GNU make yields “commands commence before first target” error

Question

In my makefile, I would like to check for the existence of a library and give an informative error message. I created a conditional that should exit the make process when th

Answer 1

When you get Make error messages, always check the Error message documentation

On GNU Make 3.81 (error appears to have been removed from newer versions), it says:

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 make command (such as a variable assignment). Command scripts must always be associated with a target.

What makes matters more confusing is that "doesn't appear to be a legal make command" part. That explains why in:

    a := b
    $(error a)

the error happens at line 2 and not 1: make simply accepts statements that it can parse, like the assignment, so the following works:

    a := b
a:
    echo $a

Note: SO currently converts tabs to spaces in code, so you can't just copy the above code into your editor.

Answer 2

For me it was an unnecessary white space before the connector that was causing this. On slickEdit I selected the option to view all special character and noticed the black sheep.

Answer 3

First of all, you are looking at the contents of a variable that is named after the current path, which is probably not what you want. A simple environment variable reference is $(name) or ${name}, not $(${name}). Due to this, line 13 is always evaluated.

Second, I think it is choking on the indentation of the $(error ...) expression. While the expression resolves to an empty string, there is still a tab character at the start of the line, which indicates a command, which in turn cannot exist outside a rule.

I think using spaces rather than tabs to indent would work.