How to get current relative directory of your Makefile?

The shell function.

You can use shell function: current_dir = $(shell pwd). Or shell in combination with notdir, if you need not absolute path: current_dir = $(notdir $(shell pwd)).

Update.

Given solution only works when you are running make from the Makefile's current directory.
As @Flimm noted:

Note that this returns the current working directory, not the parent directory of the Makefile. For example, if you run cd /; make -f /home/username/project/Makefile, the current_dir variable will be /, not /home/username/project/.

Code below will work for Makefiles invoked from any directory:

mkfile_path := $(abspath $(lastword $(MAKEFILE_LIST)))
current_dir := $(notdir $(patsubst %/,%,$(dir $(mkfile_path))))

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As taken from here;

ROOT_DIR:=$(shell dirname $(realpath $(firstword $(MAKEFILE_LIST))))

Shows up as;

$ cd /home/user/

$ make -f test/Makefile 
/home/user/test

$ cd test; make Makefile 
/home/user/test

Hope this helps

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If you are using GNU make, $(CURDIR) is actually a built-in variable. It is the location where the Makefile resides the current working directory, which is probably where the Makefile is, but not always.

OUTPUT_PATH = /project1/bin/$(notdir $(CURDIR))

See Appendix A Quick Reference in http://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/make.html

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THIS_DIR := $(dir $(abspath $(firstword $(MAKEFILE_LIST))))

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I like the chosen answer, but I think it would be more helpful to actually show it working than explain it.

/tmp/makefile_path_test.sh

#!/bin/bash -eu

# Create a testing dir
temp_dir=/tmp/makefile_path_test
proj_dir=$temp_dir/dir1/dir2/dir3
mkdir -p $proj_dir

# Create the Makefile in $proj_dir
# (Because of this, $proj_dir is what $(path) should evaluate to.)
cat > $proj_dir/Makefile <<'EOF'
path := $(patsubst %/,%,$(dir $(abspath $(lastword $(MAKEFILE_LIST)))))
cwd  := $(shell pwd)

all:
    @echo "MAKEFILE_LIST: $(MAKEFILE_LIST)"
    @echo "         path: $(path)"
    @echo "          cwd: $(cwd)"
    @echo ""
EOF

# See/debug each command
set -x

# Test using the Makefile in the current directory
cd $proj_dir
make

# Test passing a Makefile
cd $temp_dir
make -f $proj_dir/Makefile

# Cleanup
rm -rf $temp_dir

Output:

+ cd /tmp/makefile_path_test/dir1/dir2/dir3
+ make
MAKEFILE_LIST:  Makefile
         path: /private/tmp/makefile_path_test/dir1/dir2/dir3
          cwd: /tmp/makefile_path_test/dir1/dir2/dir3

+ cd /tmp/makefile_path_test
+ make -f /tmp/makefile_path_test/dir1/dir2/dir3/Makefile
MAKEFILE_LIST:  /tmp/makefile_path_test/dir1/dir2/dir3/Makefile
         path: /tmp/makefile_path_test/dir1/dir2/dir3
          cwd: /tmp/makefile_path_test

+ rm -rf /tmp/makefile_path_test

NOTE: The function $(patsubst %/,%,[path/goes/here/]) is used to strip the trailing slash.

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I tried many of these answers, but on my AIX system with gnu make 3.80 I needed to do some things old school.

Turns out that lastword, abspath and realpath were not added until 3.81. :(

mkfile_path := $(word $(words $(MAKEFILE_LIST)),$(MAKEFILE_LIST))
mkfile_dir:=$(shell cd $(shell dirname $(mkfile_path)); pwd)
current_dir:=$(notdir $(mkfile_dir))

As others have said, not the most elegant as it invokes a shell twice, and it still has the spaces issues.

But as I don't have any spaces in my paths, it works for me regardless of how I started make:

make -f ../wherever/makefile

make -C ../wherever

make -C ~/wherever

cd ../wherever; make

All give me wherever for current_dir and the absolute path to wherever for mkfile_dir.

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Here is one-liner to get absolute path to your Makefile file using shell syntax:

SHELL := /bin/bash
CWD := $(shell cd -P -- '$(shell dirname -- "$0")' && pwd -P)

And here is version without shell based on @0xff answer:

CWD := $(abspath $(patsubst %/,%,$(dir $(abspath $(lastword $(MAKEFILE_LIST))))))

Test it by printing it, like:

cwd:
        @echo $(CWD)

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Example for your reference, as below:

The folder structure might be as:

https://i.stack.imgur.com/1vdmj.png

Where there are two Makefiles, each as below;

sample/Makefile
test/Makefile

Now, let us see the content of the Makefiles.

sample/Makefile

export ROOT_DIR=${PWD}

all:
    echo ${ROOT_DIR}
    $(MAKE) -C test

test/Makefile

all:
    echo ${ROOT_DIR}
    echo "make test ends here !"

Now, execute the sample/Makefile, as;

cd sample
make

OUTPUT:

echo /home/symphony/sample
/home/symphony/sample
make -C test
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/symphony/sample/test'
echo /home/symphony/sample
/home/symphony/sample
echo "make test ends here !"
make test ends here !
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/symphony/sample/test'

Explanation, would be that the parent/home directory can be stored in the environment-flag, and can be exported, so that it can be used in all the sub-directory makefiles.

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Solution found here : https://sourceforge.net/p/ipt-netflow/bugs-requests-patches/53/

The solution is : $(CURDIR)

You can use it like that :

CUR_DIR = $(CURDIR)

## Start :
start:
    cd $(CUR_DIR)/path_to_folder

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As far as I'm aware this is the only answer here that works correctly with spaces:

space:= 
space+=

CURRENT_PATH := $(subst $(lastword $(notdir $(MAKEFILE_LIST))),,$(subst $(space),\$(space),$(shell realpath '$(strip $(MAKEFILE_LIST))')))

It essentially works by escaping space characters by substituting ' ' for '\ ' which allows Make to parse it correctly, and then it removes the filename of the makefile in MAKEFILE_LIST by doing another substitution so you're left with the directory that makefile is in. Not exactly the most compact thing in the world but it does work.

You'll end up with something like this where all the spaces are escaped:

$(info CURRENT_PATH = $(CURRENT_PATH))

CURRENT_PATH = /mnt/c/Users/foobar/gDrive/P\ roje\ cts/we\ b/sitecompiler/

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update 2018/03/05 finnaly I use this:

shellPath=`echo $PWD/``echo ${0%/*}`

# process absolute path
shellPath1=`echo $PWD/`
shellPath2=`echo ${0%/*}`
if [ ${shellPath2:0:1} == '/' ] ; then
    shellPath=${shellPath2}
fi

It can be executed correct in relative path or absolute path. Executed correct invoked by crontab. Executed correct in other shell.

show example, a.sh print self path.

[root@izbp1a7wyzv7b5hitowq2yz /]# more /root/test/a.sh
shellPath=`echo $PWD/``echo ${0%/*}`

# process absolute path
shellPath1=`echo $PWD/`
shellPath2=`echo ${0%/*}`
if [ ${shellPath2:0:1} == '/' ] ; then
    shellPath=${shellPath2}
fi

echo $shellPath
[root@izbp1a7wyzv7b5hitowq2yz /]# more /root/b.sh
shellPath=`echo $PWD/``echo ${0%/*}`

# process absolute path
shellPath1=`echo $PWD/`
shellPath2=`echo ${0%/*}`
if [ ${shellPath2:0:1} == '/' ] ; then
    shellPath=${shellPath2}
fi

$shellPath/test/a.sh
[root@izbp1a7wyzv7b5hitowq2yz /]# ~/b.sh
/root/test
[root@izbp1a7wyzv7b5hitowq2yz /]# /root/b.sh
/root/test
[root@izbp1a7wyzv7b5hitowq2yz /]# cd ~
[root@izbp1a7wyzv7b5hitowq2yz ~]# ./b.sh
/root/./test
[root@izbp1a7wyzv7b5hitowq2yz ~]# test/a.sh
/root/test
[root@izbp1a7wyzv7b5hitowq2yz ~]# cd test
[root@izbp1a7wyzv7b5hitowq2yz test]# ./a.sh
/root/test/.
[root@izbp1a7wyzv7b5hitowq2yz test]# cd /
[root@izbp1a7wyzv7b5hitowq2yz /]# /root/test/a.sh
/root/test
[root@izbp1a7wyzv7b5hitowq2yz /]# 

old: I use this:

MAKEFILE_PATH := $(PWD)/$({0%/*})

It can show correct if executed in other shell and other directory.

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One line in the Makefile should be enough:

DIR := $(notdir $(CURDIR))

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