Re: Failure to expand macro (fwd)

[Paul Smith]

On Wed, 2014-07-23 at 08:37 -0700, David Highley wrote:
> Cross post from make-w32. Trying to find out if this is a known issue
> and or if there is a fix in the works.

Sorry, I was on vacation.

> Using make version 4.0-2 current version in cygwin version 1.7.31. We
> have on make process that works with make 4.0 on Linux.

One possibility is that it's a bug in the Cygwin version of GNU make,
which we don't explicitly support on this list: you'd need to ask the
Cygwin folks.

Have you tried this with GNU make 4.0 built natively on Windows?  There
are a few known bugs here which are fixed in the Git version.

> The make log provides:
> cd ../CommonCode/src && "make"
> make[1]: Entering directory '/cygdrive/n/daveh/msi/CommonCode/src'
> makefile:17: *** target pattern contains no '%'.  Stop.
> make[1]: Leaving directory '/cygdrive/n/daveh/msi/CommonCode/src'
> makefile:16: recipe for target 'common' failed
> make: *** [common] Error 2
> 
> We are assuming that the object file list $(OBJS) is not expanding.

If you check the GNU make manual, this error message is more clearly
explained:

`missing target pattern.  Stop.'
`multiple target patterns.  Stop.'
`target pattern contains no `%'.  Stop.'
`mixed implicit and static pattern rules.  Stop.'
     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
     (`%'); and the fourth means that all three parts of the static
     pattern rule contain pattern characters (`%')-only the first two
     parts should.  *Note Syntax of Static Pattern Rules: Static Usage.

Given this, it seems likely that one or more of the paths in OBJS
contains a drive specifier such as C:, which the Cygwin port of make
will interpret as an extra colon.

Remember that Cygwin is a UNIX environment.  You cannot use any Windows
pathname facilities in Cygwin; they will not be recognized.

If you want to use drive specifiers in your paths or makefile you MUST
use a native Windows port of GNU make, such as a MinGW build or using
MSVC or similar.  You cannot mix and match UNIX and Windows pathnames if
you use Cygwin GNU make; you must convert all paths to UNIX format.

> # Create archive library.
> .NO_WINK_IN: $(LIBRARY)
> $(LIBRARY): $(OBJS)       <- LINE FAILING, LINE 17 of makefile
>          $(SET_E); $(MKDIR) $(LIBPATH); $(RM) $@; $(LINK)

If you add something like:

  $(info $(LIBRARY): $(OBJS))

to print out what make is seeing here the problem should be obvious.