loves me some obscure error message

Ok, I've got this code (not exactly as seen here, it's much long and obviously uses real variable names etc. but I just provided the bare minimum so you can see what's going on):

void myfunc(const char *sarg)
{
        char *temp;

        temp = strtok(sarg, ".");

        /* etc.  doesn't matter what I have beyond this code */
}

I get this message:
[Warning] passing arg 1 of `strtok' discards qualifiers from pointer target type

What the hell does that mean?  I'm not too worried about it because it works fine if I just typecast sarg with (char*), but I'd like to know wtf this actually means instead of just assuming that everything will be ok as long as I typecast, since that could potentially lead to some unsafe behaviour that I can't foresee.

gcc is seriously pissing me off.  It fucking always chokes on structs that use their own type in the structure (ie. a linked list).

Right now I've got a global at the top of this source file that is a pointer to this type of struct, and somewhere in a function I declare another pointer to this struct but this time it decides that _{mystruct_t} is UNDECLARED LOLOLOLOL.  How the fuck did it _{accept the previous global declaration} and then decide that this time the storage type was never declared?  NOBODY KNOWS!  Spooky Halloween mystery!

I have tried EVERY FUCKING COMBINATION THAT IS FUCKING IMAGINABLE of the following:

typedef struct name_t { name_t *nextName; };
typedef struct { name_t *nextName; } name_t;
struct name_t { name_t *nextName; };
struct { name_t *nextName; } name_t;
typedef struct name_t { struct name_t *nextName; };
typedef struct { struct name_t *nextName; } name_t;
struct name_t { struct name_t *nextName; };
struct { struct name_t *nextName; } name_t;

and probably some more before I ripped my scalp off.
And I try declaring with either

name_t *llNames;
struct name_t *llNames;


Still, it always gives me either:

fuck.h [Warning] useless keyword or type name in empty declaration <-- line number is last line of struct declaration, ie. "};"
or
fuck.h [Warning] no semicolon at end of struct or union <-- line number is the struct-ptr member
fuck.h [Warning] data definition has no type or storage class[/m] <-- line number is once again for "};"

I'm getting fucking tired of this and I might have no choice but to strip this bitch down until I have only the offending code and hope the problem is still reproduceable when I've gotten rid of everything else.  Does anyone have a fucking idea why this thing is being a jewish piece of crap?

>>6
The really fucking weird thing is, this will occasionally compile without a hitch.  But I can touch something -- ANYTHING -- and suddenly it starts giving me that horse-shit again.  It just decides that the combination of crap I've fed it¹ is no longer valid.  So I start diddling with the structs again and when I think it's hopeless, suddenly the stars are just right again and the fucker compiles.

-
1. What I currently have is the following:

typedef struct name_t
{
        struct name_t *nextName;
} name_t;

/* this is what my global looks like */
struct name_t *listNames;

/* this is how the declaration looks inside the function */
void somefunc(void)
{
        name_t *name = malloc(sizeof(name_t));
}

I know that as soon as I touch anything, this crap will start all over again ;_;