# How to pass an argument with spaces to a make command.

In this article, I document for my future self how to pass an argument with spaces to a [make](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_(software) command.  
For context, in my makefile, I have a command that uses [alembic](https://alembic.sqlalchemy.org/en/latest/) to generate migrations for some [SQLAlchemy](https://www.sqlalchemy.org/) models.  
The detail of the command depends on context, but here it is for completeness sake:
```
make-migration:
	cd src && poetry run alembic revision --autogenerate -m '$(msg)' 
```
where `msg` is the argument I need to pass in when running the command.  
Assuming I have just added a `user` table, and would like to run the migration for it. The command is as follows:
```
make msg="add user table" make-migration
```
Note that `msg` is is separated by spaces. And for the command to work, the argument in the `make-migration` has to be surrounded by a space  like so: `'$(msg)'`