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<a name="Error-Messages"></a>
<div class="header">
<p>
Next: <a href="Complex-Makefile.html#Complex-Makefile" accesskey="n" rel="next">Complex Makefile</a>, Previous: <a href="Quick-Reference.html#Quick-Reference" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Quick Reference</a>, Up: <a href="index.html#Top" accesskey="u" rel="up">Top</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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<a name="Errors-Generated-by-Make"></a>
<h2 class="appendix">Appendix B Errors Generated by Make</h2>
<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 recipe 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 ‘<samp>make</samp>’), or, if the error is found in a makefile, the name
of the file and line number containing the problem.
</p>
<p>In the table below, these common prefixes are left off.
</p>
<dl compact="compact">
<dt>‘<samp>[<var>foo</var>] Error <var>NN</var></samp>’</dt>
<dt>‘<samp>[<var>foo</var>] <var>signal description</var></samp>’</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 recipe returned a
non-0 error code (‘<samp>Error <var>NN</var></samp>’), which <code>make</code> interprets
as failure, or it exited in some other abnormal fashion (with a
signal of some type). See <a href="Recipes.html#Errors">Errors in Recipes</a>.
</p>
<p>If no <code>***</code> is attached to the message, then the sub-process 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>‘<samp>missing separator. Stop.</samp>’</dt>
<dt>‘<samp>missing separator (did you mean TAB instead of 8 spaces?). Stop.</samp>’</dt>
<dd><p>This means that <code>make</code> could not understand much of anything
about the makefile line it just read. GNU <code>make</code> looks for
various separators (<code>:</code>, <code>=</code>, recipe prefix characters,
etc.) to indicate what kind of line it’s parsing. This message 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 recipe lines 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
recipe must begin with a tab character (unless you set
<code>.RECIPEPREFIX</code>; see <a href="Using-Variables.html#Special-Variables">Special Variables</a>). Eight spaces do not
count. See <a href="Rules.html#Rule-Syntax">Rule Syntax</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>‘<samp>recipe commences before first target. Stop.</samp>’</dt>
<dt>‘<samp>missing rule before recipe. Stop.</samp>’</dt>
<dd><p>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 <code>make</code> directive (such as a variable assignment).
Recipes 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 "target: prerequisite" section of a rule. See <a href="Rules.html#Rule-Syntax">Rule Syntax</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>‘<samp>No rule to make target `<var>xxx</var>'.</samp>’</dt>
<dt>‘<samp>No rule to make target `<var>xxx</var>', needed by `<var>yyy</var>'.</samp>’</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 file name is
wrong) or a corrupted source tree (if that file is not supposed to be
built, but rather only a prerequisite).
</p>
</dd>
<dt>‘<samp>No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.</samp>’</dt>
<dt>‘<samp>No targets. Stop.</samp>’</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 <a href="Running.html#Makefile-Arguments">Arguments to Specify the Makefile</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>‘<samp>Makefile `<var>xxx</var>' was not found.</samp>’</dt>
<dt>‘<samp>Included makefile `<var>xxx</var>' was not found.</samp>’</dt>
<dd><p>A makefile specified on the command line (first form) or included
(second form) was not found.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>‘<samp>warning: overriding recipe for target `<var>xxx</var>'</samp>’</dt>
<dt>‘<samp>warning: ignoring old recipe for target `<var>xxx</var>'</samp>’</dt>
<dd><p>GNU <code>make</code> 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. See <a href="Rules.html#Multiple-Rules">Multiple Rules for One Target</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>‘<samp>Circular <var>xxx</var> <- <var>yyy</var> dependency dropped.</samp>’</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>‘<samp>Recursive variable `<var>xxx</var>' references itself (eventually). Stop.</samp>’</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 (‘<samp>:=</samp>’
or ‘<samp>::=</samp>’) or use the append operator (‘<samp>+=</samp>’). See <a href="Using-Variables.html#Using-Variables">How to Use Variables</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>‘<samp>Unterminated variable reference. Stop.</samp>’</dt>
<dd><p>This means you forgot to provide the proper closing parenthesis
or brace in your variable or function reference.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>‘<samp>insufficient arguments to function `<var>xxx</var>'. Stop.</samp>’</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 <a href="Functions.html#Functions">Functions for Transforming Text</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>‘<samp>missing target pattern. Stop.</samp>’</dt>
<dt>‘<samp>multiple target patterns. Stop.</samp>’</dt>
<dt>‘<samp>target pattern contains no `%'. Stop.</samp>’</dt>
<dt>‘<samp>mixed implicit and static pattern rules. Stop.</samp>’</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>)–only the first two parts
should. 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.
See <a href="Rules.html#Static-Usage">Syntax of Static Pattern Rules</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>‘<samp>warning: -jN forced in submake: disabling jobserver mode.</samp>’</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 <a href="Recipes.html#Options_002fRecursion">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 ‘<samp>-j<var>N</var></samp>’ 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 ‘<samp>make -j2</samp>’. 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>‘<samp>warning: jobserver unavailable: using -j1. Add `+' to parent make rule.</samp>’</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 <a href="Recipes.html#MAKE-Variable">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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