How to expand wildcard inside shell code block in a Makefile?

Question

I got this script which reads a delimited part of my .gitignore file and remove all files after the given mark # #:

# https://stackoverflow.com/questions/55527923/how-to-stop-makefile-from-expanding-my-shell-output
RAW_GITIGNORE_CONTENTS := $(shell while read -r line; do printf "$$line "; done < ".gitignore")
GITIGNORE_CONTENTS := $(shell echo "$(RAW_GITIGNORE_CONTENTS)" | sed -E $$'s/[^\#]+\# //g')

# https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4210042/exclude-directory-from-find-command
DIRECTORIES_TO_CLEAN := $(shell /bin/find -not -path "./**.git**" -not -path "./pictures**" -type d)

clean:
#   https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10586153/split-string-into-an-array-in-bash
#   https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11289551/argument-list-too-long-error-for-rm-cp-mv-commands
    readarray -td' ' GARBAGE_DIRECTORIES <<<"$(DIRECTORIES_TO_CLEAN) "; \
    unset 'GARBAGE_DIRECTORIES[-1]'; \
    declare -p GARBAGE_DIRECTORIES; \
    readarray -td' ' GARBAGE_EXTENSIONS <<<"$(GITIGNORE_CONTENTS) "; \
    unset 'GARBAGE_EXTENSIONS[-1]'; \
    declare -p GARBAGE_EXTENSIONS; \
    for filename in "$${GARBAGE_DIRECTORIES[@]}"; \
    do \
        arraylength="$${#GARBAGE_EXTENSIONS[@]}"; \
        printf 'Cleaning %s extensions on %s\n' "$${arraylength}" "$$filename"; \
        for extension in "$${GARBAGE_EXTENSIONS[@]}"; \
        do \
            [[ ! -z "$$filename" ]] || continue; \
            [[ ! -z "$$extension" ]] || continue; \
            full_expression="$${filename}/$${extension}" ;\
            printf '%s\n' "$$full_expression"; \
            rm -v "$$full_expression"; \
        done; \
    done;

Running it with the following .gitignore file:

*.txt
*.var
# Comment #
*.aux

The rm command is not expanding the wildcards and keeps telling me rm: cannot remove './*.aux': No such file or directory and do not remove the *.aux files from the ./ directory.

Update

After asked on a comment by @Beta, I simplified the Makefile to this:


GITIGNORE_CONTENTS := "*.aux" "*.lof"
DIRECTORIES_TO_CLEAN := "./setup/cache" "./setup/cache/chapters"

clean:
    readarray -td' ' GARBAGE_DIRECTORIES <<<"$(DIRECTORIES_TO_CLEAN) "; \
    unset 'GARBAGE_DIRECTORIES[-1]'; \
    declare -p GARBAGE_DIRECTORIES; \
    readarray -td' ' GARBAGE_EXTENSIONS <<<"$(GITIGNORE_CONTENTS) "; \
    unset 'GARBAGE_EXTENSIONS[-1]'; \
    declare -p GARBAGE_EXTENSIONS; \
    for filename in "$${GARBAGE_DIRECTORIES[@]}"; \
    do \
        arraylength="$${#GARBAGE_EXTENSIONS[@]}"; \
        printf 'Cleaning %s extensions on %s\n' "$${arraylength}" "$$filename"; \
        for extension in "$${GARBAGE_EXTENSIONS[@]}"; \
        do \
            [[ ! -z "$$filename" ]] || continue; \
            [[ ! -z "$$extension" ]] || continue; \
            full_expression="$${filename}/$${extension}" ;\
            printf '%s\n' "$$full_expression"; \
            rm -vf "$$full_expression"; \
        done; \
    done;

Which results on this output after running it:

$ make
readarray -td' ' GARBAGE_DIRECTORIES <<<""./setup/cache" "./setup/cache/chapters" "; \
unset 'GARBAGE_DIRECTORIES[-1]'; \
declare -p GARBAGE_DIRECTORIES; \
readarray -td' ' GARBAGE_EXTENSIONS <<<""*.aux" "*.lof" "; \
unset 'GARBAGE_EXTENSIONS[-1]'; \
declare -p GARBAGE_EXTENSIONS; \
for filename in "${GARBAGE_DIRECTORIES[@]}"; \
do \
        arraylength="${#GARBAGE_EXTENSIONS[@]}"; \
        printf 'Cleaning %s extensions on %s\n' "${arraylength}" "$filename"; \
        for extension in "${GARBAGE_EXTENSIONS[@]}"; \
        do \
                [[ ! -z "$filename" ]] || continue; \
                [[ ! -z "$extension" ]] || continue; \
                full_expression="${filename}/${extension}" ;\
                printf '%s\n' "$full_expression"; \
                rm -vf "$full_expression"; \
        done; \
done;
declare -a GARBAGE_DIRECTORIES=([0]="./setup/cache" [1]="./setup/cache/chapters")
declare -a GARBAGE_EXTENSIONS=([0]="*.aux" [1]="*.lof")
Cleaning 2 extensions on ./setup/cache
./setup/cache/*.aux
./setup/cache/*.lof
Cleaning 2 extensions on ./setup/cache/chapters
./setup/cache/chapters/*.aux
./setup/cache/chapters/*.lof

More simplification

I reduced to the more simple version it could be:

clean:
    rm -v "./setup/cache/*.aux";

Running this, also do not remove the files:

$ make
rm -v "./setup/cache/*.aux";
rm: cannot remove './setup/cache/*.aux': No such file or directory
make: *** [Makefile:3: clean] Error 1

$ ls ./setup/cache/*.aux
./setup/cache/main.aux

On above, after running ls, you can see the file still exists and it is there.

What command do you see? An what happens when you [simplify the makefile](https://stackoverflow.com/help/mcve)? — Beta, Apr 06 '19 at 02:35
...And then you found the bug with ease. Now you understand why we advise people to simplify their code. — Beta, Apr 06 '19 at 03:32
@Beta, thanks for helping! If you know why it worked, you could post as an answer! — Evandro Coan, Apr 06 '19 at 04:12
Bash expands *unquoted* wildcards. Without the double-quotes, the command `rm *aux` becomes `rm main.aux`, but with the double-quotes `rm` tries to remove a file named `*.aux`, and there's no such file. — Beta, Apr 07 '19 at 00:31

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 06 '19 at 03:22

2

I managed to fix it by changing:

    rm -vf "$$full_expression"; \

To:

    rm -vf $${full_expression}; \

answered Apr 06 '19 at 03:22

Evandro Coan

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How to expand wildcard inside shell code block in a Makefile?

Update

More simplification

1 Answers1