Command Evaluation Using Backticks

Backticks can be used to store the result of commands:

localhost := `dumpinterfaces | cut -d: -f2 | sed 's/\/.*//' | sed 's/ //g'`

serve:
  ./serve {{localhost}} 8080

Indented backticks, delimited by three backticks, are de-indented in the same manner as indented strings:

# This backtick evaluates the command `echo foo\necho bar\n`, which produces the value `foo\nbar\n`.
stuff := ```
    echo foo
    echo bar
  ```

See the Strings section for details on unindenting.

Backticks may not start with #!. This syntax is reserved for a future upgrade.

The shell(…) function provides a more general mechanism to invoke external commands, including the ability to execute the contents of a variable as a command, and to pass arguments to a command.