Test whether a directory exists inside a makefile

user_671013 0
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In his answer @Grundlefleck explains how to check whether a directory exists or not. I tried some to use this inside a makefile as follow:

foo.bak: foo.bar
    echo "foo"
    if [ -d "~/Dropbox" ]; then
        echo "Dir exists"
    fi

Running make foo.bak (given that foo.bar exists) yields the following error:

echo "foo"
foo
if [ -d "~/Dropbox" ]; then
/bin/sh: -c: line 1: syntax error: unexpected end of file
make: *** [foo.bak] Error 2

The workaround I made was to have a standalone bash script where the test is implemented and I called the script from the makefile. This, however, sounds very cumbersome. Is there a nicer way to check whether a directory exists from within a makefile?

makefile bash
7 Answers

I use the following to detect if a file or a directory exists and act upon it :

$(if $(filter expected,$(wildcard *)), the expected file exists)

With your request :

.PHONY: ~/Dropbox

~/Dropbox:
    echo "Dir exists"

foo.bak: foo.bar | $(if $(filter ~/Dropbox,$(wildcard ~/*)), the expected file exists)

Which can further be simplify :

foo.bak: foo.bar | $(wildcard ~/Dropbox)
user_30209210
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