GNU make yields “commands commence before first target” error

Question

Trying to install Emacs 22.3 from sources on Fedora 15 x86_64.

./configure

command goes ok, but

make yields error:

[sigrlami@server emacs-22.3]# make
cd lib-src; make all  \
CC='gcc' CFLAGS='-g -O2 -Wno-pointer-sign ' CPPFLAGS='-D_BSD_SOURCE  ' \
LDFLAGS='-Wl,-znocombreloc ' MAKE='make'
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/sigrlami/bin/emacs-22.3/lib-src'
Makefile:148: *** recipe commences before first target.  Stop.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/sigrlami/bin/emacs-22.3/lib-src'
make: *** [lib-src] Error 2

In makefile, where I don't touch anything, everything seems ok in row 148:

144 # ========================== start of cpp stuff =======================
145 LIBS_MOVE=$(KRB4LIB) $(DESLIB) $(KRB5LIB) $(CRYPTOLIB) $(COM_ERRLIB) $(HESIODLIB)
146 LOADLIBES= -lc
147 ALL_CFLAGS = -D_BSD_SOURCE -DHAVE_CONFIG_H
148           -I. -I../src -I${srcdir} -I${srcdir}/../src ${LDFLAGS} ${CPPFLAGS} ${CFLAGS}
149 LINK_CFLAGS = -D_BSD_SOURCE -DHAVE_CONFIG_H

Any suggestions how to fix this? Maybe system doesn't have some libraries?

Garlaand

Line 148 is not ok. If you need that to be appended to ALL_CFLAGS, you'll need to put a ` \ ` at the very end of line 147. – Hydric

Not that it matters now, but I'll bet somehow the whitespace at the beginning of 148 was a tab, not spaces, which is kind of odd. – Synapsis

Answer 1

The make input language is white-space sensitive.

In particular commands (actions to be run in order to remake targets) begin with a tab, so the error is telling you unambiguously that you have a tab out of place.

While it is only tabs at the beginning of lines that have the special significance, I try to not use any tabs in my makefiles other than that the signal the beginning of commands.

Talamantes

the thing is, that is standard files for Emacs 22.3, and in my makefile I use whitespaces, but here was tab. I was trying to set whitespaces, but there was an error on this. There was other bugs after that, but I handle them. In the end I set up 23.3 beta and there was no errors. It was a surprise. – Garlaand