I've just experienced the following total bizarreness doing a "make build"
on the VAX platform.  The error isn't reproducible, and I recovered by 
removing randtable.so (as a precaution) and then having the "make build"
continue again by commenting out everything in the Makefile up to and
including "includes."  Everything is going fine again.

Below, you'll see an excerpt from a "make build" log.  This build
was a vanilla one, including all clean and include targets (e.g. no 
UPDATE or other specifications).

The tail end of the 'includes' target begins the excerpt, followed
by the lib/csu target.  The problem occured in the libbz2.  After
a number of object compiles (with some terribly unaesthetic warnings)
make(1) finally bails on a VERY bizarre attempt to execute some
random-character command through the shell.

My main concern is why this happened in the first place.  Any ideas?
Sunspots?  karma?  ;)

includes ===> regress/sys/uvm/mmap
includes ===> regress/usr.bin
includes ===> regress/usr.bin/m4
(cd /usr/src/lib/csu &&  make  dependall MKMAN=no &&  make MKMAN=no install)
dependall ===> vax
mkdep -a  -DLIBC_SCCS -I/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/csu/vax/../common_aout
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/csu/vax/crt0.c
cc -O2  -Werror   -DLIBC_SCCS -I/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/csu/vax/../common_aout -c
-DCRT0 -DDYNAMIC /abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/csu/vax/crt0.c -o crt0.o
cc -O2  -Werror   -DLIBC_SCCS -I/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/csu/vax/../common_aout -c
-DMCRT0 /abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/csu/vax/crt0.c -o gcrt0.o
cc -O2  -Werror   -DLIBC_SCCS -I/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/csu/vax/../common_aout -c
-DSCRT0 /abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/csu/vax/crt0.c -o scrt0.o
dependall ===> c++
cc -O2 -fpic -Werror   -DLIBC_SCCS -c /abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/csu/c++/c++rt0.c
install ===> vax
install -r  -c   -o root -g wheel -m 444  crt0.o /usr/lib/crt0.o
install -r  -c   -o root -g wheel -m 444  gcrt0.o /usr/lib/gcrt0.o
install -r  -c   -o root -g wheel -m 444  scrt0.o /usr/lib/scrt0.o
install ===> c++
install -r  -c   -o root -g wheel -m 444  c++rt0.o /usr/lib/c++rt0.o
(cd /usr/src/lib &&  make  dependall MKMAN=no &&  make MKMAN=no install)
dependall ===> csu
dependall ===> csu/vax
dependall ===> csu/c++
dependall ===> libarch
dependall ===> libbz2
mkdep -a /abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/blocksort.c
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/huffman.c
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/crctable.c
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/randtable.c
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/compress.c
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/decompress.c
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/bzlib.c
lint -chapbxzF  -i /abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/blocksort.c
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/blocksort.c(200): warning: constant in conditional
context
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/blocksort.c(207): warning: conversion to 'unsigned int'
due to prototype, arg #3

[... bunches more conversion and "constant in conditional warnings ...]

cc -O2  -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Werror   -c
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/blocksort.c
cc -O2  -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Werror   -c -pg
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/blocksort.c -o blocksort.po
cc -O2  -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Werror   -c -fpic -DPIC
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/blocksort.c -o blocksort.so
lint -chapbxzF  -i /abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/bzlib.c

[... oodles more warnings ...]

cc -O2  -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Werror   -c
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/bzlib.c
cc -O2  -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Werror   -c -pg
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/bzlib.c -o bzlib.po
cc -O2  -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Werror   -c -fpic -DPIC
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/bzlib.c -o bzlib.so
lint -chapbxzF  -i /abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/compress.c
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/compress.c(83): warning: pointer casts may be
troublesome
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/compress.c(108): warning: pointer casts may be
troublesome
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/compress.c(118): warning: conversion to 'unsigned int'
due to prototype, arg #3

[... plethora of warnings here ...]

cc -O2  -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Werror   -c
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/compress.c
cc -O2  -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Werror   -c -pg
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/compress.c -o compress.po
cc -O2  -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Werror   -c -fpic -DPIC
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/compress.c -o compress.so
lint -chapbxzF  -i /abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/crctable.c
cc -O2  -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Werror   -c
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/crctable.c
cc -O2  -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Werror   -c -pg
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/crctable.c -o crctable.po
cc -O2  -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Werror   -c -fpic -DPIC
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/crctable.c -o crctable.so
lint -chapbxzF  -i /abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/decompress.c
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/decompress.c(228): warning: constant in conditional
context
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/decompress.c(231): warning: fallthrough on case
statement

[ ... a WHOLE LOTTA these warnings here ...]

cc -O2  -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Werror   -c
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/decompress.c
cc -O2  -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Werror   -c -pg
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/decompress.c -o decompress.po
cc -O2  -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Werror   -c -fpic -DPIC
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/decompress.c -o decompress.so
lint -chapbxzF  -i /abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/huffman.c
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/huffman.c(123): warning: constant in conditional context
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/huffman.c(136): warning: bitwise operation on signed
value possibly nonportable
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/huffman.c(136): warning: bitwise operation on signed
value possibly nonportable
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/huffman.c(136): warning: bitwise operation on signed
value possibly nonportable
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/huffman.c(142): warning: constant in conditional context
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/huffman.c(143): warning: constant in conditional context
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/huffman.c(150): warning: bitwise operation on signed
value possibly nonportable
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/huffman.c(150): warning: bitwise operation on signed
value possibly nonportable
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/huffman.c(150): warning: bitwise operation on signed
value possibly nonportable
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/huffman.c(167): warning: bitwise operation on signed
value possibly nonportable
cc -O2  -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Werror   -c
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/huffman.c
cc -O2  -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Werror   -c -pg
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/huffman.c -o huffman.po
cc -O2  -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Werror   -c -fpic -DPIC
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/huffman.c -o huffman.so
lint -chapbxzF  -i /abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/randtable.c
cc -O2  -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Werror   -c
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/randtable.c
cc -O2  -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Werror   -c -pg
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/randtable.c -o randtable.po
cc -O2  -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Werror   -c -fpic -DPIC
/abyss/ftp/pub/operatingsystems/NetBSD/newsrc/src/lib/libbz2/randtable.c -o randtable.so
ÐU­ì×Uiqb1É
ÐU­ì×Uiqb1É: not found
*** Error code 1

(Note the hi-bit characters in whatever command name make(1) conjured up there.
Those are indeed hex-representation characters).

Like I mentioned, this has been recovered from, and the simple fact that it happened
in the first place prompted this query.

Cheers,
-skots
--
Scott G. Akmentins-Taylor     InterNet: staylor@mrynet.com
MRY Systems			        staylor@mrynet.lv
    (Skots Gregorijs Akmentins-Teilors -- just call me "Skots")
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