How to set child process environment variable in Makefile

Question

I would like to change this Makefile   SHELL     bin bash PATH     node modules  bin   PATH   boot       supervisor                 --harmony                 --watch etc lib               --extensions js json              --no-restart-on error               lib  test      NODE ENV test mocha                 --harmony                     --reporter spec                 test  clean       rm -rf node modules   PHONY  test clean   to   SHELL     bin bash PATH     node modules  bin   PATH   boot       supervisor                 --harmony                 --watch etc lib               --extensions js json              --no-restart-on error               lib  test  NODE ENV test test      mocha                           --harmony                     --reporter spec                 test  clean       rm -rf node modules   PHONY  test clean   Unfortunately the second one does not work  the node process still runs with the default NODE ENV   What did I miss

User · Answer

I would re-write the original target test  taking care the needed variable is defined IN THE SAME SUB-PROCESS as the application to launch   test        NODE ENV test mocha --harmony --reporter spec test

User · Answer

Make variables are not exported into the environment of processes make invokes    by default   However you can use make s export to force them to do so   Change   test  NODE ENV   test   to this   test  export NODE ENV   test    assuming you have a sufficiently modern version of GNU make    3 77

User · Answer

As MadScientist pointed out  you can export individual variables with   export MY VAR   foo    Available for all targets   Or export variables for a specific target  target-specific variables    my-target  export MY VAR 1   foo my-target  export MY VAR 2   bar my-target  export MY VAR 3   baz  my-target  dependency 1 dependency 2   echo do something     You can also specify the  EXPORT ALL VARIABLES target to   you guessed it    EXPORT ALL THE THINGS       EXPORT ALL VARIABLES   MY VAR 1   foo MY VAR 2   bar MY VAR 3   baz  test     echo   MY VAR 1   MY VAR 2   MY VAR 3   see  EXPORT ALL VARIABLES

User · Answer

I only needed the environment variables locally to invoke my test command  here s an example setting multiple environment vars in a bash shell  and escaping the dollar sign in make   SHELL     bin bash   PHONY  test tests test tests      PATH   node modules  bin    PATH       JSCOVERAGE 1       nodeunit tests

[shell] How to set child process' environment variable in Makefile

Examples related to shell

Examples related to makefile

Examples related to environment-variables

Examples related to target