I'm experiencing a strange problem with a makefile. I simply want to set a symbolic link in the makefile but get an error message on one machine (Linux 2.6.18-238.12.1.el5)
make: execvp: ln: Too many levels of symbolic links
It works perfectly fine on my MacBook. It also works fine if I execute the same command in the shell. What could go wrong? Are there any environment variables important for ln?
Answer
The execvp in the error message is the key, I think. I believe it is saying there are too many levels of symbolic links while trying to locate the ln command itself.
Example:
all:
ln -nsf /tmp/foo /tmp/foo
/tmp/foo/ln x y
Running "make" with this Makefile errors out with:
make: execvp: /tmp/foo/ln: Too many levels of symbolic links
So, how is your Makefile invoking ln, exactly? What is in your PATH etc.?
[update]
I bet the Makefile is messing up your PATH. Here is a Makefile that reproduces your exact error message:
PATH=/tmp/foo
all:
/bin/ln -nsf /tmp/foo /tmp/foo
ln x y