Here's a proper makefile for building elf files for the tests

[pbreuer]

The python pip methods will not work on any linux distro. Makefiles work anywhere. Here is one (BTW there is an align bug in gcc assembler for riscv GNU assembler version 2.43.50 (riscv64-linux-gnu) using BFD version (GNU Binutils for Debian) 2.43.50.20241230 that stops many of your .S files compiling, I have reported it and fixed the .h file macros to work around it: essentially add an ".align 2" before every ".align x" where x>2).

Here is the Makefile, builds in a separate WORKDIR.

# place to build compiled files ref.elf (etc, eventually, when someone tells me what they should be!)
WORKDIR   := /tmp/tests/
             
# SRCDIR = /usr/local/src/cvw-main/tests/, used as anchor in recursion
SRCDIR    := $(CURDIR)
# this Makefile's pathname to tests/Makefile, used as anchor in recursion
MAKEFILE  := $(SRCDIR)/$(lastword $(MAKEFILE_LIST))
             
# subdirectories of source anchor directory for compiling from
SUBDIRS   :=  riscof riscv-arch-test
# calculation of where the source .S is in the source hierarchy during recursion
# (also overwritten by recursive calls but should be right anyway)
SOURCE    := $(SRCDIR)/$(subst x$(strip $(WORKDIR)),,x$(CURDIR))
# defines needed for cpp macro expansion, will be 32 or 64 as rv32 or rv64 part of path
XLEN      := $(if $(findstring rv32,$(SOURCE)),32,64)
FLEN      := $(XLEN)
             
# for cpp, .h files for macro expansions
INCDIRS   := $(SRCDIR)/riscv-arch-test/riscv-test-suite/env/ \
             $(SRCDIR)/riscof/sail_cSim/env
CPP       := cpp
CPPFLAGS  := -DXLEN=$(XLEN) -DFLEN=$(XLEN) $(foreach d,$(INCDIRS),-I $d )
     
# for the linker
EMULATION := elf$(intcmp $(XLEN),32,16,32,64)briscv_$(intcmp $(XLEN),32,ilp16,ilp32,lp64)
LD        := riscv64-linux-gnu-ld
LDFLAGS   := -m $(EMULATION) \
             -T $(SRCDIR)/riscof/sail_cSim/env/link.ld
                               
# for the assembler
ARCH     := rv$(intcmp $(XLEN),32,16gb,32gb,64gbq)_zicbom_zicboz_zfh
ABI      := $(intcmp $(XLEN),32,ilp16,ilp32,lp64)
AS       := riscv64-linux-gnu-as
ASFLAGS  := -mbig-endian -march=$(ARCH) -mabi=$(ABI)
                               
all: tests
         
# Build the elf files (and so on? Eventually!) for testing in WORKDIR:
#  This rule launches this Makefile anew in each leaf subdir of WORKDIR;
#  INCDIRS, SRCDIR, MAKEFILE are preserved all the way down in the recursion;
#  VPATH is not used, SOURCE=SRCDIR/{} explicitly locates assembler .S file;
tests: root 
        cd $(SRCDIR) && find $(SUBDIRS) -name \*.S -type f -exec \
        $(MAKE) -f $(MAKEFILE)            \
             -C $(strip $(WORKDIR))/{}    \
             ref.elf                      \
             MAKEFILE=$(MAKEFILE)         \
             SOURCE=$(SRCDIR)/{}          \
             INCDIRS="$(INCDIRS)"         \
             SRCDIR="$(SRCDIR)"           \
              \;

# Build WORKDIR directory hierarchy, mirroring SRCDIR
root:
        mkdir -p $(WORKDIR)
        cd $(SRCDIR) && find $(SUBDIRS) -name \*.S -exec mkdir -p $(strip $(WORKDIR))/{} \;

ref.elf: ref.o
        $(LD) $(LDFLAGS) -o $@  $<

ref.o : ref.s
        $(AS) $(ASFLAGS) -o $@ $<

ref.s : $(SOURCE)
        $(CPP) $(CPPFLAGS) -o $@ $<

.PRECIOUS: .s .S .elf
.PHONY : tests all clean distclean root

clean:
        find $(WORKDIR) -type f \
                        -name '*.elf' \
                        -exec rm -f {} \; \
                     -o -type f \
                        -name '*.[soS]' \
                        -exec rm -f {} \;

distclean: clean

Please avoid what looks like system-engineer's code construction - open source means openness to everyone ELSE, which means essentially everything visible at top level. Take notice of criticisms and deal with it, do not remove. Talking to people who agree with you puts you in a smaller bubble than you realise.