How do I remove -Werror from autotools-generated makefiles?

Question

I am compiling a large library which uses the autotools build process. There are many makefiles. Each of them are getting CFLAGS = .... -Werror.

When I attempt to compile there are some minor warnings which kill the build on my setup.

I would like to try building despite the warnings so I need to take the -Werror out of all the makefiles. Is there a way to prevent autotools from putting in -Werror in all these makefiles?

Check `configure.ac` - it might contain something like `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([-Werror])`. Do not edit the Makefile/s as those are generated. — Till, May 03 '16 at 16:08

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited May 16 '17 at 12:01

3

I poked around in configure.ac and found this:

AC_ARG_ENABLE([werror],
  AS_HELP_STRING([--disable-werror], [Do not treat warnings as errors]),
  [gcc_werror=$enableval], [gcc_werror=$gcc_warnings])

So I ran configure like this:

./configure --disable-werror

It worked like a charm. No more -Werror flags in my makefile. Thanks for your comment Till!

edited May 16 '17 at 12:01

Alex

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answered May 03 '16 at 17:02

Kelly Stevens

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Note for anyone who ended up here that this is highly project dependent. Some projects use "--disable-werror" others use "--disable-Werror" and some projects may not offer a flag to modify builds in this manner. Take a look through the project's 'configure.ac' file and './configure --help' output to see if such flags are offered. – Kris Bahnsen May 05 '22 at 21:13

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 20 '19 at 13:58

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My sed way, after Makefile created

find . -name Makefile -exec sed -i s'/-Werror//g' {} \;

In Mac replace sed with gsed

answered Nov 20 '19 at 13:58

Ken

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 03 '21 at 19:03

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For autotools based project you may need to pass:

./autogen.sh --disable-Werror

Observe the upper-case W in Werror.

answered May 03 '21 at 19:03

lanoxx

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Note for anyone who ended up here that this is highly project dependent. Some projects use "--disable-werror" others use "--disable-Werror" and some projects may not offer a flag to modify builds in this manner. Take a look through the project's 'configure.ac' file and './configure --help' output to see if such flags are offered. – Kris Bahnsen May 05 '22 at 21:13

How do I remove -Werror from autotools-generated makefiles?

3 Answers3