I received this same error from most of the other .c files used for ps :)
Simply commenting out the line, which looked something like:

__RCSID("$NetBSD: print.c,v 1.34 1997/08/03 01:57:04 mikel Exp $");


Fixed the problem up in keyword.c, nlist.c, and print.c

Trying to compile ps.c, and I get two of the same error...different line
numbers this time, though:

[otaku@otaku.users.netset.com]% make
cc -O  -Werror  -c print.c
cc -O  -Werror  -c ps.c
ps.c:38: syntax error before string constant
cc1: warnings being treated as errors
ps.c:38: warning: data definition has no type or storage class
ps.c:46: syntax error before string constant
ps.c:46: warning: data definition has no type or storage class
*** Error code 1

Stop.

Line 38 contained:

__COPYRIGHT("@(#) Copyright (c) 1990, 1993, 1994\n\
        The Regents of the University of California.  All rights
reserved.\n");

Line 46:

__RCSID("$NetBSD: ps.c,v 1.19 1997/07/20 20:37:57 christos Exp $");

Commenting those out worked perfectly, and it compiled.

Of course, it's still broken. Of course it would be. What am I thinking?

It was a plain stupid thing to do :)

So, you really don't need to bother, and can just disregard my previous
message...

Thanks,

Josh

On Mon, 11 Aug 1997, Josh Hope wrote:

> This may be a stupid thing to do, but I downloaded the sources for ps from
> -current sources. I tried compiling it, but I get the following error:
> 
> [otaku@otaku.users.netset.com]% make
> cc -O  -Werror  -c fmt.c
> cc -O  -Werror  -c keyword.c
> keyword.c:41: syntax error before string constant
> cc1: warnings being treated as errors
> keyword.c:41: warning: data definition has no type or storage class
> *** Error code 1
> 
> Stop.
> 
> Now, I know I could use procps (I have that installed, in fact)...but I'd
> rather use the traditional kernel ps...
> 
> Also, I ended up having to go through the kernel source on ftp.netbsd.org
> to find a certain /usr/include/machine/intr.h file...
> 
> Any help that anyone can render would be much appreciated...
> 
> Josh
> 
>