Missing Separator Error in Makefile

Question

I am working on Qt 4.7.2 on Windows. I have generated Makefile, Makefile.Debug and Makefile.Release. However, when I try to use mingw32-make to build an executable, I get the following error:

mingw32-make -f Makefile.Debug all
mingw32-make[1]: Entering directory `C:/Qt/4.7.2/src/plugins/sqldrivers/mysql'
Makefile.Debug:61: *** missing separator.  Stop.
mingw32-make[1]: Leaving directory `C:/Qt/4.7.2/src/plugins/sqldrivers/mysql'
mingw32-make: *** [debug-all] Error 2

How hard is it to show us the line 61 of Makefile.Debug (and the lines near it)? — Jens, May 05 '12 at 09:04
At the line 61, there is only "<<". I put a tab before it, and now it gives another error. I asked it below. — gizemdemirel, May 05 '12 at 09:13

score 14 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 01 '12 at 04:08

14

Obviously this answer is late, but I'm answering it for posterity... this hit me today.

Frank Osterfeld almost certainly had it right. Not sure how you generated the makefiles, but they're probably nmake makefiles, not mingw makefiles. You can tell by looking at the top of Makefile.Debug. If you see "CXX = cl", not "CXX = g++", then that's your problem.

In my case, I hit this error when trying to compile the Qt SDK itself. Long story short: I needed to specify "-platform win32-g++" on the configure command line (it defaulted to win32-msvc).

answered Dec 01 '12 at 04:08

Jonathan Fischer

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You must specify "-platform ", where is any string that contains "win32-g++". That means "win64-g++" won't work but "win32-g++-4.6" will. See line 1380 of \Qt\4.8.5\tools\configure\configureapp.cpp. – JPaget Dec 17 '13 at 15:36
@JPaget where in the options screens can i check/change this ? – GuidoG Nov 27 '20 at 14:26

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered May 04 '12 at 12:21

10

"Missing separator" almost always means you have a line that should begin with a tab that instead begins with a space.

answered May 04 '12 at 12:21

William Pursell

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how to put a tab there ? Everytime I put a tab there and come back the editor (or something) has changed it back to spaces – GuidoG Nov 27 '20 at 14:23
Which editor? Many editors have handy "useful" features that replace what you type with something they think you want. – William Pursell Nov 27 '20 at 14:38
the qt editor, how to do it in the qt editor ? – GuidoG Nov 27 '20 at 14:41

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 05 '12 at 06:40

If you'd actually shown us what was at line 61 of the Makefile.debug file, we could give you a better answer. "Missing separator" is make's version of "syntax error". It basically means make saw a line in the makefile that it couldn't figure out.

One reason could be, as William Pursell mentions, that you have spaces introducing your recipe lines but there are plenty of other reasons. Maybe you forgot the ":" between the target and prerequisite, or the "=" in a variable assignment. There are other possibilities.

Missing Separator Error in Makefile

3 Answers3