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GNV: make hitting command line maximum length

 
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Maxy2
Advisor

GNV: make hitting command line maximum length

My makefiles (make, not MMS) seem to be exceeding the maximum command line length. For example:

OBJECTS = file1.obj file2.obj file3.obj (etc.)

.PHONY: clean
clean:
$(RM) $(OBJECTS)

Once OBJECTS gets to be a certain length (a few lines long, around 1000 characters or so), clean won't work. I've tried invoking make from bash and from DCL, and the same thing happens. Using line continuation characters inside the makefile doesn't help, although if the command is written out to a .com script with line continuation characters and then invoked, it works fine.

The release notes for the VMS port of make seem to imply that make is supposed to do something like that (i.e. create a temporary script and invoke it) automatically to circumvent the maximum line length limit.

Any other suggestions?
17 REPLIES 17
John Gillings
Honored Contributor

Re: GNV: make hitting command line maximum length

Maxy2,

Yes DCL is showing its age with absurdly low limits on things like command lines and tokens. Drives me nuts having to code complex workarounds

If you're a high enough version of OpenVMS (at least V7.3) you can try extending your limits with:

$ SET PROCESS/TOKEN=EXTEND

Unfortunately this doesn't work for everything. For example, parameters to batch jobs and RSH commands are still stuck at 255 characters maximum :-(

Even the increased limits only takes it up to 4000 bytes, which is still rather low for generated commands.

If the extra long lines are a result of expanded file specification, you may be able to reduce them using (short) concealed logical names.

A crucible of informative mistakes
H.Becker
Honored Contributor

Re: GNV: make hitting command line maximum length

>>>
although if the command is written out to a .com script with line continuation characters and then invoked, it works fine.

The release notes for the VMS port of make ...
<<<

GNV make is old. It indeed creates and uses a temproary command file.

If you use it from DCL (the .obj indicate you are) then you may want to replace GNV make with the current version of GNU make, which is V3.81. There are some fixes in handling long action lines. They are split and written to command procedures and then executed under the control of make.

Also, newer versions keep the temporary command file, if you use the -d switch. But I would check for CMD.COM in sys$scratch or the default directory, anyway. They may be left in case of an error and they may give you some hints why this command failed.

I never tried GNU make V3.81 within GNV/bash: I have no idea whether it works or not.

Maxy2
Advisor

Re: GNV: make hitting command line maximum length

I downloaded make 3.81 and followed the build instructions. It seems to run for trivial examples, but for anything real I get a bus error:

$ run make.exe
makefile.:1: common.mak: no such file or directory
makefile.:54: handledepends.mak: no such file or directory
gmake.exe;1: *** No rule to make target `handledepends.mak'. Stop.
%NONAME-E-NOMSG, Message number 00000002

$ bash

bash$ gmake.exe
makefile.:1: common.mak: no such file or directory
makefile.:54: handledepends.mak: no such file or directory
gmake.exe: *** No rule to make target `handledepends.mak'. Stop.
%NONAME-E-NOMSG, Message number 00000002

bash$ make -f zlib.mak all
%SYSTEM-F-ACCVIO, access violation, reason mask=00, virtual address=0000000000000064, PC=0000000000067E70, PS=0000001B
%TRACE-F-TRACEBACK, symbolic stack dump follows
image module routine line rel PC abs PC
MAKE IMPLICIT pattern_search 13157 0000000000002BE0 0000000000067E70
MAKE IMPLICIT try_implicit_rule 13112 00000000000000D2 0000000000065362
MAKE REMAKE update_file_1 27566 0000000000001AA2 000000000005BEE2
MAKE REMAKE update_file 27420 0000000000000D72 000000000005B1B2
MAKE REMAKE update_goal_chain 27267 0000000000000432 000000000005A872
MAKE MAIN main 15155 00000000000038F2 0000000000048682
MAKE MAIN __main 14172 0000000000000212 0000000000044FA2
0 FFFFFFFF80BA8192 FFFFFFFF80BA8192
DCL 0 000000000006BD22 000000007AB8FD22
%TRACE-I-END, end of TRACE stack dump
Bus error
H.Becker
Honored Contributor

Re: GNV: make hitting command line maximum length

>>>
$ run make.exe
makefile.:1: common.mak: no such file or directory
makefile.:54: handledepends.mak: no such file or directory
gmake.exe;1: *** No rule to make target `handledepends.mak'. Stop.
%NONAME-E-NOMSG, Message number 00000002
<<<

I assume that is a run of GNU make, but I do not understand, why the started exe is make and the error message is reported by gmake.
Anyway, you seem to get the same error when running gmake in bash.

