[bug #59154] Multiline environment variables handled poorly

[Dan Kegel]

URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?59154>

                 Summary: Multiline environment variables handled poorly
                 Project: make
            Submitted by: dankegel
            Submitted on: Mon 21 Sep 2020 02:58:39 PM UTC
                Severity: 3 - Normal
              Item Group: Bug
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
       Component Version: 4.2.1
        Operating System: Any
           Fixed Release: None
           Triage Status: None

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Details:

I accidentally used a multiline envrionment variable thusly:

$ export PUB="$(base64 < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub)"
$ cat Makefile
foo:
       echo PUB is "$(PUB)"

This worked fine on mac where base64 defaults to not wrapping
there.

But on Linux where base64 defaults to wrapping,
this explored multiline variable values.
With gnu make, it fails with
/bin/sh: 1: Syntax error: unterminated quoted string

With bsd make, it succeeds.

The shell is happy to handle multiline environment variables.
Given that, IMHO, Makefiles that contain properly quoted shell references to
an environment variable ought to continue working even if that environment
variable happens to contain a multiline value.  One other implementation gets
it right, so it seems reasonable to enhance gnu make to handle this case as
well.





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