Make file syntax error - missing separator - makefile

Question

I am getting make file error on line 139 below at $(eval $(RULES))
I am really inexperienced in make file syntax.
This is is error it is giving me when I enter make command.
common.mak:139: *** missing separator. Stop.
I tried to removed the tab by single space, \t nothing works.
Do you know what can be the reason?
Thanks
#
# common bits used by all libraries
#
# first so "all" becomes default target
all: all-yes
ifndef SUBDIR
ifndef V
Q = #
ECHO = printf "$(1)\t%s\n" $(2)
BRIEF = CC CXX HOSTCC HOSTLD AS YASM AR LD STRIP CP
SILENT = DEPCC DEPHOSTCC DEPAS DEPYASM RANLIB RM
MSG = $#
M = #$(call ECHO,$(TAG),$#);
$(foreach VAR,$(BRIEF), \
$(eval override $(VAR) = #$$(call ECHO,$(VAR),$$(MSG)); $($(VAR))))
$(foreach VAR,$(SILENT),$(eval override $(VAR) = #$($(VAR))))
$(eval INSTALL = #$(call ECHO,INSTALL,$$(^:$(SRC_DIR)/%=%)); $(INSTALL))
endif
ALLFFLIBS = avcodec avdevice avfilter avformat avresample avutil postproc swscale swresample
# NASM requires -I path terminated with /
IFLAGS := -I. -I$(SRC_PATH)/
CPPFLAGS := $(IFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS)
CFLAGS += $(ECFLAGS)
CCFLAGS = $(CPPFLAGS) $(CFLAGS)
ASFLAGS := $(CPPFLAGS) $(ASFLAGS)
CXXFLAGS += $(CPPFLAGS) $(CFLAGS)
YASMFLAGS += $(IFLAGS:%=%/) -Pconfig.asm
HOSTCCFLAGS = $(IFLAGS) $(HOSTCPPFLAGS) $(HOSTCFLAGS)
LDFLAGS := $(ALLFFLIBS:%=$(LD_PATH)lib%) $(LDFLAGS)
define COMPILE
$(call $(1)DEP,$(1))
$($(1)) $($(1)FLAGS) $($(1)_DEPFLAGS) $($(1)_C) $($(1)_O) $<
endef
COMPILE_C = $(call COMPILE,CC)
COMPILE_CXX = $(call COMPILE,CXX)
COMPILE_S = $(call COMPILE,AS)
%.o: %.c
$(COMPILE_C)
%.o: %.cpp
$(COMPILE_CXX)
%.s: %.c
$(CC) $(CPPFLAGS) $(CFLAGS) -S -o $# $<
%.o: %.S
$(COMPILE_S)
%.i: %.c
$(CC) $(CCFLAGS) $(CC_E) $<
%.h.c:
$(Q)echo '#include "$*.h"' >$#
%.ver: %.v
$(Q)sed 's/$$MAJOR/$($(basename $(#F))_VERSION_MAJOR)/' $^ > $#
%.c %.h: TAG = GEN
# Dummy rule to stop make trying to rebuild removed or renamed headers
%.h:
#:
# Disable suffix rules. Most of the builtin rules are suffix rules,
# so this saves some time on slow systems.
.SUFFIXES:
# Do not delete intermediate files from chains of implicit rules
$(OBJS):
endif
include $(SRC_PATH)/arch.mak
OBJS += $(OBJS-yes)
FFLIBS := $(FFLIBS-yes) $(FFLIBS)
TESTPROGS += $(TESTPROGS-yes)
LDLIBS = $(FFLIBS:%=%$(BUILDSUF))
FFEXTRALIBS := $(LDLIBS:%=$(LD_LIB)) $(EXTRALIBS)
EXAMPLES := $(EXAMPLES:%=$(SUBDIR)%-example$(EXESUF))
OBJS := $(sort $(OBJS:%=$(SUBDIR)%))
TESTOBJS := $(TESTOBJS:%=$(SUBDIR)%) $(TESTPROGS:%=$(SUBDIR)%-test.o)
TESTPROGS := $(TESTPROGS:%=$(SUBDIR)%-test$(EXESUF))
HOSTOBJS := $(HOSTPROGS:%=$(SUBDIR)%.o)
HOSTPROGS := $(HOSTPROGS:%=$(SUBDIR)%$(HOSTEXESUF))
TOOLS += $(TOOLS-yes)
TOOLOBJS := $(TOOLS:%=tools/%.o)
TOOLS := $(TOOLS:%=tools/%$(EXESUF))
HEADERS += $(HEADERS-yes)
DEP_LIBS := $(foreach NAME,$(FFLIBS),lib$(NAME)/$($(CONFIG_SHARED:yes=S)LIBNAME))
SRC_DIR := $(SRC_PATH)/lib$(NAME)
ALLHEADERS := $(subst $(SRC_DIR)/,$(SUBDIR),$(wildcard $(SRC_DIR)/*.h $(SRC_DIR)/$(ARCH)/*.h))
SKIPHEADERS += $(ARCH_HEADERS:%=$(ARCH)/%) $(SKIPHEADERS-)
SKIPHEADERS := $(SKIPHEADERS:%=$(SUBDIR)%)
HOBJS = $(filter-out $(SKIPHEADERS:.h=.h.o),$(ALLHEADERS:.h=.h.o))
checkheaders: $(HOBJS)
.SECONDARY: $(HOBJS:.o=.c)
alltools: $(TOOLS)
$(HOSTOBJS): %.o: %.c
$(call COMPILE,HOSTCC)
$(HOSTPROGS): %$(HOSTEXESUF): %.o
$(HOSTLD) $(HOSTLDFLAGS) $(HOSTLD_O) $< $(HOSTLIBS)
$(OBJS): | $(sort $(dir $(OBJS)))
$(HOBJS): | $(sort $(dir $(HOBJS)))
$(HOSTOBJS): | $(sort $(dir $(HOSTOBJS)))
$(TESTOBJS): | $(sort $(dir $(TESTOBJS)))
$(TOOLOBJS): | tools
OBJDIRS := $(OBJDIRS) $(dir $(OBJS) $(HOBJS) $(HOSTOBJS) $(TESTOBJS))
CLEANSUFFIXES = *.d *.o *~ *.h.c *.map *.ver *.ho *.gcno *.gcda
DISTCLEANSUFFIXES = *.pc
LIBSUFFIXES = *.a *.lib *.so *.so.* *.dylib *.dll *.def *.dll.a
define RULES
clean::
$(RM) $(OBJS) $(OBJS:.o=.d)
$(RM) $(HOSTPROGS)
$(RM) $(TOOLS)
endef
$(eval $(RULES))
-include $(wildcard $(OBJS:.o=.d) $(HOSTOBJS:.o=.d) $(TESTOBJS:.o=.d) $(HOBJS:.o=.d))

