Puzzling error messages from 'make'

[YONETANI Tomokazu]

By the way, I found the following error message in the build log:
  make[3]: Entering directory `/var/obj/pkg.150001/www/firefox/work/mozilla/security/coreconf'
  syntax error at -e line 3, near "while"
  syntax error at -e line 7, near "}"
  Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors.

This appears like syntax errors in a perl script given on the command line
(perl -e 'bluh bluh'), but the build proceeds anyway.