Errors in make file : *** missing separator. Stop - linux

Question

I am facing errors in make file in CentOS 6.02 64 bit. I need to know what should be done to make the makefile workable. Any suggestion will be greatly helpful. My make file is pasted below: -
#
.SUFFIXES: .cc $(.SUFFIXES)
ALL = libpal.a
#all = $(ALL)
all: $(ALL)
.cpp.o:
$(C++) -o $# -c $(PROF) $(CFLAGS) $*.cpp
.cc.o:
$(C++) -o $# -c $(PROF) $(CFLAGS) $*.cc
.c.o:
$(CC) -o $# -c $(PROF) $(CFLAGS) $*.c
top_srcdir = ..
OPENSSL_LIB_DIR = ../../ThirdPartyLibs/openssl-0.9.8e/include
BOOST_DIR = ../../ThirdPartyLibs/boost/stage/lib
BOOST_INCLUDE_DIR = ../../ThirdPartyLibs/boost
CC = gcc
C++ = g++
CCOPT = -Os -Wall -Wno-deprecated
CCOPT_DEBUG = -Wall -g -Wno-deprecated
PROF =
STATIC = -static
INCLUDE = \
-I./usr/include/sys
-I./Headers \
-I$(top_srcdir)/PAL/Headers \
-I$(top_srcdir)/BaseMulti/Headers \
-I$(top_srcdir)/NetworkMulti/Headers \
-I$(top_srcdir)/RTP/Headers \
-I$(BOOST_INCLUDE_DIR) \
-I$(OPENSSL_LIB_DIR) \
LIBDIRS = \
-L$(BOOST_DIR) \
#XXX NLAYER define / MB_DEBUG
DEFINE = -D_LINUX -DDEBUGLOG -D_INDENT_DB_PRINT -fsigned-char -fno-inline -D_REENTRANT -D_POSIX_PTHREAD_SEMANTICS -D_POSIX_PER_PROCESS_TIMER_SOURCE -D_PTHREADS -DUNICODE #-DDISABLE_LOG
SHLIB_SUFFIX = .so
SHLIB_LD = gcc -shared
SHLIB_LD_LIBS =
SHLIB_CFLAGS = -fPIC
BFLAGS = $(DEFINE) $(INCLUDE)
CFLAGS = $(CCOPT) $(BFLAGS)
OBJ_C =
OBJ_CC = \
./Sources/PALsystime.o \
./Sources/PALdebug.o \
./Sources/PALdebuglog.o \
./Sources/PALthread.o \
./Sources/PALcritsec.o \
./Sources/PALprofiler.o \
./Sources/PALserializable.o \
./Sources/PALinet.o \
./Sources/PALnetwork.o \
./Sources/PALsocket.o \
./Sources/PALlocalhostUdpEvent.o \
./Sources/PALpollarray.o \
./Sources/PALrandom.o \
OBJS = $(OBJ_C) $(OBJ_CC)
SRCS = $(OBJ_C:.o=.c) $(OBJ_CC:.o=.cc)
debug: DEFINE += -DDEBUG
debug: BFLAGS = $(DEFINE) $(INCLUDE)
debug: CFLAGS = $(CCOPT_DEBUG) $(BFLAGS)
debug: $(OBJS)
ar crsu libpal_debug.a $(OBJS)
libpal.a: $(OBJS)
ar crsu libpal.a $(OBJS)
cleandeps:
$(RM) ./Sources/*.o .depend* core
clean: cleandeps
$(RM) ./libpal.a ./libpal_debug.a
$(RM) $(ALL)
And the resultant error is:
Makefile:34: *** missing separator. Stop.

Answer 1

You can find an explanation of this error in Appendix B Errors Generated by Make.
Every line in a recipe must begin with a tab character. The recipes starting with $(C++) and $(CC) near the top of your file do not seem to start with a tab character.
Additionally, the section
INCLUDE = \
-I./usr/include/sys
-I./Headers \
seems to be missing a backslash after sys and that same section (and many more) have superfluous empty lines.

Answer 2

Open your make file in vim rather than in editors like gedit. Every line in a recipe must begin with a tab character.

Answer 3

This answer is for other Make newbies such as myself who find this question from Googling and get stuck because they are modifying a large pre-existing Makefile, with no lines beginning with a space character. My problem occurred because a makefile in a subdirectory with spaces instead of tabs was getting called by a parent makefile, where I erroneously thought the problem existed.
Once I fixed the makefile in the subdirectory, everything worked like a charm.