Re: Building on FreeBSD 14.4

18 May 2026

On 2026-05-18, Aki Tuomi via dovecot <dovecot@dovecot.org> wrote:
...
...
On 18/05/2026 02:59 EEST Frank Volf via dovecot <dovecot@dovecot.org> wrote:
Hi,
I'm trying to build dovecot-2.4.4 on FreeBSD 14.4 and I get a strange 
error message.
What I did is download and extract dovecot-2.4.4.tar.gz and then run 
./configure without any arguments.
After typing make the build started without any problems until this point:
....
    Making all in auth
       CC       test_auth_cache-auth-cache.o
       CC       test_auth_cache-test-auth-cache.o
       CC       auth-main.o
       CC       auth-auth.o
       CC       auth-auth-cache.o
       CC       auth-auth-client-connection.o
       CC       auth-auth-master-connection.o
       CC       auth-auth-policy.o
       CC       auth-auth-penalty.o
       CC       auth-auth-request.o
       CC       auth-auth-request-fields.o
       CC       auth-auth-request-handler.o
       CC       auth-auth-request-var-expand.o
       CC       auth-auth-sasl-mech-apop.o
       CC       auth-auth-sasl-mech-dovecot-token.o
       CC       auth-auth-sasl-mech-oauth2.o
       CC       auth-auth-sasl.o
       CC       auth-auth-settings.o
       CC       auth-auth-fields.o
       CC       auth-auth-token.o
       CC       auth-auth-worker-connection.o
       CC       auth-auth-worker-server.o
       CC       auth-db-oauth2.o
       CC       auth-db-sql.o
       CC       auth-db-passwd-file.o
       CC       auth-passdb.o
       CC       auth-passdb-blocking.o
       CC       auth-passdb-bsdauth.o
       CC       auth-passdb-cache.o
       CC       auth-passdb-oauth2.o
       CC       auth-passdb-passwd.o
       CC       auth-passdb-passwd-file.o
       CC       auth-passdb-pam.o
       CC       auth-passdb-sql.o
       CC       auth-passdb-static.o
       CC       auth-userdb.o
       CC       auth-userdb-blocking.o
       CC       auth-userdb-passwd.o
       CC       auth-userdb-passwd-file.o
       CC       auth-userdb-prefetch.o
       CC       auth-userdb-static.o
       CC       auth-userdb-sql.o
       CC       auth-db-ldap.o
       CC       auth-db-ldap-sasl.o
       CC       auth-db-ldap-settings.o
       CC       auth-passdb-ldap.o
       CC       auth-userdb-ldap.o
       CC       auth-db-lua.o
       CC       auth-passdb-lua.o
       CC       auth-userdb-lua.o
    make[3]: don't know how to make -L/usr/local/lib. Stop
make[3]: stopped making "all" in /home/volf/dovecot-2.4.4/src/auth
    *** Error code 1
So, apparently make is confused and thinks that the compiler/linker 
commandline option is an item to build.
I'm at loss how to solve this.
I would appreciate it, if somebody could give me a hint how to solve this.
Kind regards,
Frank
Hi,
I'm trying to build dovecot-2.4.4 on FreeBSD 14.4 and I get a strange
   error message.
What I did is download and extract dovecot-2.4.4.tar.gz and then run
   ./configure without any arguments.
   After typing make the build started without any problems until this point:
....
     Making all in auth
       CC       test_auth_cache-auth-cache.o
       CC       test_auth_cache-test-auth-cache.o
       CC       auth-main.o
       CC       auth-auth.o
       CC       auth-auth-cache.o
       CC       auth-auth-client-connection.o
       CC       auth-auth-master-connection.o
       CC       auth-auth-policy.o
       CC       auth-auth-penalty.o
       CC       auth-auth-request.o
       CC       auth-auth-request-fields.o
       CC       auth-auth-request-handler.o
       CC       auth-auth-request-var-expand.o
       CC       auth-auth-sasl-mech-apop.o
       CC       auth-auth-sasl-mech-dovecot-token.o
       CC       auth-auth-sasl-mech-oauth2.o
       CC       auth-auth-sasl.o
       CC       auth-auth-settings.o
       CC       auth-auth-fields.o
       CC       auth-auth-token.o
       CC       auth-auth-worker-connection.o
       CC       auth-auth-worker-server.o
       CC       auth-db-oauth2.o
       CC       auth-db-sql.o
       CC       auth-db-passwd-file.o
       CC       auth-passdb.o
       CC       auth-passdb-blocking.o
       CC       auth-passdb-bsdauth.o
       CC       auth-passdb-cache.o
       CC       auth-passdb-oauth2.o
       CC       auth-passdb-passwd.o
       CC       auth-passdb-passwd-file.o
       CC       auth-passdb-pam.o
       CC       auth-passdb-sql.o
       CC       auth-passdb-static.o
       CC       auth-userdb.o
       CC       auth-userdb-blocking.o
       CC       auth-userdb-passwd.o
       CC       auth-userdb-passwd-file.o
       CC       auth-userdb-prefetch.o
       CC       auth-userdb-static.o
       CC       auth-userdb-sql.o
       CC       auth-db-ldap.o
       CC       auth-db-ldap-sasl.o
       CC       auth-db-ldap-settings.o
       CC       auth-passdb-ldap.o
       CC       auth-userdb-ldap.o
       CC       auth-db-lua.o
       CC       auth-passdb-lua.o
       CC       auth-userdb-lua.o
     make[3]: don't know how to make -L/usr/local/lib. Stop
make[3]: stopped making "all" in /home/volf/dovecot-2.4.4/src/auth
     *** Error code 1
So, apparently make is confused and thinks that the compiler/linker
   commandline option is an item to build.
   I'm at loss how to solve this.
I would appreciate it, if somebody could give me a hint how to solve this.
Kind regards,
Frank
Can you run `make V=1` please? Shows what's going on.
it doesn't really help, because this is make trying to build
"-L/usr/local/lib" rather than an error coming from a program
started by make.

