Setting OBJECTS_DIR to "obj" causes problems with make(1), as "obj" is one of the directories make tries to enter in case it exists (because of .OBJDIR). Since qmake will create it because of OBJECTS_DIR, make will invoke the compiler from there and fail because it's trying to pass "-o obj/foo.o" while already in obj/. --- Tools/qmake/config.tests/libXcomposite/libXcomposite.pro.orig 2016-09-26 14:56:58 UTC +++ Tools/qmake/config.tests/libXcomposite/libXcomposite.pro @@ -1,3 +1,2 @@ SOURCES = libXcomposite.cpp -OBJECTS_DIR = obj LIBS += -lXcomposite -lX11