Backslash works for me here. Are you using some atrocious c shell?
Code:
vnix$ echo " swremove \`swlist -l product | grep someproduct| awk '{print \$1}'\` "
swremove `swlist -l product | grep someproduct| awk '{print $1}'`
vnix$
... Or by "in the make file" you mean this is in a makefile? Then you also need to double the dollar sign (but then also the output would be different than what you are reporting).
Code:
vnix$ cat Makefile
fun:
echo " swremove \`swlist -l product | grep someproduct| awk '{print \$$1}'\` "
vnix$ make
echo " swremove \`swlist -l product | grep someproduct| awk '{print \$1}'\` "
swremove `swlist -l product | grep someproduct| awk '{print $1}'`
