makefile:4: *** missing separator. Stop

up vote 29 down vote favorite 12	This is my makefile: all:ll ll:ll.c gcc -c -Wall -Werror -02 c.c ll.c -o ll $@ $< clean : \rm -fr ll When I try to make clean or make make, I get this error: :makefile:4: *** missing separator. Stop. How can I fix it? c  makefile share improve this question edited Jun 5 '13 at 5:20 PartiallyFinite 5,201 5 17 66 asked  Jun 5 '13 at 4:48 Rahul Reddy 522 3 11 16
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makefile has a very stupid relation with tabs , all actions of every rule are identified by tabs ...... and No 4 spaces dont make a tab , only a tab makes a tab... to check i use the command cat -e -t -v makefile_name it shows the presence of tabs with ^I and line endings with $ both are vital to ensure that dependencies end properly and tabs mark the action for the rules so that they are easily identifiable to the make utility..... example : Kaizen ~/so_test $ cat -e -t -v mk.t all:ll$ ## here the $ is end of line ... $ ll:ll.c $ ^Igcc -c -Wall -Werror -02 c.c ll.c -o ll $@ $<$ ## the ^I above means a tab was there before the action part, so this lines ok . $ clean :$ \rm -fr ll$ ## see here there is no ^I which means , tab is not present .... ## in this case you need to open the file again and edit/ensure a tab ## starts the action part hope this helps !! share improve this answer