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Appendix B Errors Generated by Make
***********************************

Here is a list of the more common errors you might see generated by
'make', and some information about what they mean and how to fix them.

   Sometimes 'make' errors are not fatal, especially in the presence of
a '-' prefix on a recipe line, or the '-k' command line option.  Errors
that are fatal are prefixed with the string '***'.

   Error messages are all either prefixed with the name of the program
(usually 'make'), or, if the error is found in a makefile, the name of
the file and line number containing the problem.

   In the table below, these common prefixes are left off.

'[FOO] Error NN'
'[FOO] SIGNAL DESCRIPTION'
     These errors are not really 'make' errors at all.  They mean that a
     program that 'make' invoked as part of a recipe returned a non-0
     error code ('Error NN'), which 'make' interprets as failure, or it
     exited in some other abnormal fashion (with a signal of some type).
     *Note Errors in Recipes: Errors.

     If no '***' is attached to the message, then the sub-process failed
     but the rule in the makefile was prefixed with the '-' special
     character, so 'make' ignored the error.

'missing separator. Stop.'
'missing separator (did you mean TAB instead of 8 spaces?). Stop.'
     This means that 'make' could not understand much of anything about
     the makefile line it just read.  GNU 'make' looks for various
     separators (':', '=', recipe prefix characters, etc.)  to indicate
     what kind of line it's parsing.  This message means it couldn't
     find a valid one.

     One of the most common reasons for this message is that you (or
     perhaps your oh-so-helpful editor, as is the case with many
     MS-Windows editors) have attempted to indent your recipe lines with
     spaces instead of a tab character.  In this case, 'make' will use
     the second form of the error above.  Remember that every line in
     the recipe must begin with a tab character (unless you set
     '.RECIPEPREFIX'; *note Special Variables::).  Eight spaces do not
     count.  *Note Rule Syntax::.

'recipe commences before first target. Stop.'
'missing rule before recipe. Stop.'
     This means the first thing in the makefile seems to be part of a
     recipe: it begins with a recipe prefix character and doesn't appear
     to be a legal 'make' directive (such as a variable assignment).
     Recipes must always be associated with a target.

     The second form is generated if the line has a semicolon as the
     first non-whitespace character; 'make' interprets this to mean you
     left out the "target: prerequisite" section of a rule.  *Note Rule
     Syntax::.

'No rule to make target `XXX'.'
'No rule to make target `XXX', needed by `YYY'.'
     This means that 'make' decided it needed to build a target, but
     then couldn't find any instructions in the makefile on how to do
     that, either explicit or implicit (including in the default rules
     database).

     If you want that file to be built, you will need to add a rule to
     your makefile describing how that target can be built.  Other
     possible sources of this problem are typos in the makefile (if that
     file name is wrong) or a corrupted source tree (if that file is not
     supposed to be built, but rather only a prerequisite).

'No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.'
'No targets. Stop.'
     The former means that you didn't provide any targets to be built on
     the command line, and 'make' couldn't find any makefiles to read
     in.  The latter means that some makefile was found, but it didn't
     contain any default goal and none was given on the command line.
     GNU 'make' has nothing to do in these situations.  *Note Arguments
     to Specify the Makefile: Makefile Arguments.

'Makefile `XXX' was not found.'
'Included makefile `XXX' was not found.'
     A makefile specified on the command line (first form) or included
     (second form) was not found.

'warning: overriding recipe for target `XXX''
'warning: ignoring old recipe for target `XXX''
     GNU 'make' allows only one recipe to be specified per target
     (except for double-colon rules).  If you give a recipe for a target
     which already has been defined to have one, this warning is issued
     and the second recipe will overwrite the first.  *Note Multiple
     Rules for One Target: Multiple Rules.

'Circular XXX <- YYY dependency dropped.'
     This means that 'make' detected a loop in the dependency graph:
     after tracing the prerequisite YYY of target XXX, and its
     prerequisites, etc., one of them depended on XXX again.

'Recursive variable `XXX' references itself (eventually). Stop.'
     This means you've defined a normal (recursive) 'make' variable XXX
     that, when it's expanded, will refer to itself (XXX).  This is not
     allowed; either use simply-expanded variables (':=' or '::=') or
     use the append operator ('+=').  *Note How to Use Variables: Using
     Variables.

'Unterminated variable reference. Stop.'
     This means you forgot to provide the proper closing parenthesis or
     brace in your variable or function reference.

'insufficient arguments to function `XXX'. Stop.'
     This means you haven't provided the requisite number of arguments
     for this function.  See the documentation of the function for a
     description of its arguments.  *Note Functions for Transforming
     Text: Functions.

'missing target pattern. Stop.'
'multiple target patterns. Stop.'
'target pattern contains no `%'. Stop.'
'mixed implicit and static pattern rules. Stop.'
     These errors are generated for malformed static pattern rules
     (*note Syntax of Static Pattern Rules: Static Usage.).  The first
     means the target-pattern part of the rule is empty; the second
     means there are multiple pattern characters ('%') in the
     target-pattern part; the third means there are no pattern
     characters in the target-pattern part; and the fourth means that
     all three parts of the static pattern rule contain pattern
     characters ('%')-the first part should not contain pattern
     characters.

     If you see these errors and you aren't trying to create a static
     pattern rule, check the value of any variables in your target and
     prerequisite lists to be sure they do not contain colons.

'warning: -jN forced in submake: disabling jobserver mode.'
     This warning and the next are generated if 'make' detects error
     conditions related to parallel processing on systems where
     sub-'make's can communicate (*note Communicating Options to a
     Sub-'make': Options/Recursion.).  This warning is generated if a
     recursive invocation of a 'make' process is forced to have '-jN' in
     its argument list (where N is greater than one).  This could
     happen, for example, if you set the 'MAKE' environment variable to
     'make -j2'.  In this case, the sub-'make' doesn't communicate with
     other 'make' processes and will simply pretend it has two jobs of
     its own.

'warning: jobserver unavailable: using -j1. Add `+' to parent make rule.'
     In order for 'make' processes to communicate, the parent will pass
     information to the child.  Since this could result in problems if
     the child process isn't actually a 'make', the parent will only do
     this if it thinks the child is a 'make'.  The parent uses the
     normal algorithms to determine this (*note How the 'MAKE' Variable
     Works: MAKE Variable.).  If the makefile is constructed such that
     the parent doesn't know the child is a 'make' process, then the
     child will receive only part of the information necessary.  In this
     case, the child will generate this warning message and proceed with
     its build in a sequential manner.

'warning: ignoring prerequisites on suffix rule definition'
     According to POSIX, a suffix rule cannot contain prerequisites.  If
     a rule that could be a suffix rule has prerequisites it is
     interpreted as a simple explicit rule, with an odd target name.
     This requirement is obeyed when POSIX-conforming mode is enabled
     (the '.POSIX' target is defined).  In versions of GNU 'make' prior
     to 4.3, no warning was emitted and a suffix rule was created,
     however all prerequisites were ignored and were not part of the
     suffix rule.  Starting with GNU 'make' 4.3 the behavior is the
     same, and in addition this warning is generated.  In a future
     version the POSIX-conforming behavior will be the only behavior: no
     rule with a prerequisite can be suffix rule and this warning will
     be removed.