Very strange problem with make: make can't figure out working directory

[Paul Philion]

Greetings...

For some reason, make stopped working recently. Something on my system has
changed, but make seems to be the only place that change manifests.

When trying to build projects (php in this example), using the standard
./configure and then make, I all of a sudden get a strange error:

% make
Making all in Zend
/bin/sh: cd: Zend: No such file or directory
make: *** [all-recursive] Error 1

When I look in the Makefile, I find:

SUBDIRS = Zend main ext sapi $(TSRM_DIR) $(REGEX_DIR) . $(PEAR_DIR)

If I change that, by hand, to:

SUBDIRS = ./Zend ./main ./ext ./sapi $(TSRM_DIR) $(REGEX_DIR) . $(PEAR_DIR)

It works, until it gets to another Makefile in a subdir with the same
problem.

I've never had this problem before a couple of day ago, and I can't imagine
what is causing it. I don't think it is a problem with make at all, but make
is the only place I see a problem. I think it is some sort of environment
this, but I don't know what the environment should be like, so I don't know
what I'm missing.

Does anyone have any tips on how I can start tracking this down?

Thanks,

Paul Philion
address@hidden