MIT Kerberos Documentation

Options to configure

There are a number of options to configure which you can use to control how the Kerberos distribution is built.

Most commonly used options

--help
Provides help to configure. This will list the set of commonly used options for building Kerberos.
--prefix=PREFIX
By default, Kerberos will install the package’s files rooted at /usr/local. If you desire to place the binaries into the directory PREFIX, use this option.
--exec-prefix=EXECPREFIX
This option allows one to separate the architecture independent programs from the host-dependent files (configuration files, manual pages). Use this option to install architecture-dependent programs in EXECPREFIX. The default location is the value of specified by --prefix option.
--localstatedir=LOCALSTATEDIR
This option sets the directory for locally modifiable single-machine data. In Kerberos, this mostly is useful for setting a location for the KDC data files, as they will be installed in LOCALSTATEDIR/krb5kdc, which is by default PREFIX/var/krb5kdc.
--with-netlib[=libs]
Allows for suppression of or replacement of network libraries. By default, Kerberos V5 configuration will look for -lnsl and -lsocket. If your operating system has a broken resolver library or fails to pass the tests in src/tests/resolv, you will need to use this option.
--enable-dns-for-realm
Enable the use of DNS to look up a host’s Kerberos realm, if the information is not provided in krb5.conf. See Mapping hostnames onto Kerberos realms for information about using DNS to determine the default realm. DNS lookups for realm names are disabled by default.
--with-system-et

Use an installed version of the error-table (et) support software, the compile_et program, the com_err.h header file and the com_err library. If these are not in the default locations, you may wish to specify CPPFLAGS=-I/some/dir and LDFLAGS=-L/some/other/dir options at configuration time as well.

If this option is not given, a version supplied with the Kerberos sources will be built and installed along with the rest of the Kerberos tree, for Kerberos applications to link against.

--with-system-ss

Use an installed version of the subsystem command-line interface software, the mk_cmds program, the ss/ss.h header file and the ss library. If these are not in the default locations, you may wish to specify CPPFLAGS=-I/some/dir and LDFLAGS=-L/some/other/dir options at configuration time as well. See also the SS_LIB option.

If this option is not given, the ss library supplied with the Kerberos sources will be compiled and linked into those programs that need it; it will not be installed separately.

--with-system-db

Use an installed version of the Berkeley DB package, which must provide an API compatible with version 1.85. This option is unsupported and untested. In particular, we do not know if the database-rename code used in the dumpfile load operation will behave properly.

If this option is not given, a version supplied with the Kerberos sources will be built and installed. (We are not updating this version at this time because of licensing issues with newer versions that we haven’t investigated sufficiently yet.)

Environment variables

CC=COMPILER
Use COMPILER as the C compiler.
CFLAGS=FLAGS
Use FLAGS as the default set of C compiler flags.
CPP=CPP
C preprocessor to use. (e.g., CPP='gcc -E')
CPPFLAGS=CPPOPTS
Use CPPOPTS as the default set of C preprocessor flags. The most common use of this option is to select certain #define’s for use with the operating system’s include files.
DB_HEADER=headername
If db.h is not the correct header file to include to compile against the Berkeley DB 1.85 API, specify the correct header file name with this option. For example, DB_HEADER=db3/db_185.h.
DB_LIB=libs...
If -ldb is not the correct library specification for the Berkeley DB library version to be used, override it with this option. For example, DB_LIB=-ldb-3.3.
DEFCCNAME=ccachename
Override the built-in default credential cache name. For example, DEFCCNAME=DIR:/var/run/user/%{USERID}/ccache See Parameter expansion for information about supported parameter expansions.
DEFCKTNAME=keytabname
Override the built-in default client keytab name. The format is the same as for DEFCCNAME.
DEFKTNAME=keytabname
Override the built-in default keytab name. The format is the same as for DEFCCNAME.
LD=LINKER
Use LINKER as the default loader if it should be different from C compiler as specified above.
LDFLAGS=LDOPTS
This option informs the linker where to get additional libraries (e.g., -L<lib dir>).
LIBS=LDNAME
This option allows one to specify libraries to be passed to the linker (e.g., -l<library>)
PKCS11_MODNAME=library
Override the built-in default PKCS11 library name.
SS_LIB=libs...

If -lss is not the correct way to link in your installed ss library, for example if additional support libraries are needed, specify the correct link options here. Some variants of this library are around which allow for Emacs-like line editing, but different versions require different support libraries to be explicitly specified.

This option is ignored if --with-system-ss is not specified.

YACC
The ‘Yet Another C Compiler’ implementation to use. Defaults to the first program found out of: ‘bison -y‘, ‘byacc‘, ‘yacc‘.
YFLAGS
The list of arguments that will be passed by default to $YACC. This script will default YFLAGS to the empty string to avoid a default value of -d given by some make applications.

Fine tuning of the installation directories

--bindir=DIR
User executables. Defaults to EXECPREFIX/bin, where EXECPREFIX is the path specified by --exec-prefix configuration option.
--sbindir=DIR
System admin executables. Defaults to EXECPREFIX/sbin, where EXECPREFIX is the path specified by --exec-prefix configuration option.
--sysconfdir=DIR
Read-only single-machine data such as krb5.conf. Defaults to PREFIX/etc, where PREFIX is the path specified by --prefix configuration option.
--libdir=DIR
Object code libraries. Defaults to EXECPREFIX/lib, where EXECPREFIX is the path specified by --exec-prefix configuration option.
--includedir=DIR
C header files. Defaults to PREFIX/include, where PREFIX is the path specified by --prefix configuration option.
--datarootdir=DATAROOTDIR
Read-only architecture-independent data root. Defaults to PREFIX/share, where PREFIX is the path specified by --prefix configuration option.
--datadir=DIR
Read-only architecture-independent data. Defaults to path specified by --datarootdir configuration option.
--localedir=DIR
Locale-dependent data. Defaults to DATAROOTDIR/locale, where DATAROOTDIR is the path specified by --datarootdir configuration option.
--mandir=DIR
Man documentation. Defaults to DATAROOTDIR/man, where DATAROOTDIR is the path specified by --datarootdir configuration option.

