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

[Phil Sutter <phil@nwl.cc>]

On Thu, Feb 05, 2026 at 02:32:48AM +0100, Pablo Neira Ayuso wrote:
> 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 chronically outdated and linking against them would fail.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?

Please kindly find aforementioned build script attached to this mail.
Then I just call 'make check' in the built nftables source tree.

This patch's logic is: "If a custom PKG_CONFIG_PATH was needed to build
the sources, it is needed for build test suite as well."

> > 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.

Well, 'make distcheck' should not be affected by this patch since it
does not run the test suites (df19bf51d49be ("Makefile: Enable support
for 'make check'")).

But you have a point there, the logic from above applies to the VPATH
build performed by 'make distcheck', too. I'll respin with added chunk:

| --- a/Makefile.am
| +++ b/Makefile.am
| @@ -23,7 +23,8 @@ libnftables_LIBVERSION = 2:0:1
|  ###############################################################################
|  
|  ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4
| -AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS = --enable-distcheck
| +AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS = --enable-distcheck \
| +                              PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$(PKG_CONFIG_PATH)
|  
|  EXTRA_DIST =
|  BUILT_SOURCES =

Thanks, Phil