"fatal error U1087: cannot have : and :: dependents for same target"

Question

Using the Microsoft Driver Development Kit (DDK), this error plagued me as I attempted even to build the default drivers included with the DDK.

I had a some difficulty in tracking down the cause and solution through Google. In an effort to aid others who may experience this same problem, I am documenting it here.

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Error: "fatal error U1087: cannot have : and :: dependents for same target"

Solution: Make sure that the directory you are building in contains no spaces.

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There may be other causes and solutions to this error, so please post below if you have others. This is the solution that worked immediately for me.

Answer 1

Tthe solution to this problem is to ensure that there are no spaces in the build directory.

Answer 2

Driver source code directory should have no white spaces.

Answer 3

This can also occur if the build state becomes excessively out-of-date, in which case it is fixed by a clean (-c).

Answer 4

It's not just the build directory itself, e.g 'My Project'. I had the problem when the build directory was placed in the 'My Documents' directory.

Using the short version of the path works fine, no need to move your files.

This fails:

cd "D:\My Documents\My Projects\Project 1"
build

This works:

cd D:\MyDocu~1\MyProj~1\Projec~1
build