What does this error mean: "error: expected specifier-qualifier-list before 'type_name'"?

Question

I've been working on the Cell processor and I'm trying to create a struct that will hold an spe_context_ptr_t, which will be used within the thread to launch an spe context and will also hold a pointer to something else that will be passed to the spu context from within the thread (currently I'm trying to just make it a generic pointer, but in actuality it will be a pointer to another structure I've defined). When I try and compile, I get the following error:

spu/../common.h:38: error: expected specifier-qualifier-list before 'spe_context_ptr_t'  // here is the offending line(s)  typedef struct _PTHREAD_BLOCK {     spe_context_ptr_t * context; // Error happens here     uintptr32_t  args;   } PTHREAD_BLOCK; 

Answer 1

The compiler doesn't know that spe_context_ptr_t is a type. Check that the appropriate typedef is in scope when this code is compiled. You may have forgotten to include the appropriate header file.