[comp.lang.c] An odd compiler error

stealth@m2-net.UUCP (Mike Peltier) (05/26/88)

	I have run into a problem in my efforts to compile the game 'Moria'
on M-Net, and Altos 68020 running UNIX System III.  When I attempt to compile
two of the twenty or so source code files for the game, namely "misc2.c"
(about 50k) and "spells.c" (about 45k), I get the following error:

	, line 0: compiler error: Cannot open temp file
		(Note the comma.)

	This error appears only for these two files.  All the other source
code files, some longer and most shorter, compile without complaint and
give me a valid ".o" file.  The most obvious solution, that there is a
space deficit on /tmp, has been thouroughly ruled out.  My first remidial
effort was to clear /tmp of all files, then run the compile command again.
The peak space usage was 25%, and still it gave the error.  I proceeded
to try to track down some possible causes as follows:

	1)  Kept a close watch on the /tmp files created:  there was
	    mc02D7a, mc...a.i, and mc...a.s.  I found that the mc...a file
	    was permitted 400, read only, but changing this had no effect.
	    The error still appeared after several minutes of compilation.

	2)  Left off the '-O' option, hoping that the optimizer was the file
	    that couldn't be opened, but it still produced the error about
	    seven minutes (sys) into the compilation.

	3)  Tried 'cc -P -D... misc2.c', then moving the output file (misc2.i)
	    to 'other.c', then a 'cc -D... other.c', which again gave the
	    error.

	4)  Since M-Net is a very active system, I considered the possibility
	    that a file was being removed from beneath the compiler, so I
	    tried moving the source file and it's '.h' files to M2-net,
	    an associated Altos 68000 which handles News, and has only four
	    lines as opposed to M-net's perpetually busy 14, and ran the
	    compile again.  Again it gave the same error.  Then I tried
	    running the compile on M-net at 3:30am, the time of least 
	    activity, and guess what happened...

	From my experiments and attempts, it would seem that the error
occurs in the final stages of the compile process, before mopt starts in.
Also, taking into account the fact that it only occurs for these two files,
while everything else gives me an '.o' file without any fuss, it would seem
that the error stems from something within the source code.  Given the nature
of the error message, however, that seems unlikely.  So, what 'temp file'
would it not be able to open, and why would it only have trouble opening it for
these two source code files?
	Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  I'm so close to 
finishing the Moria port that this problem is very irritating, as I'm sure
you can guess.
	I apologize for the length of this post, but I wanted to give
all the information I have available to facilitate your assesment of the
problem.  Thanks!

	Please send your reply by email, as I don't get much time to read
through many newsgroups.  Thanks for your help!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael V. Peltier		{att, ihnp4, uunet}!umix!m-net!stealth
1420 King George Blvd.		-- "A place for everything,
Ann Arbor, MI  48104			and everything everyplace."