If Makefile cannot find any of the vmlinux's in its VMLINUX_BTF_PATHS list, it tries to run btftool incorrectly, with VMLINUX_BTF unset: bpftool btf dump file $(VMLINUX_BTF) format c Such that the keyword 'format' is misinterpreted as the path to vmlinux. The resulting build error message is fairly cryptic: GEN vmlinux.h Error: failed to load BTF from format: No such file or directory This patch makes the failure reason clearer by yielding this instead: Makefile:...: *** cannot find a vmlinux for VMLINUX_BTF at any of "{paths}". Stop. Fixes: acbd06206bbb ("selftests/bpf: Add vmlinux.h selftest exercising tracing of syscalls") Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx # 5.7+ Signed-off-by: Kamal Mostafa <kamal@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- [v2] moves the check to right after the VMLINUX_BTF definition. tools/testing/selftests/bpf/Makefile | 3 +++ 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+) diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/Makefile b/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/Makefile index 542768f5195b..7ba631f495f7 100644 --- a/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/Makefile +++ b/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/Makefile @@ -146,6 +146,9 @@ VMLINUX_BTF_PATHS ?= $(if $(O),$(O)/vmlinux) \ /sys/kernel/btf/vmlinux \ /boot/vmlinux-$(shell uname -r) VMLINUX_BTF ?= $(abspath $(firstword $(wildcard $(VMLINUX_BTF_PATHS)))) +ifeq ($(VMLINUX_BTF),) +$(error cannot find a vmlinux for VMLINUX_BTF at any of "$(VMLINUX_BTF_PATHS)") +endif DEFAULT_BPFTOOL := $(SCRATCH_DIR)/sbin/bpftool -- 2.17.1