Recursive make loses status code

Question

I have the following makefile structure

$  cat makefile

foo:

        $(MAKE) -C bar barbaz



$  cat bar/makefile

barbaz:

        exit 111

When I make the target foo I would expect the status code 111 but instead I get status code 2:

$  make foo

make -C bar barbaz

make[1]: Entering directory `bar'

exit 111

make[1]: *** [barbaz] Error 111

make[1]: Leaving directory `bar'

make: *** [foo] Error 2

How can I have the outer make fail with "Error 111" instead of "Error 2"?

BTW: I'm using GNU Make 3.81

Answer 1

This is not an issue with recursive make invocation; that is a red herring.

If you simply do this from the shell:

$ make barbaz # in bar directory
exit 111
make[1]: *** [barbaz] Error 111
$ echo $?
2

Make isn't propagating the exact exit status of the failing recipe.

This is documented here:

https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/Running.html

"The exit status of make is always one of three values: [...]'