Passing CFLAGS to Makefile at a command line - linux

Question

I am trying to monitor coverage on a Makefile project.
CFLAGS=" -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage -g" make test
But the command above does not seem to work, producing the following:
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I.. -I.. -g -O2 -MT test.o -MD -MP -MF .deps/test.Tpo -c -o test.o test.c
mv -f .deps/test.Tpo .deps/test.Po
/bin/bash ../libtool --tag=CC --mode=compile gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I.. -I.. -g -O2 -MT gaussian.lo -MD -MP -MF .deps/gaussian.Tpo -c -o gaussian.lo gaussian.c
It can be seen, from the first line, that CFLAGS are not well added when gcc is invoked. How can I include the cflags in gcc's build options while launching "make"?
I am using Bash at an Ubuntu 14, if that matters.

Answer 1

Variables obtained from the environment, which is how you're doing it, have a lower precedence than variables set in a makefile. So if your makefile sets the CFLAGS variable directly, like:
CFLAGS = -g -O2
then setting it in the environment won't override this setting.
You can add variable assignments to the command line instead: these take precedence over almost anything set in the makefile. So use:
make test CFLAGS=" -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage -g"
instead.
See https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/Values.html