How to replace a forward slash with 2 backslashes ?

Actually, I found one solution involving "sed" and
"xargs", but still would be great to learn if it is possible just with Make functions.

Sorry for delay.

DOS-SEP         = \\\\
UNIX-SEP        = /
SEP             = $($(P)-SEP)
PATH=           = path$(SEP)file

didn't work for me, probably because I am running make inside Cygwin.
Just curious, are SEP and PATH make special variables?
How is PATH=     = path$(SEP)file
supposed to work?
Thanks.

example:
   make P=UNIX any-target
evaluates SEP to / and PATH to path/file
   make P=DOS any-target
evaluates SEP to \\ and PATH to path\\file

BTW, keep in mind that the macro-name PATH (in my example) might be a bad choice,'cause it overwrides the shell's PATH variable

try this

cat filename|sed "s/\//\\\\\\\\/g"

OK, I'll try to formulate my problem more precisely.

I have a rule in my Makefile:

bin/%.class: src/%.java
     javac -classpath \
"src;bin;d:/opt/jdk1.1.8/lib/classes.zip" \
       -d bin src/$*.java

and the following target:

mytest: bin/Test.class

If I run make with JDK1.2 or later in my PATH,
it works fine.
However, JDK 1.1 doesn't like forward slashes in
the rule's command.

I can't just replace forward slash with a backslash
in the command because the JAVA file name (which substitutes $*) contains
potentially many directories in it, like

com/company/utility/model/SomeClass.java.

At the same time, I can't replace other forward slashes
in the rule with backslashes (I'm talking about
  bin/%.class: src/%.java )
because then make won't find any files because
make doesn't like backslashes.

The problem that I am trying to solve is how to keep
forward slashes in the rule pattern, but replace
forward slashes with double back slashes
in the command.

I've managed this with the following:

bin/%.class: src/%.java
     echo src/$*.java | sed 's/\//\\\\/g' | xargs \  
       javac  -classpath "src;classes.zip" -d bin

Another way would be to use cygwin special command
"cygpath -w <filename>"

I guess at this point I am purely interested
if someone knows of any other way to do that,
preferably with just "make" facilities.

Thanks everyone for your input!

STOP
where do you think is your problem now?

> If I run make with JDK1.2 or later in my PATH, it works fine.
and
> However, JDK 1.1 doesn't like forward slashes in the rule's command

what has JDK x.y to do with your make (except the arguments passed to J*)

> I can't replace other forward slashes in the rule with backslashes ..
true, you cannot on UNIX (probably with some M$ make)


> .. but replace forward slashes with double back slashes in the command
see my very first suggestion

Do you want to run this Makefilewith different JDK versions?
If so, and JDK is the culprit (not make!), then I's suggest to Makefiles

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