Re: [PATCH 2/2] Makefile: work around ksh's failure to handle missing list argument to for loop

> Johannes Sixt <j.sixt@viscovery.net> writes:
>
>> Before the test for emptyness can happen, the complete statement must be
>> parsed, but ksh finds a syntax error in the statement and, therefore,
>> cannot even begin to execute the statement. (ksh doesn't follow POSIX in
>> this regard, where this would not be a syntax error.)
>
> I had to stare at Brandon's patch that was essentially:
>
> -    for p in $(FOO); do echo $$p; done
> +    foo=$(FOO); for p in $$foo; do echo $$p; done
>
> and the above two doesn't look like there should be any difference; your
> explanation makes quite a lot of sense but that's arcane.  I doubt I will
> be able to justify and explain the latter construction without consulting
> your message I am responsing to, if somebody asks "why do we assign $(FOO)
> to a shell variable and then iterate over it?" 6 months from now.
>
> It might make sense to use $(foreach) instead of rolling our own loop in
> the shell to avoid glitches like this.