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I'm currently trying to figure out if anything can be done about dmake resulting in this error message on a makefile with a simple filename containing utf8 characters:

Name contains non-printable character [0xffffffe0]

In my research i've been unable to find any mention of whether GNU make or dmake are even supposed to be able to handle makefiles with UTF8 characters in them.

Thus my question is: Can a makefile can contain UTF8 characters and if that answer is known, where is that documented?

Mithaldu
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  • Yes, GNU make handles UTF-8, not UTF-16 though. What problem are you facing? – devnull Jun 29 '13 at 10:22
  • The problem that led me to this question is that dmake on Windows refuses to accept this makefile: https://gist.github.com/wchristian/2d8bda2f533f7d45134a Do you know where make's behavior towards utf8 is documented? Also, UTF-16 does not come into play here, dmake isn't touching the file system, it's aborting while reading the makefile. – Mithaldu Jun 29 '13 at 10:30
  • Consider using GNU make. I haven't used dmake. – devnull Jun 29 '13 at 10:33
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    Not an option on Windows and in the context of this toolchain. – Mithaldu Jun 29 '13 at 10:34
  • I don't know about the toolchain, but GNU make runs very well (and is used by thousands of people) on Windows. – MadScientist Jun 29 '13 at 13:15

2 Answers2

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To answer myself:

Mithaldu
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Make on windows does not work with UTF-8. You will get the "missing separator" even with a blank file. Use notepad.exe to convert the makefile to ANSI. NOTE: there is a little dropdown list box next to the save button.

Jack D Menendez
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