makefilegnu-makecolon-equals

:= vs = in make macros

Possible Duplicate:
What is the difference between the GNU Makefile variable assignments =, ?=, := and +=?

I only know very basic makefile syntax, and was reading through another project's makefile and came across := for macro declaration. Why would they use that?

In other words, is there any difference between

MYMACRO = hi i'm a macro

and

MYMACRO := hi i'm a macro

?

Solution

  • Variables defined with := in GNU make are expanded when they are defined rather than when they are used.