How to pass a Makefile target to another - linux

Question

so I have a large Makefile that runs all of my tests for my particular project. Each target is a different group of tests. The script will run the target, store its output into a temporary file.
Currently the target looks like this:
count:
# USE: make count test=<name of test to run>
# Save output to target
$(MAKE) $(test) > last_output.txt
cat last_output.txt
# Print Passed
#cat last_output.txt | { grep -E -w "SUCCESS|RELAX-PASS" || true; }
# Print Failed
#cat last_output.txt | { grep -E -w "FAILED" || true; }
# Failed Count
#echo "\e[1;31mFAILED:\e[1;37m"
#cat last_output.txt | { grep -c "FAILED" || true; }
# Passed Count
#echo "\e[1;32mPASSED:\e[1;37m"
#cat last_output.txt | grep -E -c "SUCCESS|RELAX-PASS"
# Count all
#echo "TOTAL: "
#cat last_output.txt | { grep -E -c "FAILED|SUCCESS|RELAX-PASS" || true; }
And the instruction to execute it looks like:
make count test=add
What I was wondering was if I could not specify test= when I'm running the command so that it would look like this:
make count add
and then the add target will execute which looks like:
add:
clear && run.pl add_0.asm
clear && run.pl add_1.asm
clear && run.pl add_2.asm
clear && run.pl add_3.asm
ect.

Answer 1

Every command line argument to make is either an option, a variable assignment, or a target. There's no possible way to treat an argument as anything else. So when you run make check add, the add will be a target that make will attempt to build and there's no way to have it be considered any other way.
As #Beta suggests if you are willing to embed to the test name into the target, like make count_add, then you can do this:
SHOW = \
cat last_output.txt; \
grep -E -w "SUCCESS|RELAX-PASS" < last_output.txt; \
grep -E -w "FAILED" < last_output.txt; \
echo "\e[1;31mFAILED:\e[1;37m"; \
grep -c "FAILED" < last_output.txt; \
echo "\e[1;32mPASSED:\e[1;37m"; \
grep -E -c "SUCCESS|RELAX-PASS" < last_output.txt; \
echo "TOTAL: "; \
grep -E -c "FAILED|SUCCESS|RELAX-PASS" < last_output.txt;
true
count:
$(MAKE) $(test) > last_output.txt
#$(SHOW)
count_%:
$(MAKE) $* > last_output.txt
#$(SHOW)
If you don't want to do that, the only possible solution is to use ifeq combined with $(MAKECMDGOALS) to break your makefile up into two sections: one that has a .DEFAULT target that does nothing (to ignore the extra targets like add etc.) and a second that runs those targets.