Initially, I thought that was the case as well. However, I saved some output from installation;
===============================================================================
             Configuring PETSc to compile on your system
===============================================================================
TESTING: alternateConfigureLibrary from PETSc.packages.petsc4py(config/PETSc/packages/petsc4py.py:64)                                                                                                Compilers:
C Compiler:         mpicc -Wall -Wwrite-strings -Wno-strict-aliasing -g3
Fortran Compiler:   mpif90 -g
Linkers:
Static linker:   /usr/bin/ar cr
Dynamic linker:   mpicc -shared -Wall -Wwrite-strings -Wno-strict-aliasing -g3
MPI:
Includes: -I/home/walker/MPI/mpich2-1.0.8-install/include
X11:
Includes:
Library: -lX11
BLAS/LAPACK: -llapack -lblas
PETSc:
PETSC_ARCH: linux-gnu-c-debug
PETSC_DIR: /home/walker/Desktop/PETSc/LITE/petsc-3.1-p4
Clanguage: C
shared libraries: disabled
dynamic libraries: disabled
Scalar type: real
Precision: double
Memory alignment: 16
xxx=========================================================================xxx
   Configure stage complete. Now build PETSc libraries with:
   make PETSC_DIR=/home/walker/Desktop/PETSc/LITE/petsc-3.1-p4 PETSC_ARCH=linux-gnu-c-debug all
xxx=========================================================================xxx

Is this the same information that would be contained in the log file for the configuration?

On Fri, Nov 12, 2010 at 10:07 AM, Barry Smith <bsmith@mcs.anl.gov> wrote:

You have not set your PETSC_ARCH and PETSC_DIR

On Nov 12, 2010, at 9:43 AM, Nunion wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I recently started receiving the following error when trying to compile anything...
>
> makefile:16: /conf/variables: No such file or directory
> makefile:17: /conf/rules: No such file or directory
> makefile:858: /conf/test: No such file or directory
> make: *** No rule to make target `/conf/test'. Stop.
>
> The errors seem to be related to one another. I tried to hardcode this path, but the makefile is not picking up the path. I can't recall changing anything major
>
>
> Thanks!
>
> Mark