Installing gmake on Ubuntu; Cowboy server not starting

Question

My erlang cowboy server requires gmake to run. I can use gmake run on my OSX machine and run the server. Running make run works fine too but warns me that I should install gmake.

When I installed my repo https://github.com/QuantumProductions/tunnel.git on my ubuntu host, I tried to make run and get an error. There are no packages available for gmake. How do I install gmake?

root@marble-pyramid-1:~/tunnel# apt-get install gmake
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package gmake
root@marble-pyramid-1:~/tunnel# ls
erlang.mk  Makefile  oldh  rel  relx.config  src  static  tunnel.d
root@marble-pyramid-1:~/tunnel# make run
erlang.mk:24: Please upgrade to GNU Make 4 or later: https://erlang.mk/guide/installation.html
 DEP    cowboy
 DEP    jiffy
mv: cannot stat ‘/root/tunnel/deps/jiffy/ebin/jiffy.app’: No such file or directory
make[1]: Entering directory `/root/tunnel/.erlang.mk/rebar'
./bootstrap
No beam files found.
escript: exception error: undefined function make:files/2
  in function  erl_eval:do_apply/6 (erl_eval.erl, line 569)
  in call from erl_eval:expr/5 (erl_eval.erl, line 243)
  in call from escript:eval_exprs/5 (escript.erl, line 856)
  in call from erl_eval:local_func/5 (erl_eval.erl, line 467)
  in call from escript:interpret/4 (escript.erl, line 774)
  in call from escript:start/1 (escript.erl, line 277)
  in call from init:start_it/1
make[1]: *** [all] Error 127
make[1]: Leaving directory `/root/tunnel/.erlang.mk/rebar'
/root/tunnel
{"init terminating in do_boot",{undef,[{rmemo,start,[],[]},{erl_eval,do_apply,6,[{file,"erl_eval.erl"},{line,569}]},{erl_eval,exprs,5,[{file,"erl_eval.erl"},{line,118}]},{init,start_it,1,[]},{init,start_em,1,[]}]}}

Crash dump was written to: erl_crash.dump
init terminating in do_boot ()
make[1]: Entering directory `/root/tunnel/deps/cowboy'
../../erlang.mk:24: Please upgrade to GNU Make 4 or later: https://erlang.mk/guide/installation.html
 DEP    cowlib
 DEP    ranch
make[2]: Entering directory `/root/tunnel/deps/cowlib'
../../erlang.mk:24: Please upgrade to GNU Make 4 or later: https://erlang.mk/guide/installation.html
 DEPEND cowlib.d
../../erlang.mk:24: Please upgrade to GNU Make 4 or later: https://erlang.mk/guide/installation.html
 ERLC   cow_base64url.erl cow_cookie.erl cow_date.erl cow_hpack.erl cow_http.erl cow_http2.erl cow_http_hd.erl cow_http_te.erl cow_mimetypes.erl cow_multipart.erl cow_qs.erl cow_spdy.erl cow_sse.erl cow_uri.erl cow_ws.erl
src/cow_base64url.erl:31: syntax error before: '{'
src/cow_base64url.erl:40: syntax error before: '{'
src/cow_base64url.erl:52: syntax error before: '{'
src/cow_base64url.erl:59: syntax error before: '{'
src/cow_base64url.erl:21: function decode/1 undefined
src/cow_base64url.erl:22: function decode/2 undefined
src/cow_base64url.erl:23: function encode/1 undefined
src/cow_base64url.erl:55: function encode/3 undefined
make[3]: *** [ebin/cowlib.app] Error 1
make[2]: *** [app] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/root/tunnel/deps/cowlib'
make[1]: *** [deps] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/root/tunnel/deps/cowboy'
make: *** [deps] Error 2

EDIT: installing erlang-base-hipe:

