Re: $(call ...) versus (macro-name ...)

[John Graham-Cumming]

Paul D. Smith wrote:
> However, you're correct that in the special case where call is invoked
> and not passed any arguments, the variable is simply expanded.  So,
> saying "$(call FOO)" is exactly identically equivalent to saying
> "$(FOO)" (except a tiny bit slower).

Actually there is one small difference.  When you do $(call FOO) GNU 
Make's code resets the counter used to detect a variable that refers to 
itself and hence it's possible to use $(call FOO) to avoid a 'variable 
refers to itself' error if you really know what you are doing.

I recently used this quirk to add interactive breakpoints to my GNU Make 
Debugger project.

John.
--
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