Problem compiling nftables

Problem compiling nftables

[Frank A. Cancio Bello]

Hi,

I trying to install nftables from source ask part of my Outreachy application tasks. I already installed libmnl and libnftnl successfully.

The problem comes after the 'make' command while trying to compile nftables. I'm running Ubuntu 16.04 and following the steps described here: https://wiki.nftables.org/wiki-nftables/index.php/Building_and_installing_nftables_from_sources

I removed the last commit of the nftables master branch: 8dee5e43ad4beb2b0a95e0bbf2b3972630c1b327 'netlink: Use nftnl_expr_fprintf() in netlink_dump_expr()', to avoid a compilation error because a dependency with a libnftnl's patch still pending to apply. But the following error is beyond my skills right now and maybe is just a detail that I'm missing and somebody can help me.

Thanks in advance
frank

Here is the relevant make output:

...
make[3]: Leaving directory '/home/vagrant/git/pablo/nftables/nftables/include/linux'
make[3]: Entering directory '/home/vagrant/git/pablo/nftables/nftables/include'
make[3]: Nothing to be done for 'all-am'.
make[3]: Leaving directory '/home/vagrant/git/pablo/nftables/nftables/include'
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/vagrant/git/pablo/nftables/nftables/include'
Making all in doc
make[2]: Entering directory '/home/vagrant/git/pablo/nftables/nftables/doc'
  GEN      nft.8
Usage: jw [<options>] <sgml_file>
where <options> are:
  -f|--frontend <frontend>: 	 Specify the frontend (source format)
  				 (default is docbook)
  -b|--backend <backend>: 	 Specify the backend (destination format)
  				 (default is html)
  -c|--cat <file>: 		 Specify an extra SGML open catalog
  -n|--nostd: 			 Do not use the standard SGML open catalogs
  -d|--dsl <file>|default|none:	 Specify an alternate style sheet
  				 (default is to use the default stylesheet)
  -l|--dcl <file>: 		 Specify an alternate SGML declaration
  				 (usual ones like xml.dcl get detected automatically)
  -s|--sgmlbase <path>: 	 Change base directory for SGML distribution
  				 (usually /usr/share/sgml)
  -p|--parser <program>: 	 Specify the parser if several are installed
  				  (jade or openjade)
  -o|--output <directory>: 	 Set output directory
  -u|--nochunks: 		 Output only one big file
  				 (overrides the stylesheet settings)
  -i|--include <section>: 	 Specify a SGML marked section to include
  				 (should be marked as "ignore" in the SGML text)
  -w|--warning <warning_type>|list: Control warnings or display the allowed warning types
  -e|--errors <error_type>|list: Control errors or display the allowed error types
  -h|--help: 			 Print this help message and exit
  -V <variable[=value]>: 	 Set a variable
  -v|--version: 		 Print the version and exit
Makefile:539: recipe for target 'nft.8' failed
make[2]: *** [nft.8] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/vagrant/git/pablo/nftables/nftables/doc'
Makefile:397: recipe for target 'all-recursive' failed
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/vagrant/git/pablo/nftables/nftables'
Makefile:338: recipe for target 'all' failed
make: *** [all] Error 2

Re: Problem compiling nftables

[Duncan Roe]

Hi Frank,

The libnftnl patch was comitted 2 minutes before you posted :/

It all builds fine for me now.

Your problem is with generating the man page rather than with compiling the
code. There is a separate Makefile in nftables/doc which you can run on its
own to do this.

When I run "make V=1" in nftables/doc I see the single command
> docbook2x-man --xinclude nft.xml
which gnerates nft.8 for me when I run it. Do you have that utility?

docbook2x-man and jw both come from package linuxdoc-tools (on Slackware, at
least). If you end up installing docbook2x-man, you should likely re-run
./configure before re-trying make.

Cheers ... Duncan.

On Tue, Oct 17, 2017 at 01:19:28PM -0400, Frank A. Cancio Bello wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I trying to install nftables from source ask part of my Outreachy
> application tasks. I already installed libmnl and libnftnl successfully.
>
> The problem comes after the 'make' command while trying to compile nftables.
> I'm running Ubuntu 16.04 and following the steps described here:
> https://wiki.nftables.org/wiki-nftables/index.php/Building_and_installing_nftables_from_sources
>
> I removed the last commit of the nftables master branch:
> 8dee5e43ad4beb2b0a95e0bbf2b3972630c1b327 'netlink: Use nftnl_expr_fprintf()
> in netlink_dump_expr()', to avoid a compilation error because a dependency
> with a libnftnl's patch still pending to apply. But the following error is
> beyond my skills right now and maybe is just a detail that I'm missing and
> somebody can help me.
>
> Thanks in advance
> frank
>
> Here is the relevant make output:
>
> ...
> make[3]: Leaving directory '/home/vagrant/git/pablo/nftables/nftables/include/linux'
> make[3]: Entering directory '/home/vagrant/git/pablo/nftables/nftables/include'
> make[3]: Nothing to be done for 'all-am'.
> make[3]: Leaving directory '/home/vagrant/git/pablo/nftables/nftables/include'
> make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/vagrant/git/pablo/nftables/nftables/include'
> Making all in doc
> make[2]: Entering directory '/home/vagrant/git/pablo/nftables/nftables/doc'
>   GEN      nft.8
> Usage: jw [<options>] <sgml_file>
> where <options> are:
[SNIP]

Re: Problem compiling nftables

[Frank A. Cancio Bello]

On Wed, Oct 18, 2017 at 10:38:02AM +1100, Duncan Roe wrote:
> Hi Frank,
> 
> The libnftnl patch was comitted 2 minutes before you posted :/
> 
> It all builds fine for me now.
> 
> Your problem is with generating the man page rather than with compiling the
> code. There is a separate Makefile in nftables/doc which you can run on its
> own to do this.
> 

Worked like a charm!

> When I run "make V=1" in nftables/doc I see the single command
> > docbook2x-man --xinclude nft.xml
> which gnerates nft.8 for me when I run it. Do you have that utility?
> 
> docbook2x-man and jw both come from package linuxdoc-tools (on Slackware, at
> least). If you end up installing docbook2x-man, you should likely re-run
> ./configure before re-trying make.
>

After execute 'sudo apt install docbook2x' on my Ubuntu box the problem went away.

Thanks a lot for your quick response Duncan!
frank