What's on line 1 and 54 and where are these *.mak files?

Where can I download your zlib kit?
Maxy2
Advisor

Re: GNV: make hitting command line maximum length

The error messages from make are correct. I was running make on a makefile in a directory where the required include files do not exist. This is just to show that make is starting and parsing the makefile. But run make in the proper directory and all I get is a bus error.

Zlib is available from zlib.net and the VMS make for it was written by Martin P.J. Zinser.

You can see "gmake" in one place because I forgot to change it. In order to not conflict with the GNV make, I renamed my build of make to gmake.
Maxy2
Advisor

Re: GNV: make hitting command line maximum length

From make's README.VMS:

New for 3.77:

Command lines of excessive length are correctly broken and written to a
batch file in sys$scratch for later execution. There's no limit to the
lengths of commands (and no need for .opt files :-) any more.

So, how come there does seem to be a limit?
H.Becker
Honored Contributor

Re: GNV: make hitting command line maximum length

I'm slow, I don't get it.
>>>
OBJECTS = file1.obj file2.obj file3.obj (etc.)

.PHONY: clean
clean:
$(RM) $(OBJECTS)
<<<
illustrates the error for exceeding the command line, it's not really an extract of any makefile you tried.

>>>
bash$ make -f zlib.mak all
<<<
Seems to be a makefile for zlib, but that is not in the zlib123.zip I fetched from zlib.net. However, there is a Makefile and GNV make seems to have no problem to build from that. GNU make for VMS reads it but has no implicit rules for .o, as it is built for VMS: it only has implicit rules .obj.

In my zlib kit there is also a make_vms.com which generates a descrip.mms for MMS or MMK. GNV make or GNU make can't read it, there are spaces where make expects tabs. Once these are changed (and after doubling $ in sys$output and creating the libz.olb) GNU make can process this input file with no problem other than that a link fails due to a missing a missing x11vms:xvmsutils.olb.

What/where is this zlib.mak and what should it show regarding to the base problem?

>>>
New for 3.77:

Command lines of excessive length are correctly broken and written to a
batch file in sys$scratch for later execution. There's no limit to the
lengths of commands (and no need for .opt files :-) any more.

So, how come there does seem to be a limit?
<<<
There was at least one report in 2003 or 2004 that command line splitting was broken for some action lines. Without knowing and seeing the failing action line it is difficult to say what the problem is and how to avoid it or work around it.

For a test, I created a very long action line which was correctly handled by GNU 3.81 but was not by GNV make.
Maxy2
Advisor

Re: GNV: make hitting command line maximum length

> I'm slow, I don't get it.

I'm sorry. I'm leaving out too much information.

>>>>
>OBJECTS = file1.obj file2.obj file3.obj (etc.)
>
>.PHONY: clean
>clean:
>$(RM) $(OBJECTS)
><<<
>illustrates the error for exceeding
>the command line, it's not really an
>extract of any makefile you tried.

No. This IS an extract of a makefile that I tried. It isn't the only instance where I found this problem, but it is the cleanest most self-contained example from among the ones I encountered.

> Seems to be a makefile for zlib, but that is not...

The makefile that I was trying to run for zlib is not the one that comes with zlib. I have run the MMS file for zlib. I have made a my own makefile from the MMS file that DOES run with GNV make (i.e. make version 3.78.1 that comes with GNV). I downloaded the source for make 3.81 and built it myself following the VMS building instructions. However, using this build, this same makefile that works with make 3.78.1 throws a bus error. There must be something not quite right with this build of make 3.81 that I built myself. I would love to get a copy of a built version of make 3.81, because I'm obviously having some trouble buildng one myself.

> For a test, I created a very long action
> line which was correctly handled by GNU
> 3.81 but was not by GNV make.

This is great news, and all the more reason why I'd love to get my hands on a working make 3.81 build.
Joseph Huber_1
Honored Contributor

Re: GNV: make hitting command line maximum length

If Your system is an Alpha VMS 7.3-1 or later, get my executable make 3.81
http://mpiw10/vms$common/exe/make.exe

http://www.mpp.mpg.de/~huber