title: Multiple lines in make
body: <p>I am trying to store a multiline string in a variable in make</p>
  
  <pre><code>var=$(shell cat &lt;&lt;End-of-message \
  -------------------------------------\
  This is line 1 of the message.\
  This is line 2 of the message.\
  This is line 3 of the message.\
  This is line 4 of the message.\
  This is the last line of the message.\
  -------------------------------------\
  End-of-message)
  
  
  printit:
      @echo ${var}
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This doesn't work, so I am wondering if this is possible at all. I need to preserve the newlines here and shell is converting them in spaces. Any suggestions?</p>