PRB: U1033 from Space After NMAKE Line Continuation Character

ID: Q72699

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft NMAKE Utility for MS-DOS, versions 1.01, 1.1, 1.11, 1.12, 1.13, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4
Microsoft NMAKE Utility for OS/2, versions 1.01, 1.11, 1.12, 1.13, 1.21
Microsoft NMAKE Utility for Windows NT, versions 1.4, 1.5

SYMPTOMS

An attempt to use NMAKE to process a makefile fails and NMAKE generates the following message:

fatal error U1033: syntax error : 'string' unexpected

The 'string' is some part of the makefile that NMAKE determines to be syntactically incorrect.

CAUSE

The makefile contains a line-continuation character (a backslash) and a character other than a carriage return follows the backslash.

RESOLUTION

Modify the makefile to remove any characters after the line continuation character. NMAKE interprets the character that follows the backslash literally and does not append the following line as desired. The U1033 error occurs because the following line does not match NMAKE syntax by itself.

MORE INFORMATION

The sample makefile below illustrates this situation. NMAKE generates the following message when it processes this makefile:

fatal error U1033: syntax error : 'mod3.c' unexpected

Sample NMAKE Makefile

CFILES = mod1.c mod2.c \_
mod3.c

Additional query words: 1.10 1.20 1.30 1.40 1.50

Keywords :
Version : MS-DOS:1.01,1.1,1.11,1.12,1.13,1.2,1.3,1.4; NT:1.4,1.5; OS/2:1.01,1.11,1.12,1.13,1.21
Platform : MS-DOS NT OS/2
Issue type :