On this machine: 
NetBSD jezebel.chuck 3.1_STABLE NetBSD 3.1_STABLE (GENERIC) #0:
 	Wed Jan 17 15:08:30 EST 2007

the commands:
cd /usr/src
make release 2>&1 | tee /home/make.out

are failing.  This error is repeatable.

The source was cvs'd on 17 Jan, tag NETBSD_3, i.e. 3.1 STABLE The
machine was converted to NetBSD from OpenBSD using NETBSD_3.0.1
RELEASE from a CD-ROM, and has been kept current with cvs since
then; make build proceeds without problems.

The output of the make is available at 
http://www.bedford.net/users/djv/make.txt     (about 1.4MB)
and compressed as
http://www.bedford.net/users/djv/make.txt.bz2 (about 88KB)

The environment of the make was

_=/usr/bin/env
SSH_CONNECTION=192.168.1.100 21586 192.168.1.4 22
PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/pkg/sbin:/usr/pkg/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/us
r/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin
CVSROOT=anoncvs@anoncvs.us.NetBSD.org:/cvsroot
SHELL=/bin/ksh
BLOCKSIZE=1k
USER=root
MAIL=/var/mail/root
TMPDIR=/tmp
DISPLAY=pequod:0
HOME=/root
RELEASEDIR=/home/release
SSH_CLIENT=192.168.1.100 21586 22
MKUPDATE=yes
TERM=xterm
HOST=jezebel
DESTDIR=/home/destdir
CVS_RSH=ssh
ENV=/root/.kshrc
SSH_TTY=/dev/ttyp0
TERMCAP=<stuff deleted>
LOGNAME=root


The tail end of the output is this: (the long command lines have been
through fmt).  This is fairly early in the "release" process, after
the "build" of all the kernels, and their compression to RELEASEDIR.

#   compile  obj/ramdiskbin.o
/tooldir.NetBSD-3.1_STABLE-i386/bin/i386--netbsdelf-gcc -Os -pipe
-Werror    -nostdinc -isystem /home/destdir/usr/include  -c ramdiskbin.c
#      link  obj/ramdiskbin
/tooldir.NetBSD-3.1_STABLE-i386/bin/i386--netbsdelf-gcc -Wl,-nostdlib
-static -o ramdiskbin -Wl,-rpath-link,/home/destdir/lib:/home/destdir/usr/lib
-L/home/destdir/lib  -B/home/destdir/usr/lib/ -B/home/destdir/usr/lib/
ramdiskbin.o cat.cro chio.cro chmod.cro cp.cro dd.cro df.cro ed.cro
ln.cro ls.cro mkdir.cro mt.cro mv.cro pax.cro pwd.cro rcmd.cro
rm.cro sh.cro stty.cro sync.cro dhclient.cro disklabel.cro fdisk.cro
fsck.cro fsck_ffs.cro ifconfig.cro init.cro mbrlabel.cro mknod.cro
mount.cro mount_cd9660.cro mount_ext2fs.cro mount_ffs.cro
mount_kernfs.cro mount_msdos.cro mount_nfs.cro mount_ntfs.cro
newfs.cro ping.cro raidctl.cro reboot.cro restore.cro route.cro
scsictl.cro shutdown.cro slattach.cro swapctl.cro sysctl.cro
umount.cro ftp.cro gzip.cro less.cro sed.cro tip.cro installboot.cro
bad144.cro chown.cro chroot.cro wiconfig.cro sysinst.cro progress.cro
ping6.cro rtsol.cro  libhack.o -lbz2 -ledit -lutil -lcurses -ltermcap
-lrmt -lcrypt -ll -lm -lz   -L/home/destdir/usr/lib -L/home/destdir/usr/lib
#     strip  ramdiskbin
[ "/usr/src/distrib/i386/floppies/ramdisk-big/disktab.preinstall
/usr/src/usr.sbin/dhcp/clientscript/dhclient-script ramdiskbin
/usr/src/distrib/i386/floppies/ramdisk-big/../common/dot.profile
/usr/src/distrib/i386/floppies/ramdisk-big/../common/termcap.mini
/home/destdir/usr/mdec/boot /home/destdir/usr/mdec/bootxx_ffsv1
/home/destdir/usr/mdec/mbr /home/destdir/usr/mdec/mbr_ext
/home/destdir/usr/mdec/mbr_bootsel /usr/src/etc/group
/usr/src/etc/master.passwd /usr/src/etc/netconfig /usr/src/etc/protocols
/usr/src/etc/services /usr/src/etc/obj/MAKEDEV work.spec
/usr/src/distrib/common/parselist.awk
/usr/src/distrib/i386/floppies/ramdisk-big/list
/usr/src/distrib/i386/floppies/ramdisk-big/../common/list.ramdisk
/usr/src/distrib/common/list.sysinst /usr/src/distrib/common/list.makedev"
= ramdiskbin -a -f work.built -a work.built -nt ramdiskbin ]  || {
echo '#  ' "  build " ramdisk-big/work;  rm -rf work work.built;
mkdir -m 755 work &&   /tooldir.NetBSD-3.1_STABLE-i386/bin/nbmtree
-def work.spec -p work/ -UW &&  BOOTMODEL=big NETBSDSRCDIR=/usr/src
CRUNCHBIN=ramdiskbin  CURDIR=/usr/src/distrib/i386/floppies/ramdisk-big
DESTDIR=/home/destdir  DISTRIBDIR=/usr/src/distrib  MACHINE=i386
MACHINE_ARCH=i386  MAKE=make
OBJDIR=/usr/src/distrib/i386/floppies/ramdisk-big/obj
MAKEDEVSCRIPT=/usr/src/etc/obj/MAKEDEV
TARGETDIR=/usr/src/distrib/i386/floppies/ramdisk-big/obj/work awk
-f /usr/src/distrib/common/parselist.awk -v mode=populate
/usr/src/distrib/i386/floppies/ramdisk-big/list
/usr/src/distrib/i386/floppies/ramdisk-big/../common/list.ramdisk
/usr/src/distrib/common/list.sysinst /usr/src/distrib/common/list.makedev
/usr/src/distrib/i386/floppies/ramdisk-big/list.inet6 |  sh -e   &&
touch work.built ;  }
#     build  ramdisk-big/work
missing: ./bin (created)
missing: ./dev (created)
missing: ./etc (created)
missing: ./mnt (created)
missing: ./mnt2 (created)
missing: ./kern (created)
missing: ./sbin (created)
missing: ./targetroot (created)
missing: ./tmp (created)
missing: ./usr (created)
missing: ./usr/bin (created)
missing: ./usr/mdec (created)
missing: ./usr/sbin (created)
missing: ./usr/share (created)
missing: ./usr/share/misc (created)
missing: ./var (created)
missing: ./var/db (created)
missing: ./var/run (created)
missing: ./var/log (created)
missing: ./var/spool (created)
missing: ./var/spool/lock (created)
*** Error code 1

