How to set environment variable in Makefile

Question

I would like to change this Makefile:

SHELL := /bin/bash
PATH  := node_modules/.bin:$(PATH)

boot:
    @supervisor         \
      --harmony         \
      --watch etc,lib       \
      --extensions js,json      \
      --no-restart-on error     \
        lib

test:
    NODE_ENV=test mocha         \
      --harmony             \
      --reporter spec       \
        test

clean:
    @rm -rf node_modules

.PHONY: test clean

to:

SHELL := /bin/bash
PATH  := node_modules/.bin:$(PATH)

boot:
    @supervisor         \
      --harmony         \
      --watch etc,lib       \
      --extensions js,json      \
      --no-restart-on error     \
        lib

test: NODE_ENV=test
test:
    mocha                   \
      --harmony             \
      --reporter spec       \
        test

clean:
    @rm -rf node_modules

.PHONY: test clean

Unfortunately the second one does not work (the node process still runs with the default NODE_ENV.

What did I miss?

Answer 1

I only needed the environment variables locally to invoke my test command, here's an example setting multiple environment vars in a bash shell, and escaping the dollar sign in make.

SHELL := /bin/bash

.PHONY: test tests
test tests:
    PATH=./node_modules/.bin/:$$PATH \
    JSCOVERAGE=1 \
    nodeunit tests/

Answer 2

As MadScientist pointed out, you can export individual variables with:

export MY_VAR = foo

---

You can also specify the .EXPORT_ALL_VARIABLES target to—you guessed it!—EXPORT ALL THE THINGS!!!:

.EXPORT_ALL_VARIABLES:

MY_VAR = foo

test:
  @echo $$MY_VAR

see .EXPORT_ALL_VARIABLES

Answer 3

Make variables are not exported into the environment of processes make invokes... by default. However you can use make's export to force them to do so. Change:

test: NODE_ENV = test

to this:

test: export NODE_ENV = test

(assuming you have a sufficiently modern version of GNU make).