@$(<filename>) notation within a makefile

I’ve to run a makefile (not written by me) that contains the following line:

$(JAVAC) -verbose -classpath $(MY_CLASSPATH) -d $(BUILD_TMP) @$(SOURCE_FILES);

Where SOURCE_FILES is previously defined as: SOURCE_FILES =$(BUILD_DIR)/sourcefiles

"@$(SOURCE_FILES)" doesn't work on my machine. Obviously this notation (when it works!) is evaluated to the file contents (one Java source file per line in my case).

Is that a notation specific to makefile or is it specific to the underlying shell? I haven't found anything on the subject on the Internet.

Thanks for your help.

It is specific to javac. See the manual page for javac. On mine:

$ man javac|grep -A 2 '@.*list'
       @argfiles      One or more  files  that  list  source  files.   The  -J
                      options are not allowed in these files.

$ javac -version
javac 1.6.0_26