From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Apr 6 11:27:45 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9262816A4CE for ; Tue, 6 Apr 2004 11:27:45 -0700 (PDT) Received: from bremen.shuttle.de (bremen.shuttle.de [194.95.249.251]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0514243D31 for ; Tue, 6 Apr 2004 11:27:45 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from schweikh@schweikhardt.net) Received: by bremen.shuttle.de (Postfix, from userid 10) id 717E63BEE3; Tue, 6 Apr 2004 20:26:05 +0200 (CEST) Received: from hal9000.schweikhardt.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) i36IQ0xL017334 for ; Tue, 6 Apr 2004 20:26:00 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from schweikh@hal9000.schweikhardt.net) Received: (from schweikh@localhost) by hal9000.schweikhardt.net (8.12.11/8.12.11/Submit) id i36IQ0JT017333 for hackers@FreeBSD.org; Tue, 6 Apr 2004 20:26:00 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from schweikh) Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2004 20:26:00 +0200 From: Jens Schweikhardt To: hackers@FreeBSD.org Message-ID: <20040406182600.GA3907@schweikhardt.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i Subject: make(1) guru question X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 06 Apr 2004 18:27:45 -0000 Fellow hackers, suppose you have a long list of files in a make variable V, exceeding kern.argmax. This means there is no way you can write a rule where $(V) is a command argument in any way shape or form. There is also no way to pass the value of V to xargs that I know of. For example with this Makefile: # Make V exceed kern.argmax (64K). V != jot 12440 all: @ echo $(V) This fails with echo:Argument list too long *** Error code 1 Furthermore the workaround of creating a process for each file in V with V != jot 12440 all: .for v in $(V) @ echo $(v) .endfor is not acceptable because it creates too much overhead for process creation (think of echo being an expensive command.) Question: is there any other way (short of increasing kern.argmax) to maybe divide and conquer the V contents by use of substitution magic? I'm thinking of something along repeatedly cramming N items in some variable and then calling echo less often. The original problem can be found in http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=ports/52765 Regards, Jens -- Jens Schweikhardt http://www.schweikhardt.net/ SIGSIG -- signature too long (core dumped)