How to save and return exit code in makefile target

Question

I have a make target that looks something like this:

.PHONY: run-my-test
run-my-test: all
    run_test_suite.sh --all --log-to-file
    post_process_logs.sh

If a test case fails, the exit code of run_test_suite.sh will cause Make to not continue with running post_process_logs.sh . This is a problem, because i want to get the processed logs even for failed tests. How should i update my target to do this?

I've thought of saving the exit code somehow and perhaps exit with it in the end of the target definition. Or do I split the calls up into separate targets?

I can add that I'm pretty much forced to do this from Make because of how our build system works. And I would prefer not having to add more targets as the make files tend to be cluttered with these as it is.

Answer 1

If you want the build to fail after running post_process_logs.sh , put both commands in the same entry.

.PHONY: run-my-test
run-my-test: all
        run_test_suite.sh --all --log-to-file; \
        e=$$?; \
        post_process_logs.sh; \
        exit $$e

The exit status of run_test_suite.sh is saved in the shell variable e , which is used as the argument to exit after post_process_logs.sh to set the exit status of the overall command.