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Asked: 2026-05-10T17:43:58+00:00

In a recent issue , I’ve found that DJGPP can only accept the DOS

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In a recent issue, I’ve found that DJGPP can only accept the DOS command line character limit. To work around this limitation, I’ve decided to try to write a makefile to allow me to pass longer strings. In the process of hacking together a makefile and testing it, I’ve come across a strange error. The makefile is as follows:

AS  :=  nasm CC  :=  gcc LD  :=  ld  TARGET      :=  $(shell basename $(CURDIR)) BUILD       :=  build SOURCES     :=  source  CFLAGS  :=  -Wall -O -fstrength-reduce -fomit-frame-pointer -finline-functions \             -nostdinc -fno-builtin -I./include ASFLAGS :=  -f aout  export OUTPUT   :=  $(CURDIR)/$(TARGET)  CFILES      :=  $(foreach dir,$(SOURCES),$(notdir $(wildcard $(dir)/*.c))) SFILES      :=  $(foreach dir,$(SOURCES),$(notdir $(wildcard $(dir)/*.s)))  SOBJS   :=  $(SFILES:.s=.o) COBJS   :=  $(CFILES:.c=.o) OBJS    :=  $(SOBJS) $(COBJS)  build   :   $(TARGET).img  $(TARGET).img   :   $(TARGET).bin     concat.py  $(TARGET).bin   :   $(OBJS)     $(LD) -T link.ld -o $@ $^  $(SOBJS)    :   %.o :   %.asm     $(AS) $(ASFLAGS) $< -o $@  $(COBJS)    :   %.o :   %.c     $(CC) -c $< $(CFLAGS) -o $@

When attempting to run it, I receive this error:

make: *** No rule to make target `consoleio.c', needed by `consoleio.o'.  Stop.

What I don’t understand is why it’s trying to find a rule for .c files. From what I understand, if the file is there, it should just use it. How do I make make not need a rule for .c files?

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1 Answer

  1. What you are trying to do will not work without VPATH, and since you are still learning makefiles, I would avoid using VPATH.

    The rule is looking for ‘consoleio.c’, which if I understood your makefile correctly does not exist; what exists is ‘source/consoleio.c’. You probably should change it to something like ‘$(SOURCES)/%.c’ instead of ‘%c’.

    I didn’t check your syntax for that rule, however. If it’s incorrect, the builtin ‘%.o: %.c’ rule will be used instead, which would have the same problem.

    The way you are doing is not the usual way I’ve seen, however. The usual way is to:

    • Create an implicit rule ‘%.o: %.c’ (or in your case ‘%.o: $(SOURCES)/%.c’)
    • Explicit list the dependencies for each file: ‘foo.o: foo.c bar.h baz.h’ (with no command, the implicit rule has the command)
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