[SOLVED] CMake fatal error: CMakeFiles/<path>.dir/main.cpp.d: No such file or directory

Issue

I am trying to compile a simple C++ program with CMake on Ubuntu 18.04, but all of my CMake projects fails when I run the make command. Below is a minimum working example.

The directory structure looks like this:

- project directory
|-build
|-main.cpp
|-CMakeLists.txt

main.cpp

int main(void)
{
    return 0;
}

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required (VERSION 3.1)
project(Test-Project)

add_executable(a
    main.cpp
)
target_compile_options(a
    PUBLIC -Wall -o -std=c++11
)

Building

cd build
cmake ../ # this works without any error
make  # this fails

Error

[ 50%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/a.dir/main.cpp.o
cc1plus: fatal error: CMakeFiles/a.dir/main.cpp.d: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
CMakeFiles/a.dir/build.make:75: recipe for target 'CMakeFiles/a.dir/main.cpp.o' failed
make[2]: *** [CMakeFiles/a.dir/main.cpp.o] Error 1
CMakeFiles/Makefile2:82: recipe for target 'CMakeFiles/a.dir/all' failed
make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/a.dir/all] Error 2
Makefile:90: recipe for target 'all' failed
make: *** [all] Error 2

I get this error when try to compile any CMake based program on the system. However, if I just used g++ directly to compile the program, it compiles without any complaints. For example:

g++ ../main.cpp

compiles the program, and runs the program without any errors.

• cmake --version: cmake version 3.22.1
• g++ --version: g++ (Ubuntu 7.5.0-3ubuntu1~18.04) 7.5.0
• g++ -print-prog-name=cc1plus: /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/7/cc1plus
• uname -a: Linux <computer name> 5.4.0-91-generic #102~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP <date+time> x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

EDIT

Terminal output when compiled with make VERBOSE=1:

/home/kani/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/cmake/data/bin/cmake -S/home/kani/Documents/test -B/home/kani/Documents/test/build --check-build-system CMakeFiles/Makefile.cmake 0
/home/kani/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/cmake/data/bin/cmake -E cmake_progress_start /home/kani/Documents/test/build/CMakeFiles /home/kani/Documents/test/build//CMakeFiles/progress.marks
make  -f CMakeFiles/Makefile2 all
make[1]: Entering directory '/home/kani/Documents/test/build'
make  -f CMakeFiles/a.dir/build.make CMakeFiles/a.dir/depend
make[2]: Entering directory '/home/kani/Documents/test/build'
cd /home/kani/Documents/test/build && /home/kani/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/cmake/data/bin/cmake -E cmake_depends "Unix Makefiles" /home/kani/Documents/test /home/kani/Documents/test /home/kani/Documents/test/build /home/kani/Documents/test/build /home/kani/Documents/test/build/CMakeFiles/a.dir/DependInfo.cmake --color=
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/kani/Documents/test/build'
make  -f CMakeFiles/a.dir/build.make CMakeFiles/a.dir/build
make[2]: Entering directory '/home/kani/Documents/test/build'
[ 50%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/a.dir/main.cpp.o
/usr/bin/c++   -Wall -o -std=c++11 -MD -MT CMakeFiles/a.dir/main.cpp.o -MF CMakeFiles/a.dir/main.cpp.o.d -o CMakeFiles/a.dir/main.cpp.o -c /home/kani/Documents/test/main.cpp
cc1plus: fatal error: CMakeFiles/a.dir/main.cpp.d: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
CMakeFiles/a.dir/build.make:75: recipe for target 'CMakeFiles/a.dir/main.cpp.o' failed
make[2]: *** [CMakeFiles/a.dir/main.cpp.o] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/kani/Documents/test/build'
CMakeFiles/Makefile2:82: recipe for target 'CMakeFiles/a.dir/all' failed
make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/a.dir/all] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/kani/Documents/test/build'
Makefile:90: recipe for target 'all' failed
make: *** [all] Error 2

Solution

Despite the error message about absent .d file seems to be internal to CMake (such files are used for collect header dependencies generated by the compiler), its usual reason is specifying some output-controlling compiler options in the CMakeLists.txt.

In your case it is -o option which damages the command line generated by CMake. CMake by itself uses this option for specify object file which will be created as a result of the compilation. So adding another -o is wrong.

Answered By - Tsyvarev