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<h1 class="appendix"> B. Errors Generated by Make </h1>

<p>Here is a list of the more common errors you might see generated by
<code>make</code>, and some information about what they mean and how to fix
them.
</p>
<p>Sometimes <code>make</code> errors are not fatal, especially in the presence
of a <code>-</code> prefix on a command script line, or the <code>-k</code> command
line option.  Errors that are fatal are prefixed with the string
<code>***</code>.
</p>
<p>Error messages are all either prefixed with the name of the program
(usually &lsquo;<samp>make</samp>&rsquo;), or, if the error is found in a makefile, the name
of the file and linenumber containing the problem.
</p>
<p>In the table below, these common prefixes are left off.
</p>
<dl compact="compact">
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>[<var>foo</var>] Error <var>NN</var></samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>[<var>foo</var>] <var>signal description</var></samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>These errors are not really <code>make</code> errors at all.  They mean that a
program that <code>make</code> invoked as part of a command script returned a
non-0 error code (&lsquo;<samp>Error <var>NN</var></samp>&rsquo;), which <code>make</code> interprets
as failure, or it exited in some other abnormal fashion (with a
signal of some type).  See section <a href="make_5.html#SEC65">Errors in Commands</a>.
</p>
<p>If no <code>***</code> is attached to the message, then the subprocess failed
but the rule in the makefile was prefixed with the <code>-</code> special
character, so <code>make</code> ignored the error.
</p>
</dd>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>missing separator.  Stop.</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>missing separator (did you mean TAB instead of 8 spaces?).  Stop.</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>This means that <code>make</code> could not understand much of anything about
the command line it just read.  GNU <code>make</code> looks for various kinds
of separators (<code>:</code>, <code>=</code>, TAB characters, etc.) to help it
decide what kind of commandline it's seeing.  This means it couldn't
find a valid one.
</p>
<p>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 command scripts with spaces instead of a
TAB character.  In this case, <code>make</code> will use the second form of
the error above.  Remember that every line in the command script must
begin with a TAB character.  Eight spaces do not count.  See section <a href="make_4.html#SEC32">Rule Syntax</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>commands commence before first target.  Stop.</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>missing rule before commands.  Stop.</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>This means the first thing in the makefile seems to be part of a command
script: it begins with a TAB character and doesn't appear to be a legal
<code>make</code> command (such as a variable assignment).  Command scripts
must always be associated with a target.
</p>
<p>The second form is generated if the line has a semicolon as the first
non-whitespace character; <code>make</code> interprets this to mean you left
out the &quot;target: prerequisite&quot; section of a rule.  See section <a href="make_4.html#SEC32">Rule Syntax</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>No rule to make target `<var>xxx</var>'.</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>No rule to make target `<var>xxx</var>', needed by `<var>yyy</var>'.</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>This means that <code>make</code> 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).
</p>
<p>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 filename is
wrong) or a corrupted source tree (if that file is not supposed to be
built, but rather only a prerequisite).
</p>
</dd>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>No targets specified and no makefile found.  Stop.</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>No targets.  Stop.</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>The former means that you didn't provide any targets to be built on the
command line, and <code>make</code> 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 <code>make</code>
has nothing to do in these situations.
See section <a href="make_9.html#SEC106">Arguments to Specify the Makefile</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>Makefile `<var>xxx</var>' was not found.</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>Included makefile `<var>xxx</var>' was not found.</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>A makefile specified on the command line (first form) or included
(second form) was not found.
</p>
</dd>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>warning: overriding commands for target `<var>xxx</var>'</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>warning: ignoring old commands for target `<var>xxx</var>'</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>GNU <code>make</code> allows commands to be specified only once per target
(except for double-colon rules).  If you give commands for a target
which already has been defined to have commands, this warning is issued
and the second set of commands will overwrite the first set.
See section <a href="make_4.html#SEC50">Multiple Rules for One Target</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>Circular <var>xxx</var> &lt;- <var>yyy</var> dependency dropped.</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>This means that <code>make</code> detected a loop in the dependency graph:
after tracing the prerequisite <var>yyy</var> of target <var>xxx</var>, and its
prerequisites, etc., one of them depended on <var>xxx</var> again.
</p>
</dd>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>Recursive variable `<var>xxx</var>' references itself (eventually).  Stop.</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>This means you've defined a normal (recursive) <code>make</code> variable
<var>xxx</var> that, when it's expanded, will refer to itself (<var>xxx</var>).
This is not allowed; either use simply-expanded variables (<code>:=</code>) or
use the append operator (<code>+=</code>).  See section <a href="make_6.html#SEC74">How to Use Variables</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>Unterminated variable reference.  Stop.</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>This means you forgot to provide the proper closing parenthesis
or brace in your variable or function reference.
</p>
</dd>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>insufficient arguments to function `<var>xxx</var>'.  Stop.</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>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.  See section <a href="make_8.html#SEC92">Functions for Transforming Text</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>missing target pattern.  Stop.</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>multiple target patterns.  Stop.</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>target pattern contains no `%'.  Stop.</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>mixed implicit and static pattern rules.  Stop.</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>These are generated for malformed static pattern rules.  The first means
there's no pattern in the target section of the rule; the second means
there are multiple patterns in the target section; the third means
the target doesn't contain a pattern character (<code>%</code>); and the
fourth means that all three parts of the static pattern rule contain
pattern characters (<code>%</code>)&ndash;only the first two parts should.
See section <a href="make_4.html#SEC52">Syntax of Static Pattern Rules</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>warning: -jN forced in submake: disabling jobserver mode.</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>This warning and the next are generated if <code>make</code> detects error
conditions related to parallel processing on systems where
sub-<code>make</code>s can communicate (see section <a href="make_5.html#SEC70">Communicating Options to a Sub-<code>make</code></a>).  This warning is
generated if a recursive invocation of a <code>make</code> process is forced
to have &lsquo;<samp>-j<var>N</var></samp>&rsquo; in its argument list (where <var>N</var> is greater
than one).  This could happen, for example, if you set the <code>MAKE</code>
environment variable to &lsquo;<samp>make -j2</samp>&rsquo;.  In this case, the
sub-<code>make</code> doesn't communicate with other <code>make</code> processes and
will simply pretend it has two jobs of its own.
</p>
</dd>
<dt> &lsquo;<samp>warning: jobserver unavailable: using -j1.  Add `+' to parent make rule.</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>In order for <code>make</code> 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 <code>make</code>, the parent will only do this
if it thinks the child is a <code>make</code>.  The parent uses the normal
algorithms to determine this (see section <a href="make_5.html#SEC68">How the <code>MAKE</code> Variable Works</a>).  If the makefile is constructed such that the parent
doesn't know the child is a <code>make</code> 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.
</p>
</dd>
</dl>

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