Answer 1

I experienced that same issue when trying to configure ffmpeg for make.
With the current version of ffmpeg's master branch the issue occurs for common.mak at line 160.
To solve this issue I tried the following steps:
git config core.autocrlf false
delete all *.mak files
git reset --hard
These steps alone did not fully solve my problem. Based on the hints regarding the TAB (\t) characters I changed line 160 from
to
Note the arrow (indicating a TAB) at line 160 between $( and eval $(RULES)).
This TAB solved the problem for me. I had to make this change to a further *.mak file. There was the same error message for another file. By the way, Notepad++ is a great tool to insert a TAB as well as for changing the line endings.
Since ffmpeg takes a while for building I decided to share my solution...

Answer 2

I had this exact same issue - when also checking out FFMPEG on Windows but using git.
After running configure and when trying to run make I got the same line:
common.mak:139: *** missing separator. Stop.
As suggested by #MadScientist - Makefiles are particularly fussy not just about tab (\t) but also the choice of line ending (LF vs. CRLF).
This is down to the GNU make command which has to run them - which seems to only respect LF.
So a *nix version, such as this, will work:
And here is the same file under Windows, which won't work:
(Another giveaway is that it is also bigger with double the bytes at the end of each line!)
Bottom line (so to speak) is that you might have to reformat your files - perhaps by using the dos2unix command.
This would still be the case even if not directly cloning from git - but instead downloading a tar/zip that was itself created from a git clone. The end of lines would be preserved.
Or, if using Git (directly as I was) you have to tell it how to handle the end of line characters. When it checks-out/clones and when it commits.
There is a full description of what this means here: http://adaptivepatchwork.com/2012/03/01/mind-the-end-of-your-line/
And how it can be configured (for the old version of git) via the [core].eol setting.
This is also apparent on Windows, when if you run the installer (e.g. http://git-scm.com/downloads) you get a dialogue such as this:
Selecting the final option to "checkout as-is, commit as-is" fixed it for me. Not perhaps the most principled way, but it forced the LF endings to be preserved.

Answer 3

In makefiles, recipe lines MUST start with a TAB character (TAB must be the first character on the line). You cannot have one or more spaces at the beginning of the line, either with or without a following TAB.
I don't know what you mean by: I tried to removed the tab by single space, \t nothing works; that sentence doesn't make sense to me. Hopefully the above paragraph will help you understand what you need to do.
Be sure you're using a text editor (not a word processor) and that your editor doesn't try to "helpfully" change the formatting in your files.
In general, unless you're more experienced with makefiles I don't recommend using the eval function, which requires a pretty clear understanding of the rules make uses for expanding variables and functions to use correctly. I'm not really sure why you're using eval in the context of the RULES variable, anyway; why not just write the rule directly without eval?