GCC 16, the -MD -MF<file-for-dependencies> is not filled when compilation fails.

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Project / Subsystem

gcc / gcc

Date

2026-05-27

Proposer

Basile STARYNKEVITCH <basile@starynkevitch.net>

Source type

public_inbox

Consensus

Proposed

Sentiment

—/10

Technical tradeoffs

• Requires changes to GCC's internal dependency generation logic.
• A workaround might involve post-processing the compiler output to extract dependency information.

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All attributes

project: gcc
subsystem: gcc
patch_id: —
discussion_id: 3d97af6a8549cee2dee2860440dc4954d79aba07.camel@starynkevitch.net
source_type: public_inbox
title: GCC 16, the -MD -MF<file-for-dependencies> is not filled when compilation fails.
headline: GCC 16 doesn't fill -MF dependency file on compilation failure
tldr: GCC 16 with -MD -MF doesn't write dependency files when compilation fails; the author seeks a workaround without patching GCC.
proposer: Basile STARYNKEVITCH <basile@starynkevitch.net>
consensus: Proposed
outcome: proposed
sentiment_score: —
technical_tradeoffs: • Requires changes to GCC's internal dependency generation logic.
• A workaround might involve post-processing the compiler output to extract dependency information.
series_id: —
series_role: standalone
series_parts: []
tags: • gcc
• makefile
• dependencies
• build system
url: https://inbox.sourceware.org/gcc/3d97af6a8549cee2dee2860440dc4954d79aba07.camel@starynkevitch.net
bugzilla_url: —
date: 2026-05-27T00:00:00.000Z

GCC 16, the -MD -MF<file-for-dependencies> is not filled when compilation fails.

Basile Starynkevitch reports that GCC 16.1 doesn’t create or update the dependency file specified by the -MF option when compilation fails. He is looking for a way to ensure the file is populated even when compilation errors occur, as this would aid in debugging complex Makefiles. Without a fix, debugging build systems becomes harder.