/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -l-L/usr/lib - c++

Question

I'm facing a weird error while trying to compile fbthrift (https://github.com/facebook/fbthrift) on ubuntu 16.04
make[4]: Entering directory '/home/abhishek/fblualib/fbthrift/thrift/compiler/py'
/bin/bash ../../libtool --tag=CXX --mode=link g++ -std=gnu++1y -module -avoid-version -no-undefined -l -L/usr/lib -lpython2.7 -lfolly -L/usr/local/lib -o frontend.la -rpath /usr/local/lib frontend_la-compiler.lo ../libparse.la ../libthriftcompilerbase.la -lssl -lcrypto -lrt -lpthread -lsasl2 -lmstch -lwangle -lsnappy -lgflags -lglog
libtool: link: g++ -fPIC -DPIC -shared -nostdlib /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/5/../../../x86_64-linux-gnu/crti.o /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/5/crtbeginS.o .libs/frontend_la-compiler.o -Wl,--whole-archive ../.libs/libparse.a ../.libs/libthriftcompilerbase.a -Wl,--no-whole-archive -l -L/usr/lib -lpython2.7 /usr/local/lib/libfolly.so -L/usr/local/lib -lssl -lcrypto -lrt -lpthread -lsasl2 -lmstch -lwangle -lsnappy -lgflags -lglog -L/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/5 -L/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/5/../../../x86_64-linux-gnu -L/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/5/../../../../lib -L/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu -L/lib/../lib -L/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu -L/usr/lib/../lib -L/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/5/../../.. -lstdc++ -lm -lc -lgcc_s /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/5/crtendS.o /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/5/../../../x86_64-linux-gnu/crtn.o -Wl,-soname -Wl,frontend.so -o .libs/frontend.so
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -l-L/usr/lib
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
Makefile:500: recipe for target 'frontend.la' failed
make[4]: *** [frontend.la] Error 1
make[4]: Leaving directory '/home/abhishek/fblualib/fbthrift/thrift/compiler/py'
Makefile:882: recipe for target 'all-recursive' failed
make[3]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[3]: Leaving directory '/home/abhishek/fblualib/fbthrift/thrift/compiler'
Makefile:591: recipe for target 'all' failed
make[2]: *** [all] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/abhishek/fblualib/fbthrift/thrift/compiler'
Makefile:498: recipe for target 'all-recursive' failed
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/abhishek/fblualib/fbthrift/thrift'
Makefile:430: recipe for target 'all' failed
make: *** [all] Error 2
Why would it not find /usr/lib ?

Answer 1

The makefile is generating a link command that reads:
... -l -L/usr/lib ...
The link command in the makefile is likely specified as -l$(SOMEVARIABLE), here, and the variable is not set for some reason, so it gets expanded as an empty string.
As such, this gets interpreted as a directive to link with a shared library whose name is "-L/usr/lib" which is, of course, utterly bogus.
Unfortunately, there is no universal magic button that can be pushed, and fix this error. It will be necessary to investigate what broke during this package's configuration and/or build, and fix it.