Aha!
A locate asdf.lisp tells me of an asdf.lisp in ~/.local/share/ which according to the comment is version 2.26, which having read the documentation I understand to be quite old!
I also removed the cl-asdf Ubuntu package. One of them was the culprit.
OK, now to figure out how to use asdf and asdf:make-build (I haven't produced a *useful* executable so far). I may be back with more questions...
thanks so much for the quick response!
-querent.
27.02.2020, 23:03, "Daniel Kochmański" daniel@turtleware.eu:
Hey querent,
could it be, that you have two ASDF versions loaded on top of each other? i.e asdf.lisp in your ~/common-lisp/ directory or something in this spirit.
Best regards, Daniel
-- Daniel Kochmański ;; aka jackdaniel | Przemyśl, Poland TurtleWare - Daniel Kochmański | www.turtleware.eu
"Be the change that you wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi