Re: [nft PATCH] Makefile: Set PKG_CONFIG_PATH env for 'make check'

[Pablo Neira Ayuso <pablo@netfilter.org>]

On Tue, Jan 27, 2026 at 11:15:58PM +0100, Phil Sutter wrote:
> When building nftables git HEAD, I use a script which also builds libmnl
> and libnftnl in their respective repositories and populates
> PKG_CONFIG_PATH variable so nftables is linked against them instead of
> host libraries. This is mandatory as host-installed libraries are
> chronically outdated and linking against them would fail.

How do you use this?

> Same situation exists with build test suite. Luckily the PKG_CONFIG_PATH
> variable value used to build the project is cached in Makefiles and
> Automake supports populating test runners' environment.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Phil Sutter <phil@nwl.cc>
> ---
> Pablo: Could you please confirm this does not break your workflow? I
> recall you relied upon build test suite while it never passed for me due
> to the reasons described above.

Just run `make distcheck' or tests/build/ to check, I think that
should be enough.

> ---
>  Makefile.am | 1 +
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
> 
> diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
> index b134330d5ca22..18af82a927dc0 100644
> --- a/Makefile.am
> +++ b/Makefile.am
> @@ -450,6 +450,7 @@ tools/nftables.service: tools/nftables.service.in ${top_builddir}/config.status
>  endif
>  
>  if !BUILD_DISTCHECK
> +AM_TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$(PKG_CONFIG_PATH)
>  TESTS = tests/build/run-tests.sh \
>  	tests/json_echo/run-test.py \
>  	tests/monitor/run-tests.sh \
> -- 
> 2.51.0
>