Preprocessor Program Invocation Gets Wrong Return Value in NMK

ID Number: Q73685

1.11

MS-DOS

buglist1.11

Summary:

NMK.COM version 1.11 does not correctly evaluate the return value from

a program invocation in a preprocessor directive. NMK will always

indicate that the program returns 0 (zero) no matter what the actual

return value is. This can cause problems if the return value is used

in some conditional code in the makefile. The sample code and makefile

below may be used to illustrate this problem.

More Information:

A program can be invoked in a makefile preprocessing directive by

enclosing the program inside square brackets ([]). The program will

be invoked before any other processing of the makefile is done.

NMAKE evaluates the program correctly and may be used to work around

the problem; however, you may need to use the DOS extended versions of

the compiler or assembler to work around the memory limitations of

NMAKE.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in NMK version 1.11. We

are researching this problem and will post new information here as it

becomes available.

For more information on preprocessing directives in makefiles, see the

NMAKE documentation or online Help supplied with your version of the

compiler or assembler.

Sample Code and Makefile

------------------------

To illustrate the problem described above, compile or assemble one of

the sample programs below to create an executable file called TEST.EXE.

Save the following makefile as a file called MAKEFILE and invoke NMK

with no arguments.

MAKEFILE

--------

!IF ( [TEST.EXE] ) # This test is TRUE for NMAKE and FALSE for NMK

all:

echo Worked

!ELSE

all:

echo Failed

!ENDIF

TEST.C

------

/* Sample C code that can be invoked as a part of a makefile

preprocessor directive.

Compile options needed: none

*/

#include <stdlib.h>

void main(void)

{

exit(1);

}

TEST.ASM

--------

; Sample assembly code that can be invoked as a part of a makefile

; preprocessor directive

; Compile options needed: none

.MODEL small, os_dos

.STACK

.CODE

.STARTUP

mov al, 1h

.EXIT

END