How to assign the output of a command to a Makefile variable

Use the Make shell builtin like in MY_VAR=$(shell echo whatever)

me@Zack:~$make
MY_VAR IS whatever

me@Zack:~$ cat Makefile 
MY_VAR := $(shell echo whatever)

all:
    @echo MY_VAR IS $(MY_VAR)

Wrapping the assignment in an eval is working for me.

# dependency on .PHONY prevents Make from 
# thinking there's `nothing to be done`
set_opts: .PHONY
  $(eval DOCKER_OPTS = -v $(shell mktemp -d -p /scratch):/output)

Here's a bit more complicated example with piping and variable assignment inside recipe:

getpodname:
    # Getting pod name
    @eval $$(minikube docker-env) ;\
    $(eval PODNAME=$(shell sh -c "kubectl get pods | grep profile-posts-api | grep Running" | awk '{print $$1}'))
    echo $(PODNAME)