Makefile Circular Dependency + No such file error

Question

I have been trying to write a makefile for my avr gcc project using a template. This is my first time writing one (so far i've just been using the default inbuilt makefile in AVR Studio 4)

When i try to compile I get there errors

make: Circular Makefile.out <- Makefile dependency dropped.
make: Circular all.out <- all dependency dropped.
avr-gcc  -I.  -g -mmcu=atmega8  -Os  -fpack-struct -fshort-enums -funsigned-bitfields -funsigned-char -Wall -std=gnu99 -DF_CPU=8000000 -Wa,-ahlms=../8_8_LED_DOT_MATRIX_DISPLAY.lst -c ../8_8_LED_DOT_MATRIX_DISPLAY.c -o ../8_8_LED_DOT_MATRIX_DISPLAY.o
avr-gcc  -Wl,-Map,8_8_LED_DOT_MATRIX_DISPLAY .out .map -mmcu=atmega8  -lm  -o 8_8_LED_DOT_MATRIX_DISPLAY .out  ../8_8_LED_DOT_MATRIX_DISPLAY.o 
avr-gcc: .out: No such file or directory
avr-gcc: .map: No such file or directory
avr-gcc: .out: No such file or directory

This is my makefile

#########  AVR Project Makefile Template   ######### 
######                                        ###### 
######    Copyright (C) 2003-2005,Pat Deegan, ###### 
######            Psychogenic Inc             ###### 
######          All Rights Reserved           ###### 
######                                        ###### 
###### You are free to use this code as part  ###### 
###### of your own applications provided      ###### 
###### you keep this copyright notice intact  ###### 
###### and acknowledge its authorship with    ###### 
###### the words:                             ###### 
######                                        ###### 
###### "Contains software by Pat Deegan of    ###### 
###### Psychogenic Inc (www.psychogenic.com)" ###### 
######                                        ###### 
###### If you use it as part of a web site    ###### 
###### please include a link to our site,     ###### 
###### http://electrons.psychogenic.com  or   ###### 
###### http://www.psychogenic.com             ###### 
######                                        ###### 
#################################################### 


##### This Makefile will make compiling Atmel AVR 
##### micro controller projects simple with Linux 
##### or other Unix workstations and the AVR-GCC 
##### tools. 
##### 
##### It supports C, C++ and Assembly source files. 
##### 
##### Customize the values as indicated below and : 
##### make 
##### make disasm 
##### make stats 
##### make hex 
##### make writeflash 
##### make gdbinit 
##### or make clean 
##### 
##### See the http://electrons.psychogenic.com/ 
##### website for detailed instructions 


#################################################### 
#####                                          ##### 
#####              Configuration               ##### 
#####                                          ##### 
##### Customize the values in this section for ##### 
##### your project. MCU, PROJECTNAME and       ##### 
##### PRJSRC must be setup for all projects,   ##### 
##### the remaining variables are only         ##### 
##### relevant to those needing additional     ##### 
##### include dirs or libraries and those      ##### 
##### who wish to use the avrdude programmer   ##### 
#####                                          ##### 
##### See http://electrons.psychogenic.com/    ##### 
##### for further details.                     ##### 
#####                                          ##### 
#################################################### 


#####         Target Specific Details          ##### 
#####     Customize these for your project     ##### 

# Name of target controller 
# (e.g. 'at90s8515', see the available avr-gcc mmcu 
# options for possible values) 
MCU=atmega8 

# id to use with programmer 
# default: PROGRAMMER_MCU=$(MCU) 
# In case the programer used, e.g avrdude, doesn't 
# accept the same MCU name as avr-gcc (for example 
# for ATmega8s, avr-gcc expects 'atmega8' and 
# avrdude requires 'm8') 
PROGRAMMER_MCU=m8 

# Name of our project 
# (use a single word, e.g. 'myproject') 
PROJECTNAME=8_8_LED_DOT_MATRIX_DISPLAY 

# Source files 
# List C/C++/Assembly source files: 
# (list all files to compile, e.g. 'a.c b.cpp as.S'): 
# Use .cc, .cpp or .C suffix for C++ files, use .S 
# (NOT .s !!!) for assembly source code files. 
PRJSRC=../8_8_LED_DOT_MATRIX_DISPLAY.c 

# additional includes (e.g. -I/path/to/mydir) 
INC= 

# libraries to link in (e.g. -lmylib) 
LIBS= 

# Optimization level, 
# use s (size opt), 1, 2, 3 or 0 (off) 
OPTLEVEL=s 


#################################################### 
#####                Config Done               ##### 
#####                                          ##### 
##### You shouldn't need to edit anything      ##### 
##### below to use the makefile but may wish   ##### 
##### to override a few of the flags           ##### 
##### nonetheless                              ##### 
#####                                          ##### 
#################################################### 


