Question

I have a binary that runs under my default shell.

The binary runs perfectly o.k. with:

./binary input.dat

However, if I put this inside a make file:

 SHELL=/bin/bash

 runos:
      ./binary input.dat

The code crashes and leaves me quite helpless.
Here is what I tested so far, everything inside my Make file and in the shell:

1. ulimit -a: identical.
2. Set the shell to bash as seen above.

3. diff of the environment variables in SHELL and Make with:

   
env | sort > vars.1


   inside make

   
env | sort > vars.2


   Then run the binary with the extra variables in Make with the following command:

   
env SHLVL=2 MAKELEVEL=1 MAKEFLAGS= ./binary input.dat


4. strace in the shell and inside make:

   
strace -o debug binary input.dat


The code keeps on crashing in Make, and runs in the shell. I am already thinking to dump Make for my test cases and just write shell scripts. But I am curious to know what is the difference.

The Fortran code (a mix of F77, F90 and F95) was compiled with gfortran-4.4 and the following options:

FFLAGS= -g -fbacktrace

So, the concrete question is, what can I do to make this binary run under make in Debian!?

update:

I just tested again in a CentOS machine (v5.8), The code inside Makefile does not crash (GNU Make version 3.81).
I also tested on my Debian Wheezy and openSUSE 11.4, both with GNU Make version 3.82 – It crashes!
I tested on Debian Squeeze with GNU Make version 3.81, and it does crash. So, I think it is not dependent on the GNU Make version.

error when crashing:

 enter timeloop
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 timestep:     1  time: 2.500E-02 days         delt: 2.500E-02 days        
 -------------------------------------------
    terminated in routine react_snia      
    maximum number of iterations exceeded   
    bye now ...                             
 -------------------------------------------
failure in timeloop
no further time step reduction possible
try reducing min. time step, bye now ...

trying to work around ‘GNU Make’ using ‘waf’

It has been a while since I wanted to test waf, so here is another interesting observation:
I wrote a wscript which contains a function:

import os

def run(ctx):
    os.system('./binary input.dat')

And waf run runs!

If I changed the run method to:

import subprocess as sp
def run(ctx):
    sp.call('./binary input.dat', shell=True)

The binary also works as expected.

So, now I am thinking GNU Make forks a new sub-shell in a way that causes may binary to fail (although, under RHEL 5.8 Make did work).

Answer 1

solution: compile make from sources …

Read to find out more.

OK, so after being pretty much desperate, I did what I simply should have done before blame make for all my troubles.
I thought the problem is Debian specific. But I am guessing the version in CentOS-5.8 is a patched version, although it says it’s v.3.81.
So, for those who wonder my solution was:

wget http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/make-3.82.tar.gz
tar xvzf make-3.82.tar.gz
cd make-3.82
./configure
./build.sh
 # copy make to the directory with the binary and input and run the local make version
./make
# everything works as expected !!!

I thought let’s narrow it down –

wget http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/make-3.80.tar.gz
tar xvzf make-3.80.tar.gz
cd make-3.80
./configure
./build.sh
 # copy make to the directory with the binary and input and run the local make version
./make
# everything works as expected !!!

Is it the version 3.81 ?

wget http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/make-3.81.tar.gz
tar xvzf make-3.81.tar.gz
cd make-3.81
./configure
./build.sh
 # copy make to the directory with the binary and input and run the local make version
./make
# FAIL! Like with the make version in Debian.

Hence, I think I bumped into some very weird bug in GNU Make v.3.81.