gmane.comp.gnu.make.bugs
Message-ID	<dozwj4skpmjnrsm2latffegxp2qr2dwpi3b52l753q4h53zhop@xt4bga7ws3y3>

Hi,

I think this looks like a bug, unless I'm forgetting some details about
how variables are expanded within recipes.

	alx@debian:~/tmp/bug$ ls
	Makefile
	alx@debian:~/tmp/bug$ cat Makefile | nl -ba
	     1	MAKEFLAGS += --warn-undefined-variables
	     2	
	     3	foo := foo
	     4	
	     5	all:; echo $(foo)
	     6	
	     7	undefine foo
	alx@debian:~/tmp/bug$ make
	Makefile:5: warning: undefined variable 'foo'
	echo 

As I understand it, the variable foo is expanded immediately in the
definition of the recipe, and make(1) shouldn't care if I undefine it
after the definition of the recipe, right?  make(1) should create the
recipe with the contents of the variable, and not with the variable
itself.

Am I missing anything?

I'm using Debian Sid:

	$ make --version | head -n1
	GNU Make 4.4.1



Have a lovely night!
Alex


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