Description of problem: On RHEL5, perl 5.8.8, the attached Makefile generates a Perl syntax error. On RHEL4, perl 5.8.5 (and other platforms), it runs correctly. How reproducible: Install make and perl, and run 'make' against the attached Makefile Actual results: syntax error at -e line 3, near "while" Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors. make: *** [all] Error 255 Expected results: prints "hi" and then enters an infinite loop. Additional info: This is a simplication of a bug that's occurring while trying to compile JSS <http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/pki/jss/> on RHEL5 The behaviour of Perl seems a bit wacky. Two "print()" calls on multiple lines will run, but the moment you try to put in a while loop, the syntax error occurs.
Created attachment 152860 [details] Makefile to generate error.
This turns out to be a (well known) gmake issue. I've located a patch from upstream for JSS. For more details see: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/12/msg00988.html Closing bug report.