Stop.
make: stopped in /usr/src/distrib/i386/floppies/ramdisk-big
*** Error code 1

Stop.
make: stopped in /usr/src/distrib/i386/floppies
*** Error code 1

Stop.
make: stopped in /usr/src/distrib/i386
*** Error code 1

Stop.
make: stopped in /usr/src/distrib
*** Error code 1

Stop.
make: stopped in /usr/src/etc
*** Error code 1

Stop.
make: stopped in /usr/src


No other software was running except for an instance of top(1)
and an interactive ksh.  (i.e. no X or active server-daemons).

  --------------------------------------------------

Dmesg;
http://www.bedford.net/users/djv/dmesg.txt

NetBSD 3.1_STABLE (GENERIC) #0: Wed Jan 17 15:08:30 EST 2007
 	root@jezebel.chuck:/usr/src/sys/arch/i386/compile/GENERIC
total memory = 127 MB
avail memory = 114 MB
BIOS32 rev. 0 found at 0xf0000
mainbus0 (root)
cpu0 at mainbus0: (uniprocessor)
cpu0: Intel Pentium Pro (686-class), 199.46 MHz, id 0x619

<truncated here>

Disk:

[root@jezebel.chuck home]# df
Filesystem  1K-blocks      Used     Avail Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/sd0a      508831     94414    388976    19%    /
/dev/sd0f     3313370   2001212   1146490    63%    /usr
/dev/sd1e     3024382   1834976   1038188    63%    /home
mfs:281         49583         1     47103     0%    /tmp
kernfs              1         1         0   100%    /kern

/home has DESTDIR, RELEASEDIR and /usr/obj via symlink.

There was 512MB of swap available, on two spindles.

[root@jezebel.chuck home]# swapctl -l
Device      1K-blocks     Used    Avail Capacity  Priority
/dev/sd0b      262440     4492   257948     2%    0
/dev/sd1b      262440     4220   258220     2%    0
Total          524880     8712   516168     2%

This error appears to be a fairly common flaw in make(1), or in
whatever make was doing, there are no other error messages.

Is there a work-around or fix?  Or a clue?

Dave