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 the file is not found:

 9: ifeq ($(${JSONLIBPATH}),)
10:    JSONLIBPATH = ${ALTJSONLIBDIR}/${LIBJSON}
11: endif
12: ifeq ($(${JSONLIBPATH}),)
13:    $(error JSON library is not found. Please install libjson before building)
14: endif

My makefile gets stuck on line 13:

Makefile:13: *** commands commence before first target.  Stop.

After line 13, my makefile has its targets.

I tried putting this conditional block into a target (e.g. a target called isJSONLibraryInstalled) but this does not execute correctly.

How would I check for a file's existence and handle the error case, before processing targets? Apologies if this is a dumb question.

score 91 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 10 '18 at 13:52

91

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.

edited Aug 10 '18 at 13:52

TallTed

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answered Jan 17 '11 at 13:36

Simon Richter

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Richer : I was stuck with this for long where I used tabs instead of spaces and got `*** commands commence before first target` error. You saved the day. Many Thanks... :) – NeonGlow Dec 18 '12 at 11:18
4

Great observation .. tab in the forbidden place :) – hesham_EE Aug 23 '16 at 21:43
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I am getting `missing separator. Stop.` Any potential reason? – Kuldeep Yadav Jan 20 '23 at 06:46

Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com · Answer 2 · 2018-08-10T13:59:20.667

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.

The `error` function still works with GNU Make 4.2.1 – Johannes Bittner Apr 17 '18 at 08:56 — Johannes Bittner, Apr 17 '18 at 08:56

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 11 '14 at 16:30

1

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.

answered Aug 11 '14 at 16:30

RobGajula

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Close, it's the unnecessary tab character before `$(error ...` substitution that's causing the error. Deleting it or replacing it with spaces would make the error go away. – Ross Ridge Aug 11 '14 at 17:01

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 20 '21 at 23:30

You can check whitespaces, spaces and tabs by using VSCode [View > Render Whitespace]

As you can see;

command-1 has a tab (->) and whitespace at the end
command-2 has space at first
command-3/4 has tab+spaces

So, you should remove the whitespaces at the end and apply the same spaces with the same action. e.g: tab like the following;

GNU make yields "commands commence before first target" error

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