Some customers have experienced a build error while building their applications after upgrading to ACE 5.6. This article explains the issue, its origin, and how to resolve the problem. It applies to builds using GNU make only. Microsoft Visual Studio users are not affected by this issue.

When upgrading ACE to version 5.6, you may encounter this error while building your applications:
make: *** No rule to make target `__prebuild__', needed by `all'. Stop.

The issue was introduced as a side-affect of properly supporting the MPC prebuild keyword for GNU make-type targets. The error occurs for Makefiles that make use of ACE's make scheme in ACE_wrappers/include/makeinclude but that are not generated from MPC projects.

There are three ways to resolve this problem if you encounter it:

1. If you use MPC to generate your makefiles, regenerate them with the MPC that's in ACE 5.6. This will add the __prebuild__ target.
2. Add a no-op __prebuild__ target to your makefiles (or some common file they include).
3. In the rules.common.GNU file, add a line before the "all" target that says only .PHONY: __prebuild__

The problem is resolved within ACE in beta kits ACE 5.6.2 and later and is also included in Riverace's first ACE 5.6-based Fix Kit. If you are a support customer, you can also contact Riverace for an update.

We recently introduced the first of our new self-paced ACE training modules, How to Use the ACE Socket Wrappers. The self-paced training modules allow you to view and hear prepared ACE training topics right at your computer, any time of the day or night, at your convenience.

Self-paced training modules are viewed as Adobe Flash files, so you must have the free Adobe Flash Player installed so your browser can run it when viewing the training modules.

It's easy to take advantage of this new training option. Simply surf over to Riverace's web site and purchase the ACE training module. You'll receive an emailed receipt after your purchase is complete that has a "download" link for you to click on. (It's a slight misnomer since you don't actually download the training all at once - it's streamed to your computer.) When you click the "download" link, you'll need to enter the username and password you used when purchasing the training module and then just sit back, relax, and learn! You can view the training module as many times as you like for 10 days after your purchase.

The self-paced training module includes an optional programming exercise at the end, allowing you to write a small program or two with your new ACE programming knowledge. If you have any questions while working on the exercise, you can send email to me and I'll help clarify anything you need.

Under Riverace's standard ACE support service, the supported ACE versions are the current and previous versions. Therefore, now that ACE 5.6 is available, the supported versions are now ACE 5.5 and 5.6. ACE 5.4 is no longer be supported under standard support terms.

End of ACE 5.4 support also marked the end of support for platforms having a "Last support version" of ACE 5.4 (you can view the complete support matrix at www.riverace.com/support.htm). The following platforms are no longer supported:

• Solaris 8, SPARC, all compilers
• Red Hat Linux 7.x, x86, g++
• Red Hat Linux 8, x86, g++
• Red Hat Linux 9, x86, g++
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1, x86, g++

If you require these platforms to remain supported for later ACE versions, or you require an extension of ACE 5.4 support, please contact me to discuss extended service options for your environment.