FIX: NMAKE Fails If Paths & File Names Have Special Characters (140356)
The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Editions 4.0
- Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Editions 4.1
- Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Enterprise Edition 4.2
- Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Professional Edition 4.2
This article was previously published under Q140356 SYMPTOMS
If a character with a special meaning to NMAKE is used in a file name or
path in a project created within the development environment, then an NMAKE
error will be generated if you attempt to build the project from the
command line with Nmake.exe. For example, if a file name is Tes$ting.cpp,
the error is:
U1073: don't know how to make '".\Tesing.cpp"'
If a file name is Tes#ting.cpp, the error is:
U1038: internal error : lexer
If a file name is Tes!ting.cpp, the error is:
U1017: unknown directive '!ting.obj" :
CAUSE
Certain characters have special meaning to NMAKE. For example, the dollar
sign ($) indicates the beginning of a MACRO, the pound sign (#) is the
start of a comment, and the exclamation point (!) indicates the start of a
preprocessing directive. For further information on special NMAKE
characters see the NMAKE reference in the Visual C++ User's Guide.
Usually, placing a caret (^) in front of a special character will force
that character to be treated as a literal character. However, these make
files use inline response files, and if file names with special characters
are used in an inline response file, placing a caret in front of the
character will not resolve the error. For more information on this problem,
please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
59409 Trouble with File Names w/ a Dollar Sign ($) in Inline Files
RESOLUTION
Build the project from within the development environment.
-or-
Rename the files or paths so they don't use any special characters.
-or-
If the special characters are dollar signs, make a backup copy of the
makefile and place a dollar sign in front of the dollar signs in the file
names to force them to be treated as a literal character.
STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed
at the beginning of this article. This bug was corrected in Visual C++
version 5.0.
MORE INFORMATION
The project will build without errors from within the development
environment because it does not use Nmake.exe to build the project. It
uses an internal build engine that can handle the different file names.
| Modification Type: | Major | Last Reviewed: | 12/2/2003 |
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| Keywords: | kbbug kbfix kbVC500fix KB140356 |
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