What is the most reliable way of using GNUMake with filenames containing spaces?

Question

I want to use GNUMake to run a rule-based makefile which builds a set of C files in a directory structure (on a Windows file system).

The root directory, some sub-di

Answer 1

If the spaces are only in the "root" part of the pathname, you can mount that directory on a path without blanks. There are multiple ways of doing this: from the command line ("net use" or "subst") or from Explorer (Tools > Map Network Drive). So C:\Documents and Settings\\My Documents\Test Dir" might become X:\BuildMe.c

However, if there are blanks in the file names, or in directories below the "root" build directory, then there probably aren't any perfect solutions. I've used the other suggestions you mentioned (8.3 names, replacing blanks with a different character) and these work but they have their own problems.