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Q140356: FIX: NMAKE Fails If Paths & File Names Have Special Characters

Article: Q140356
Product(s): Microsoft C Compiler
Version(s): 4.0,4.1,4.2
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbVC500fix
Last Modified: 29-NOV-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Editions, versions 4.0, 4.1 
- Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Enterprise Edition, version 4.2 
- Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Professional Edition, version 4.2 
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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:

  Q59409 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.

Additional query words: kbVC400bug 10.20 utilities

======================================================================
Keywords          : kbVC500fix 
Technology        : kbVCsearch kbVC400 kbAudDeveloper kbVC410 kbVC420 kbVC32bitSearch
Version           : :4.0,4.1,4.2
Issue type        : kbbug
Solution Type     : kbfix

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