make calling script calling make results in read jobs pipe: Bad file descriptor. Stop.

[Martin d'Anjou]

Hi,

Someone told me that this error is caused by Make using "file descriptor 3"
a second time, and they are blaming Make:

make[2]: *** read jobs pipe: Bad file descriptor.  Stop.
make[2]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
make[1]: *** [Makefile:108: ...] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '...'
Make exited with status 2

I am not ready to accept their assessment without further understanding.

The process tree is like this:
gnumake(1) -> cmdA(2) -> cmdB(3) -> cmdC(4)-> ... -> gnumake(7)

The first make is called with the -j option. The intermediate commands are
not controlled by me, they are proprietary vendor code that I cannot
access. The last call to make is also hidden from me.

Help me understand what is happening. Is it a limitation/bug of GNU Make,
an unsupportable use case, what is happening? Any suggestions on how to fix
this?

Martin