Can't figure out how to read file from nmake

Question

I am doing like that:

all: 
 @SET /p filecontent= < somefile.txt
 @echo %filecontent%

however filecontent variable does not seem to hold the contents of the file somefile.txt

Answer 1

It is possible to read a file that is not a valid nmake file using !INCLUDE. For examle if we have a version file version that contains a single line of text we can do that:

//version file
1.2.4

//makefile
VERSION= \
!INCLUDE <version>

It is not working if the file contains more than one line.

Answer 2

Simply ensure somefile.txt is in acceptable nmake syntax, and then !include it. Thus:

c:>type somefile.txt
PASSWORD=secret
c:>type makefile
!INCLUDE somefile.txt
!MESSAGE Password is [$(PASSWORD)]
c:>nmake -nologo
Password is [secret]

Answer 3

You could try something like this:

# ---- vitaly.mak ----

target1:
# create and invoke a temporary cmd file
@<<mygetpassword.cmd
 @echo off
 setlocal
 @SET /p filecontent= < secret.txt
 @echo %filecontent%
 endlocal
<<

#--- END ---

I think a cmd/bat file run within nmake.exe cannot affect the environment of nmake. So you must use the password that you grabbed from the secret.txt within the temporary cmd file.