Common GNU makefile directory path

Question

I\'m trying to consolidate some build information by using a common makefile. My problem is that I want to use that makefile from different subdirectory levels, which makes

Answer 1

This isn't good style because it adds another dependency (i.e. the realpath binary). Depending on your use case, that may be acceptable.

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

If you don't have realpath installed:

$ sudo apt-get install realpath # on debian and derivatives

Edit: Be sure to use := instead of = because the latter causes make to use late-binding and MAKEFILE_LIST may have changed due to later includes.