It looks like the files in "src/common/" must be compiled in a specific order because some files depend on others, but the system definition has neither the ":depends-on xyx" nor the ":serial t" indications. It causes the functions defined in "src/common/util.lisp" not being available when compiling "src/common/macro-util.lisp". I'm not sure why it fails with asdf-build-system/sbcl but it succeeds with Quicklisp though; different versions of ASDF maybe, or slightly different initialization of ASDF... By adding the missing ":serial t" I was able to build sbcl-cl-environments: --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- (define-public sbcl-cl-environments ;; TODO: asdf-build-system/sbcl fails here, why? See if it works with the ;; build system revamp once staging is merged after 2020-11-09. (let ((commit "bbcd958a9ff23ce3e6ea5f8ee2edad9634819a3a")) ; No version in 2 years. (package (name "sbcl-cl-environments") (version (git-version "0.2.3" "1" commit)) (source (origin (method git-fetch) (uri (git-reference (url "https://github.com/alex-gutev/cl-environments") (commit commit))) (file-name (git-file-name name version)) (sha256 (base32 "1pfxl3vcdrb4mjy4q4c3c7q95kzv6rfjif3hzd5q91i9z621d64r")))) (build-system asdf-build-system/sbcl) (propagated-inputs `(("alexandria" ,sbcl-alexandria) ("anaphora" ,sbcl-anaphora) ("collectors" ,sbcl-collectors) ("optima" ,sbcl-optima))) (native-inputs `(("prove" ,sbcl-prove))) (arguments `(#:phases (modify-phases %standard-phases (add-after 'unpack 'fix-build (lambda _ (substitute* "cl-environments.asd" ((":module \"common\"" all) (string-append all " :serial t"))) #t))))) (home-page "https://github.com/alex-gutev/cl-environments") (synopsis "Implements the Common Lisp standard environment access API") (description "This library provides a uniform API, as specified in Common Lisp the Language 2, for accessing information about variable and function bindings from implementation-defined lexical environment objects. All major Common Lisp implementations are supported, even those which don't support the CLTL2 environment access API.") (license license:expat)))) --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---