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Problems and Bugs

If you have problems with GNU make or think you’ve found a bug, please report it to the developers; we cannot promise to do anything but we might well want to fix it.

Before reporting a bug, make sure you’ve actually found a real bug. Carefully reread the documentation and see if it really says you can do what you’re trying to do. If it’s not clear whether you should be able to do something or not, report that too; it’s a bug in the documentation!

Before reporting a bug or trying to fix it yourself, try to isolate it to the smallest possible makefile that reproduces the problem. Then send us the makefile and the exact results make gave you. Also say what you expected to occur; this will help us decide whether the problem was really in the documentation.

Once you’ve got a precise problem, please send electronic mail either through the Internet or via UUCP.

Internet address:
bug-gnu-utils@prep.ai.mit.edu

UUCP path:
mit-eddie!prep.ai.mit.edu!bug-gnu-utils

Please include the version number of make you are using. You can get this information with the command, make --version. Be sure also to include the type of machine and operating system you are using. If possible, include the contents of the file, config.h, generated by the configuration process.

Non-bug suggestions are always welcome as well. If you have questions about things that are unclear in the documentation or that are just obscure features, send a message to the bug reporting address. We cannot guarantee that you’ll get help with your problem, but many seasoned make users read the mailing list and they will probably try to help you out. The maintainers sometimes answer such questions as well, when time permits.