AWK CUDA version command syntax error when starts from Makefile

Question

I have some issue I just want to catch exact CUDA version using nvidia-smi from command line and it is working in shell:

$ nvidia-smi | awk -F"CUDA Version:" 'NR==3{split($2,a," ");print a[1]}'
11.0

But when I am doing the same operation from makefile I have syntax error:

ver_cuda:
    CUDA = $(nvidia-smi | awk -F"CUDA Version:" 'NR==3{split($2,a," ");print a[1]}');
    VER_CUDA ?= $(CUDA);

Result:

awk: line 1: syntax error at or near ,
expr: syntax error: unexpected argument ‘11.0’
make: Nothing to be done for 'ver_cuda'

If somebody could help me I will be really apreciate !

Answer 1

Assuming GNU make:

Add the shell keyword before the nvidia-smi command and double the dollars in awk command. The similarities in make n shell syntax are a source of confusion.

ver_cuda:
    CUDA = $(shell nvidia-smi | awk -F"CUDA Version:" 'NR==3{split($$2,a," ");print a[1]}')
    VER_CUDA ?= $(CUDA)

Answer 2

Part of the problem is that you're using $(nvidia-smi ...) instead of $(shell nvidia-smi ...). That's easily solved.

You also have to use $$2 instead of just $2 to prevent make from expanding it (probably expanding to nothing, resulting in the awk expression being just {print } and printing the entire line).

e.g. with a minimalist Makefile:

all:
    CUDA="$(shell nvidia-smi -q | awk -F': ' '/CUDA Version/ {print $$2}')"

Note the colon followed by space in awk's -F field separator.

$ make
CUDA="Not Found"

This is actually the correct value for my system, I don't have CUDA installed.

BTW, it's important to realise that while some make syntax looks a bit like shell syntax, it's very different....and, worse, the similarities can make it easy to write buggy makefiles.

See Makefile: how to sed correctly to edit a variable for a good answer relevant to your question.

---

On a more general note, you will probably find the output of nvidia-smi -q to be much easier to process with awk (or sed or perl or whatever).

e.g. on my system:

$ nvidia-smi -q | grep -i version
Driver Version                            : 460.56
CUDA Version                              : Not Found
    VBIOS Version                         : 86.06.0E.00.38
    Inforom Version
        Image Version                     : G001.0000.01.03

$ nvidia-smi -q | awk -F': ' '/CUDA Version/ {print $2}'
Not Found

I don't have CUDA stuff installed, so I just get "not found". I can get a useful result for Driver Version:

$ nvidia-smi -q | awk -F': ' '/Driver Version/ {print $2}'
460.56

nvidia-smi also has various --query-gpu options. e.g.

$ nvidia-smi --query-gpu=driver_version,vbios_version --format=csv
driver_version, vbios_version
460.56, 86.06.0E.00.38

Oddly, CUDA version isn't one of the query-gpu options. See nvidia-smi --help-query-gpu for full details.