make variable introspection

Ever wondered how to get value of some Makefile variable? Just invoke:

makespy Makefile MAKEVAR

makespy script below:

#!/bin/sh
original_makefile=`readlink -f $1`
name=$2

shift
shift

get_name_target=_makespy_get_${name}

(
        cat << EOF
include ${original_makefile}

${get_name_target}:
        echo \$($name)
EOF
) | make -C$(dirname $original_makefile) -s -f- ${get_name_target} "$@"

(remember about TAB character at the beginning of echo \$($name))

Usage: makespy MAKEFILENAME VARIABLENAME [makefile options...]

Prints actual value of variable in some makefile.

(works with GNU Make).

Update1 (2012-06-22): fixed a little, note about TAB