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Date: Thu, 9 Apr 2009 18:22:35 -0700
From: Joseph Olatt <joji@eskimo.com>
To: Steve Franks <bahamasfranks@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <20090410012235.GA2328@shell.eskimo.com>
References: <539c60b90904091253i398dc4cfvfdb98f3731e6b3c@mail.gmail.com>
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Cc: FreeBSD Mailing List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject: Re: flex from ports kills buildworld?
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On Thu, Apr 09, 2009 at 12:53:09PM -0700, Steve Franks wrote:
> Probably doing something stupid, but on the off chance I'm not:
> 
> - Had to install a newer flex from ports for something.
> - Had to move the system flex to avoid hacking reams of bad makefiles
> - Did a buildworld, and it can't find a flex
> - Seems to me, buildworld should be able to use a newer flex, and
> should be able to use the one from /usr/local instead of /sbin
> 
> Thanks,
> Steve
> 
> [steve@dynstant /usr/src]$ sudo make buildworld
> ...
> flex -ogengtype-lex.c
> /usr/src/gnu/usr.bin/cc/cc_tools/../../../../contrib/gcc/gengtype-lex.l
> flex:No such file or directory
> *** Error code 1
> 
> Stop in /usr/src/gnu/usr.bin/cc/cc_tools.
> *** Error code 1
> 
> Stop in /usr/src.
> *** Error code 1
> 
> Stop in /usr/src.
> *** Error code 1
> 
> Stop in /usr/src.
> [steve@dynstant /usr/src]$ which flex
> /usr/local/bin/flex
> [steve@dynstant /usr/src]$

It appears that your flex in /usr/local/bin is not being found.
It is possible that PATH for the build environment does not 
contain /usr/local/bin probably in order to have a controlled
build environment.

Why don't  you temporarily do:

ln -s /usr/local/bin/flex /usr/bin/flex

and see if that works.