makefile cygwin windows-10 gnu-make ds-5

Why does GNU make process hangs up?

TL;DR:

On a fresh Windows 10 installation, I installed ARM DS-5 v5.26.2 development tools. I am using its make.exe to build our project, either from Cygwin command line or from the Eclipse IDE's build settings.

Our Makefile contains the line:

uname_result := $(shell uname -s)

but whenever make reaches this line, it gets stuck. This happens on bash terminal as well as on Window's command prompt.

UPDATE 3:

After more troubleshooting, it appears that the problem was the DS-5's make utility itself. I added make to my Cygwin installation, and used that one instead, and now my builds run OK.

Now the question is why the ARM's version does not work on my Win 10 machine, where it used to work fine on Win 7.

Long version:

I had just went through a clean install of Windows 10 on my work PC, after using Windows 7 for two years on that PC. In the last two days I am going through the process of reinstalling our tools and getting back in shape. Unfortunately, I am now stuck with make giving me headaches.

We develop embedded firmware using ARM's DS-5 toolset. The project is a Makefile Project, so we do not use the built-in Eclipse builder. In order to build the project outside of the Eclipse environment, I installed Cygwin for a convenient bash CLI. Both make and clang are a part of the DS-5 installation.

When I run make on the project's Makefile form CLI, the execution gets stuck indefinitely.

[... removing a long story following the problem revealing process ...]

After tracking down the source of the problem, I found out that the problem is with this line:

uname_result := $(shell uname -s 2>NUL)

In order to simplify it, I verified that the problem is the shell command itself. I made a very simple Makefile with the following command that gets stuck as well:

uname_result := $(shell ls)

When processing the makefile with make -d, as it gets to that line, I get the following:

CreateProcess(C:\cygwin64\bin\ls.exe,ls,...)
Main thread handle = 000000000000009C

Why can't make execute the shell command? This exact same script used to be working just fine before the migration.

UPDATE 1 w/ more info:

There is only one make.exe on my system, placed at C:\DS-5_v5.26.2\bin.

I created a simplified makefile, Makefile.tmp:

.PHONY: help
help:
    echo ====================== TESTING ======================
    uname_result := $(shell ls)

I process this makefile from Cygwin's bash CLI:

$ /cygdrive/c/DS-5_v5.26.2/bin/make -d -f Makefile.tmp help

and I get tons of diagnostics in return:

GNU Make 4.1
Built for Windows32
Copyright (C) 1988-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
find_and_set_shell() path search set default_shell = C:/cygwin64/bin/sh.exe
Reading makefiles...
Reading makefile 'Makefile.tmp'...
Updating makefiles....
 Considering target file 'Makefile.tmp'.
  Looking for an implicit rule for 'Makefile.tmp'.
  Trying pattern rule with stem 'Makefile.tmp'.
  Trying implicit prerequisite 'Makefile.tmp.o'.
  Trying pattern rule with stem 'Makefile.tmp'.
  Trying implicit prerequisite 'Makefile.tmp.c'.
  Trying pattern rule with stem 'Makefile.tmp'.
  Trying implicit prerequisite 'Makefile.tmp.cc'.
  Trying pattern rule with stem 'Makefile.tmp'.
  Trying implicit prerequisite 'Makefile.tmp.C'.
  Trying pattern rule with stem 'Makefile.tmp'.
  Trying implicit prerequisite 'Makefile.tmp.cpp'.
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  Trying implicit prerequisite 'SCCS/s.Makefile.tmp'.
  Trying pattern rule with stem 'Makefile.tmp'.
  Trying implicit prerequisite 'Makefile.tmp.o'.
  Looking for a rule with intermediate file 'Makefile.tmp.o'.
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  Trying pattern rule with stem 'Makefile.tmp'.
  Trying implicit prerequisite 'Makefile.tmp.sh'.
  Looking for a rule with intermediate file 'Makefile.tmp.sh'.
   Avoiding implicit rule recursion.
   Trying pattern rule with stem 'Makefile.tmp.sh'.
   Trying implicit prerequisite 'Makefile.tmp.sh,v'.
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   Trying pattern rule with stem 'Makefile.tmp.sh'.
   Trying implicit prerequisite 'RCS/Makefile.tmp.sh'.
   Trying pattern rule with stem 'Makefile.tmp.sh'.
   Trying implicit prerequisite 's.Makefile.tmp.sh'.
   Trying pattern rule with stem 'Makefile.tmp.sh'.
   Trying implicit prerequisite 'SCCS/s.Makefile.tmp.sh'.
  No implicit rule found for 'Makefile.tmp'.
  Finished prerequisites of target file 'Makefile.tmp'.
 No need to remake target 'Makefile.tmp'.
Updating goal targets....
Considering target file 'help'.
 File 'help' does not exist.
 Finished prerequisites of target file 'help'.
Must remake target 'help'.
CreateProcess(C:\cygwin64\bin\ls.exe,ls,...)
Main thread handle = 000000000000008C

but what's important is probably the first and last parts:

GNU Make 4.1
Built for Windows32
Copyright (C) 1988-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
find_and_set_shell() path search set default_shell = C:/cygwin64/bin/sh.exe
Reading makefiles...
Reading makefile 'Makefile.tmp'...
Updating makefiles....
 Considering target file 'Makefile.tmp'.
  Looking for an implicit rule for 'Makefile.tmp'.
  Trying pattern rule with stem 'Makefile.tmp'.
. . . . 
. . . . 
   Trying implicit prerequisite 'SCCS/s.Makefile.tmp.sh'.
  No implicit rule found for 'Makefile.tmp'.
  Finished prerequisites of target file 'Makefile.tmp'.
 No need to remake target 'Makefile.tmp'.
Updating goal targets....
Considering target file 'help'.
 File 'help' does not exist.
 Finished prerequisites of target file 'help'.
Must remake target 'help'.
CreateProcess(C:\cygwin64\bin\ls.exe,ls,...)
Main thread handle = 000000000000008C

So, as you can see, it does not perform neither the echo command nor the ls command. If I comment out the shell command, I see the TESTING message echoed to the terminal.

Obviously, DS-5's make.exe was built for Windows. Should there be a problem calling it from Cygwin bash? If so, how come this worked well on the Win 7 machine?

UPDATE 2 w/ more info:

I repeated the test, this time running from Windows' CMD prompt. I replaced the ls command in the bshell line with a dir command. Surprisingly, the same behavior is happening on CMD too!

So, apparently, the problem is with make's shell function invocation.

Solution

After contact with ARM support I got the following reply:

With regards to the problem you are seeing this is a known issue with GNU 
make version 4.1 supplied by ARM with DS5.  This version of make was shipped 
with DS5 versions 5.23 to 5.26. DS5-5.22 used make 3.81, and DS5-5.27 and 
later have used make 4.2 - neither of which suffer from this defect.

There are three possible workarounds in your case:
1 - Avoid using the "shell" command in your make script - this is probably 
not ideal!
2 - Upgrade your DS-5 version to 5.27 or later - this may or may not be an 
option for you.
3 - Download[*] a different version of GNU make and use it in place of the 
version 3.81 that was supplied with your current version of DS-5.

[*] - Although make is freely available under GPL, unfortunately there are 
legal implications involved with its redistribution which is why I can't 
simply email you an alternative version of make.

Thanks to Alex from ARM support for this.