Does not build from makedeb and makepkg

[gearhead]

Similar to an issue I set with shairport-sync, this will not build as a package with either makedeb (for debian/RPi) nor makepkg (Arch) due to a permissions problem when it tries to create a group for nqptp.

Using either of these methods allows for nice build of installable/up[grade-able packages, FWIW. Under Arch, this patch allows shairport-sync to build.

I will have to craft a similar one for nqptp.

Thought you'd like to know.

This is the error I get:

[#] Starting package()...
make[1]: Entering directory '/Rune_dev/RuneOS/rpios_packages/nqptp/src/nqptp'
make[1]: Nothing to be done for 'install-data-am'.
 /usr/bin/mkdir -p '/Rune_dev/RuneOS/rpios_packages/nqptp/pkg/nqptp-git//usr/bin'
  /usr/bin/install -c nqptp '/Rune_dev/RuneOS/rpios_packages/nqptp/pkg/nqptp-git//usr/bin'
make  install-exec-hook
make[2]: Entering directory '/Rune_dev/RuneOS/rpios_packages/nqptp/src/nqptp'
getent group nqptp &>/dev/null || groupadd -r nqptp &>/dev/null
make[2]: *** [Makefile:817: install-exec-hook] Error 10
make[2]: Leaving directory '/Rune_dev/RuneOS/rpios_packages/nqptp/src/nqptp'
make[1]: *** [Makefile:734: install-exec-am] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/Rune_dev/RuneOS/rpios_packages/nqptp/src/nqptp'
make: *** [Makefile:673: install-am] Error 2
[! package()] A failure occurred in package().
    Aborting...

[mikebrady]

Thanks for the post and the suggestions. Let me take a look and try to understand this.

[gearhead]

I may have a solution. I comment out the lines in Makefile.am that creates the user and group.

# getent group nqptp &>/dev/null || groupadd -r nqptp &>/dev/null
# getent passwd nqptp &> /dev/null || useradd -r -M -g nqptp -s /usr/sbin/nologin nqptp &>/dev/null

I create a sysusers file that looks like this:

u nqptp - "nqptp user" /dev/null /usr/sbin/nologin
g nqptp -

and then tell the package maker to put this in the package:
install -D -m644 "$srcdir"/nqptp.sysusers "$pkgdir"/usr/lib/sysusers.d/nqptp.conf
I will see if this works. I inferred this from other PKGBUILDs that I use that also create users. No guarantees that it does the same thing....

[mikebrady]

This is very interesting, thanks!

[mikebrady]

This looks like it would work for systemd-based systems, but not for systems based on the older System V. Very interesting.

[mikebrady]

I see some other contributors mentioned this in the past. Sigh.

[mikebrady]

Okay, so I've taken a good look at this. Unfortunately, (AFAIK), the otherwise very nice scheme you propose above doesn't quite work.

As you write, if one creates a file nqptp.sysusers with the following contents (slightly different to yours):

u nqptp - "nqptp" /dev/null /usr/sbin/nologin

and if the contents of Makefile.am are changed to:

bin_PROGRAMS = nqptp
nqptp_SOURCES = nqptp.c nqptp-clock-sources.c nqptp-message-handlers.c nqptp-utilities.c general-utilities.c debug.c

AM_CFLAGS = -fno-common -Wall -Wextra -pthread --include=config.h
CLEANFILES =

if USE_GIT_VERSION
nqptp.c: gitversion.h
gitversion.h: .git/index
	echo "// Do not edit!" > gitversion.h
	echo "// This file is automatically generated by 'git describe --tags --dirty --broken', if available." >> gitversion.h
	echo -n "  char git_version_string[] = \"" >> gitversion.h
	git describe --tags --dirty --broken | tr -d '[[:space:]]' >> gitversion.h
	echo "\";" >> gitversion.h
FORCE: ;
CLEANFILES += gitversion.h
endif


install-exec-hook:
if BUILD_FOR_LINUX
# Note: NQPTP runs as user/group nqptp/nqptp on Linux.
# Access is given via AmbientCapabilities in the service file.
# If you want to run it from the command line, e.g. for debugging, run it as root user.
# no installer for System V
if INSTALL_SYSTEMD_STARTUP
	install -d $(DESTDIR)/usr/lib/sysusers.d
	install -m 0644 nqptp.sysusers $(DESTDIR)/usr/lib/sysusers.d/nqptp.conf
	[ -e $(DESTDIR)$(libdir)/systemd/system ] || mkdir -p $(DESTDIR)$(libdir)/systemd/system
# don't replace a service file if it already exists...
	[ -e $(DESTDIR)$(libdir)/systemd/system/nqptp.service ] || cp nqptp.service $(DESTDIR)$(libdir)/systemd/system
endif
endif

if BUILD_FOR_FREEBSD
# NQPTP runs as root on FreeBSD to access ports 319 and 320
if INSTALL_FREEBSD_STARTUP
	cp nqptp.freebsd /usr/local/etc/rc.d/nqptp
	chmod 555 /usr/local/etc/rc.d/nqptp
endif
endif

Then the user and group nqptp will be created. This is a nice "declarative" solution. However, the unfortunate problem (again, AFAIK) is that the nqptp is not created during installation -- it will only be created when the system reboots.

As the Bard didn't quite say: "if this be error, and upon me proved... I'd love to be corrected!"

[gearhead]

Agreed that the sysusers file is read at boot, but if we need it 'now' can't we not also run 'systemctl restart systemd-sysusers'. Will that solve it for us?

[mikebrady]

Hi there. Just wondering if the most recent change in the development branch will have any positive impact on this -- the systemd DynamicUser facility is used instead of defining the nqptp user and group.