##### Flags #### 

# HEXFORMAT -- format for .hex file output 
HEXFORMAT=ihex 

# compiler
CFLAGS=-I. $(INC) -g -mmcu=$(MCU) -O$(OPTLEVEL) \
    -fpack-struct -fshort-enums             \
    -funsigned-bitfields -funsigned-char    \
    -Wall -std=gnu99 -DF_CPU=8000000               \
    -Wa,-ahlms=$(firstword                  \
    $(filter %.lst, $(<:.c=.lst)))


# assembler 
ASMFLAGS =-I. $(INC) -mmcu=$(MCU)        \
    -x assembler-with-cpp            \
    -Wa,-gstabs,-ahlms=$(firstword   \
        $(<:.S=.lst) $(<.s=.lst))


# linker 
LDFLAGS=-Wl,-Map,$(TRG).map -mmcu=$(MCU) \
    -lm $(LIBS)

##### executables #### 
CC=avr-gcc 
OBJCOPY=avr-objcopy 
REMOVE=rm -f 

##### automatic target names #### 
TRG=$(PROJECTNAME).out 
HEXROMTRG=$(PROJECTNAME).hex 
HEXTRG=$(HEXROMTRG) $(PROJECTNAME).ee.hex 

# Define all object files. 

# Start by splitting source files by type
#  C
CFILES=$(filter %.c, $(PRJSRC))
#  Assembly
ASMFILES=$(filter %.S, $(PRJSRC))


# List all object files we need to create
OBJDEPS=$(CFILES:.c=.o)    \
    $(ASMFILES:.S=.o)



.SUFFIXES : C .o .out .s .S \
    .hex .ee.hex .h .hh .hpp

.PHONY: writeflash clean stats gdbinit stats 

# Make targets: 
# all, disasm, stats, hex, writeflash/install, clean 
all: $(TRG) 

#disasm: $(DUMPTRG) stats 

#stats: $(TRG)
#   $(OBJDUMP) -h $(TRG)
#   $(SIZE) $(TRG) 

hex: $(HEXTRG) 


#writeflash: hex 
#install: writeflash 

#$(DUMPTRG): $(TRG) 
#   $(OBJDUMP) -S  $< > $@


$(TRG): $(OBJDEPS) 
    $(CC) $(LDFLAGS) -o $(TRG) $(OBJDEPS)



#### Generating assembly ####
# asm from C
%.s: %.c
    $(CC) -S $(CFLAGS) $< -o $@

# asm from (hand coded) asm
%.s: %.S
    $(CC) -S $(ASMFLAGS) $< > $@

# asm from C++ 
#.cpp.s .cc.s .C.s : 
#   $(CC) -S $(CFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) $< -o $@ 



#### Generating object files #### 
# object from C
.c.o: 
    $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c $< -o $@


# object from C++ (.cc, .cpp, .C files) 
#.cc.o .cpp.o .C.o : 
#   $(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) -c $< -o $@ 

# object from asm 
.S.o :
    $(CC) $(ASMFLAGS) -c $< -o $@


#### Generating hex files #### 
# hex files from elf 
#####  Generating a gdb initialisation file    ##### 
.out.hex:
    $(OBJCOPY) -j .text                    \
        -j .data                       \
        -O $(HEXFORMAT) $< $@

.out.ee.hex:
    $(OBJCOPY) -j .eeprom                  \
        --change-section-lma .eeprom=0 \
        -O $(HEXFORMAT) $< $@

#### Cleanup #### 
clean:
    $(REMOVE) $(TRG) $(TRG).map $(DUMPTRG)
    $(REMOVE) $(OBJDEPS)
    $(REMOVE) $(LST) $(GDBINITFILE)
    $(REMOVE) $(GENASMFILES)
    $(REMOVE) $(HEXTRG)



#####                    EOF                   ##### 

Any help what I have done wrong here?

Thanks!

Answer 1

You have a trailing space in the definition of PROJECTNAME, so the TRG variable gets set to 8_8_LED_DOT_MATRIX_DISPLAY .out and your link command ends up referring to the file .out (and the file .map too, because there seems to be a trailing space in the definition of TRG as well). That's the culprit for both the "no such file" errors and the circular dependencies.

The reason for the circular dependency errors is a bit subtle: Because of the trailing space, the rule

$(TRG) : $(OBJDEPS)
    <command>

results in

% : %.out
    <command>

Since your all target is not marked as .PHONY, make considers this rule when checking if all has to be rebuilt. On the other hand, .out is a built-in suffix and make has a built-in rule

%.out : %
    @rm -f $@
    cp $< $@

Combined with the above, this results in a circular dependency for all. The same applies to Makefile, because make always tries to rebuild every file it processes.

tl;dr: Remove the trailing space in PROJECTNAME and TRG.