Program names

--program-prefix=PREFIX
Prepend PREFIX to the names of the programs when installing them. For example, specifying --program-prefix=mit- at the configure time will cause the program named abc to be installed as mit-abc.
--program-suffix=SUFFIX
Append SUFFIX to the names of the programs when installing them. For example, specifying --program-suffix=-mit at the configure time will cause the program named abc to be installed as abc-mit.
--program-transform-name=PROGRAM
Run sed -e PROGRAM on installed program names. (PROGRAM is a sed script).

System types

--build=BUILD
Configure for building on BUILD (e.g., --build=x86_64-linux-gnu).
--host=HOST
Cross-compile to build programs to run on HOST (e.g., --host=x86_64-linux-gnu). By default, Kerberos V5 configuration will look for “build” option.

Optional features

--disable-option-checking
Ignore unrecognized –enable/–with options.
--disable-FEATURE
Do not include FEATURE (same as –enable-FEATURE=no).
--enable-FEATURE[=ARG]
Include FEATURE [ARG=yes].
--enable-maintainer-mode
Enable rebuilding of source files, Makefiles, etc.
--disable-delayed-initialization
Initialize library code when loaded. Defaults to delay until first use.
--disable-thread-support
Don’t enable thread support. Defaults to enabled.
--disable-rpath
Suppress run path flags in link lines.
--enable-athena
Build with MIT Project Athena configuration.
--disable-kdc-lookaside-cache
Disable the cache which detects client retransmits.
--disable-pkinit
Disable PKINIT plugin support.
--disable-aesni
Disable support for using AES instructions on x86 platforms.
--enable-asan[=ARG]
Enable building with asan memory error checking. If ARG is given, it controls the -fsanitize compilation flag value (the default is “address”).
--enable-ossfuzz
Enable building fuzzing targets with OSS-Fuzz build support.

Optional packages

--with-PACKAGE[=ARG]
Use PACKAGE (e.g., --with-imap). The default value of ARG is yes.
--without-PACKAGE
Do not use PACKAGE (same as --with-PACKAGE=no) (e.g., --without-libedit).
--with-size-optimizations
Enable a few optimizations to reduce code size possibly at some run-time cost.
--with-system-et
Use the com_err library and compile_et utility that are already installed on the system, instead of building and installing local versions.
--with-system-ss
Use the ss library and mk_cmds utility that are already installed on the system, instead of building and using private versions.
--with-system-db
Use the berkeley db utility already installed on the system, instead of using a private version. This option is not recommended; enabling it may result in incompatibility with key databases originating on other systems.
--with-netlib=LIBS
Use the resolver library specified in LIBS. Use this variable if the C library resolver is insufficient or broken.
--with-hesiod=path
Compile with Hesiod support. The path points to the Hesiod directory. By default Hesiod is unsupported.
--with-ldap
Compile OpenLDAP database backend module.
--with-lmdb
Compile LMDB database backend module.
--with-vague-errors
Do not send helpful errors to client. For example, if the KDC should return only vague error codes to clients.
--with-crypto-impl=IMPL
Use specified crypto implementation (e.g., --with-crypto-impl=openssl). The default is the native MIT Kerberos implementation builtin. The other currently implemented crypto backend is openssl. (See MIT Kerberos features)
--without-libedit
Do not compile and link against libedit. Some utilities will no longer offer command history or completion in interactive mode if libedit is disabled.
--with-readline
Compile and link against GNU readline, as an alternative to libedit.
--with-system-verto

Use an installed version of libverto. If the libverto header and library are not in default locations, you may wish to specify CPPFLAGS=-I/some/dir and LDFLAGS=-L/some/other/dir options at configuration time as well.

If this option is not given, the build system will try to detect an installed version of libverto and use it if it is found. Otherwise, a version supplied with the Kerberos sources will be built and installed. The built-in version does not contain the full set of back-end modules and is not a suitable general replacement for the upstream version, but will work for the purposes of Kerberos.

Specifying --without-system-verto will cause the built-in version of libverto to be used unconditionally.

--with-krb5-config=PATH
Use the krb5-config program at PATH to obtain the build-time default credential cache, keytab, and client keytab names. The default is to use krb5-config from the program path. Specify --without-krb5-config to disable the use of krb5-config and use the usual built-in defaults.
--without-keyutils
Build without libkeyutils support. This disables the KEYRING credential cache type.

Examples

For example, in order to configure Kerberos on a Solaris machine using the suncc compiler with the optimizer turned on, run the configure script with the following options:

% ./configure CC=suncc CFLAGS=-O

For a slightly more complicated example, consider a system where several packages to be used by Kerberos are installed in /usr/foobar, including Berkeley DB 3.3, and an ss library that needs to link against the curses library. The configuration of Kerberos might be done thus:

./configure CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/foobar/include LDFLAGS=-L/usr/foobar/lib \
--with-system-et --with-system-ss --with-system-db  \
SS_LIB='-lss -lcurses'  DB_HEADER=db3/db_185.h DB_LIB=-ldb-3.3