From bdb57feb7321db3bdc134f371706429fa32174fa Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Andrew Johnson <anj@aps.anl.gov>
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2017 15:52:07 -0600
Subject: [PATCH] Do build config checks instead of crashing

---
 configure/CONFIG | 14 ++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+)

diff --git a/configure/CONFIG b/configure/CONFIG
index 89a64cbde..774ed251c 100644
--- a/configure/CONFIG
+++ b/configure/CONFIG
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 #
 # Do not make changes to this file!
 
+ifeq ($(strip $(EPICS_HOST_ARCH)),)
+  $(warning EPICS_HOST_ARCH is not set.)
+endif
+
 # Allow user to override where the build rules come from
 RULES = $(EPICS_BASE)
 
@@ -13,6 +17,16 @@ ifdef T_A
 -include $(TOP)/configure/RELEASE.$(EPICS_HOST_ARCH).$(T_A)
 endif
 
+ifeq ($(strip $(RULES)),)
+  ifeq ($(strip $(EPICS_BASE)),)
+    $(warning Build error: EPICS_BASE not set after including RELEASE files.)
+  else
+    $(warning Build error: EPICS_BASE set but RULES variable empty.)
+  endif
+  $(error Makefiles loaded: $(MAKEFILE_LIST))
+  # Die before the include of $(CONFIG)/CONFIG below does
+endif
+
 BUILDING_LIBCOM = DEFINED
 
 CONFIG = $(RULES)/configure