Special Characters in a .mak File
To use an Nmake.exe special character as a literal character, place a caret (^) in front of it. Nmake.exe ignores carets that precede other characters. The following table shows the Nmake.exe special characters.
Special character | Name | Usage notes |
---|---|---|
: | Colon | |
; | Semicolon | |
# | Number sign | Precede a comment with a number sign (#). Nmake.exe ignores text between the number sign and the next newline character.
The following code examples show how to insert comments in a .mak file.
|
( | Opening parenthesis | |
) | Closing parenthesis | |
$ | Dollar sign | |
^ | Caret | A caret within a quoted string is treated as a literal caret character. A caret at the end of a line inserts a literal newline character in a string or macro.
The following code example shows how to specify a literal number sign, by preceding it with a caret (^).
|
\ | Backslash | In macros, a backslash followed by a newline character is replaced by a space. |
{ | Opening brace | |
} | Closing brace | |
! | Exclamation point | |
@ | At sign | |
— | Dash | |
% | Percent sign | In commands, a percent sign is a file specifier. To represent a literal % in a command, specify two percent signs (%%) in place of a single one. In other situations, Nmake.exe interprets a single % literally, but it always interprets two %% as a single %. Therefore, to represent a literal %%, specify either three percent signs, %%%, or four percent signs, %%%%. |
$ | Dollar sign | To represent a literal $ in a command, specify two dollar signs ($$). This method can also be used in other situations where ^$ works. |
* | Asterisk | A file name wildcard. Nmake.exe expands file name wildcards in dependency lines. A wildcard specified in a command is passed to the command; Nmake.exe does not expand it. |
" " | Quotation marks | To use long file names, enclose them within quotation marks (" ").
The following code example shows how to use long file names.
|
Last updated on Friday, October 08, 2004
© 1992-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.