With make --debug=basic:

Making all in auth
GNU Make 4.4.1
Built for x86_64-unknown-openbsd7.9
Copyright (C) 1988-2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
Reading makefiles...
Updating makefiles....
Updating goal targets....
 File 'all' does not exist.
  File 'all-am' does not exist.
   File 'test-auth-cache' does not exist.
    File 'auth' does not exist.
     File '-L/usr/local/lib' does not exist.
    Must remake target '-L/usr/local/lib'.
gmake[3]: Entering directory '/usr/obj/ports/dovecot-2.4.4/build-amd64/src/auth'
gmake[3]: *** No rule to make target '-L/usr/local/lib', needed by 'auth'.  Stop.
gmake[3]: Leaving directory '/usr/obj/ports/dovecot-2.4.4/build-amd64/src/auth'
gmake[2]: *** [Makefile:610: all-recursive] Error 1
gmake[2]: Leaving directory '/usr/obj/ports/dovecot-2.4.4/build-amd64/src'
gmake[1]: *** [Makefile:740: all-recursive] Error 1
gmake[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/obj/ports/dovecot-2.4.4/build-amd64'
gmake: *** [Makefile:582: all] Error 2

This is because, in this:

auth_libs = ../lib-auth/libauth-crypt.la $(AUTH_LUA_LIBS) \
	$(LIBDOVECOT_SQL) $(am__append_4) $(am__append_7) \
	$(am__append_8)

am__append_8 includes -L/usr/local/lib as well as library names.

It does build if I do this (and libexec/dovecot/auth is still linked
to the libraries needed for lua)..

Index: src/auth/Makefile.am

--- src/auth/Makefile.am.orig
+++ src/auth/Makefile.am
@@ -200,7 +200,7 @@ endif
 endif
 
 if HAVE_LUA
-auth_libs += $(LIBDOVECOT_LUA) $(LUA_LIBS)
+auth_libs += $(LIBDOVECOT_LUA)
 endif
 
 if AUTH_LUA_PLUGIN

    

Re: Building on FreeBSD 14.4

Stuart Henderson