I'm trying to build a fortran project, that depends on other C/C++ and Fortran subprojects using meson and ninja. After installing everything necessary, gfortran, build-essential, meson and ninja, and trying to run:

meson setup build --reconfigure -Db_coverage=true -Dc_args=-Og,-w

I get an error like:

subprojects/**/meson.build:30:9: ERROR: Compiler cc cannot compile programs.

I have checked that compiler cc exists, and is available with cc --version. I don't understand why this error happens. I've simplified the meson error down to running

meson.get_compiler('c')

Which errors out with a

meson.build:14:6: ERROR: Tried to access compiler for language "c", not specified for host machine.

Why does this happen?

I'm trying to build a fortran project, that depends on other C/C++ and Fortran subprojects using meson and ninja. After installing everything necessary, gfortran, build-essential, meson and ninja, and trying to run:

meson setup build --reconfigure -Db_coverage=true -Dc_args=-Og,-w

I get an error like:

subprojects/**/meson.build:30:9: ERROR: Compiler cc cannot compile programs.

I have checked that compiler cc exists, and is available with cc --version. I don't understand why this error happens. I've simplified the meson error down to running

meson.get_compiler('c')

Which errors out with a

meson.build:14:6: ERROR: Tried to access compiler for language "c", not specified for host machine.

Why does this happen?

• c++
• meson-build

Share Improve this question Follow asked Mar 11 at 10:17 tornikeotornikeo 96788 silver badges2121 bronze badges

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1 Answer 1

Sorted by: Reset to default 1

In my case the issue was a wrong build command for meson. I.e:

meson setup build --reconfigure -Db_coverage=true -Dc_args=-Og,-w

Is wrong, and should instead be:

meson setup build --reconfigure -Db_coverage=true -Dc_args='-Og -w'

Adding quotes (') fixes this. Without quotes, meson passes the -w to a default C compiler incorrectly, which causes the compiler to return an exception. Meson then decides that the compiler doesn't work - and announces that the compiler for "c" is not specified for the host machine.

See more about this this meson discussion.