root@marble-pyramid-1:~/tunnel# apt-get install erlang-base-hipe
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  gyp javascript-common libc-ares-dev libc-ares2 libjs-node-uuid libssl-dev
  libssl-doc libv8-3.14-dev linux-headers-3.13.0-68
  linux-headers-3.13.0-68-generic linux-image-3.13.0-68-generic
  linux-image-extra-3.13.0-68-generic node-abbrev node-ansi node-archy
  node-async node-block-stream node-combined-stream node-cookie-jar
  node-delayed-stream node-forever-agent node-form-data node-fstream
  node-fstream-ignore node-github-url-from-git node-glob node-graceful-fs
  node-gyp node-inherits node-ini node-json-stringify-safe node-lockfile
  node-lru-cache node-mime node-minimatch node-mkdirp node-mute-stream
  node-node-uuid node-nopt node-normalize-package-data node-npmlog node-once
  node-osenv node-qs node-read node-read-package-json node-request node-retry
  node-rimraf node-semver node-sha node-sigmund node-slide node-tar
  node-tunnel-agent node-which zlib1g-dev
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
Suggested packages:
  erlang-edoc erlang-gs erlang erlang-manpages erlang-doc
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  erlang-base
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  erlang-base-hipe
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 1 to remove and 196 not upgraded.
Need to get 8,030 kB of archives.
After this operation, 2,610 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 http://mirrors.digitalocean.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates/universe erlang-base-hipe amd64 1:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.1 [8,030 kB]
Fetched 8,030 kB in 0s (16.9 MB/s)
dpkg: erlang-base: dependency problems, but removing anyway as you requested:
 erlang-crypto depends on erlang-base (= 1:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.1) | erlang-base-hipe (= 1:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.1); however:
  Package erlang-base is to be removed.
  Package erlang-base-hipe is not installed.
 erlang-asn1 depends on erlang-base (= 1:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.1) | erlang-base-hipe (= 1:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.1); however:
  Package erlang-base is to be removed.
  Package erlang-base-hipe is not installed.
 erlang-syntax-tools depends on erlang-base (= 1:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.1) | erlang-base-hipe (= 1:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.1); however:
  Package erlang-base is to be removed.
  Package erlang-base-hipe is not installed.
 erlang-runtime-tools depends on erlang-base (= 1:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.1) | erlang-base-hipe (= 1:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.1); however:
  Package erlang-base is to be removed.
  Package erlang-base-hipe is not installed.
 erlang-webtool depends on erlang-base (= 1:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.1) | erlang-base-hipe (= 1:16.b.3-d
(Reading database ... 110838 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing erlang-base (1:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.1) ...
Searching for services which depend on erlang and should be stopped...none found.
Killing epmd...it is not running.
Processing triggers for man-db (2.6.7.1-1ubuntu1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package erlang-base-hipe.
(Reading database ... 110469 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../erlang-base-hipe_1%3a16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking erlang-base-hipe (1:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.6.7.1-1ubuntu1) ...
Setting up erlang-base-hipe (1:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.1) ...
Searching for services which depend on erlang and should be started...none found.
root@marble-pyramid-1:~/tunnel# make run
erlang.mk:24: Please upgrade to GNU Make 4 or later: https://erlang.mk/guide/installation.html
make[1]: Entering directory `/root/tunnel/deps/cowboy'
../../erlang.mk:24: Please upgrade to GNU Make 4 or later: https://erlang.mk/guide/installation.html
make[2]: Entering directory `/root/tunnel/deps/cowlib'
../../erlang.mk:24: Please upgrade to GNU Make 4 or later: https://erlang.mk/guide/installation.html
../../erlang.mk:24: Please upgrade to GNU Make 4 or later: https://erlang.mk/guide/installation.html
 ERLC   cow_base64url.erl cow_cookie.erl cow_date.erl cow_hpack.erl cow_http.erl cow_http2.erl cow_http_hd.erl cow_http_te.erl cow_mimetypes.erl cow_multipart.erl cow_qs.erl cow_spdy.erl cow_sse.erl cow_uri.erl cow_ws.erl
src/cow_base64url.erl:31: syntax error before: '{'
src/cow_base64url.erl:40: syntax error before: '{'
src/cow_base64url.erl:52: syntax error before: '{'
src/cow_base64url.erl:59: syntax error before: '{'
src/cow_base64url.erl:21: function decode/1 undefined
src/cow_base64url.erl:22: function decode/2 undefined
src/cow_base64url.erl:23: function encode/1 undefined
src/cow_base64url.erl:55: function encode/3 undefined
make[3]: *** [ebin/cowlib.app] Error 1
make[2]: *** [app] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/root/tunnel/deps/cowlib'
make[1]: *** [deps] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/root/tunnel/deps/cowboy'
make: *** [deps] Error 2
root@marble-pyramid-1:~/tunnel#

Answer 1

If you look at your output first real error you will find is:

src/cow_base64url.erl:31: syntax error before: '{'

And if you look at line 31 in src/cow_base64url.erl (in deps/cowlib/src) all you will find is

decode(Enc, #{}).

The #{} creates a new empty map, which is "new" feature in Erlang (first introduced in R17, now we are on R20). So it makes me think that you are trying to compile your code with an older version of Erlang.

Please verify your version of Erlang, you can do by simply running erl in your shell:

-> % erl -v
Erlang/OTP 20 [erts-9.0.1] [source] [64-bit] [smp:2:2] [ds:2:2:10] [async-threads:10] [hipe] [kernel-poll:false]

And, if in fact it all was caused by old Erlang distribution, then you can either try to download pre-built binaries from official site or use kerl to easily build your own.

Answer 2

make is gmake on Ubuntu. You don't actually need it to be called gmake.

Your version of gmake is almost certainly 3.81 if your host is Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, which seems likely. To get gmake 4 you're going to have to build it yourself or switch your host distro version.

Simple solution

Host your service on Ubuntu 16.04 instead of 14.04

Slightly more complex (but still easy) solution

Here we are going to build gmake 4.2.1 and install it to an alternative location on your host.

Try the following two commands and compare the output on your host:

ceverett@changa:~$ make --version
GNU Make 3.81
Copyright (C) 2006  Free Software Foundation, Inc.
これはフリーソフトウェアです. 利用許諾についてはソースを
ご覧ください.
商業性や特定の目的への適合性の如何に関わらず, 無保証です.

This program built for x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
ceverett@changa:~$ uname -srv
Linux 3.13.0-129-generic #178-Ubuntu SMP Fri Aug 11 12:48:20 UTC 2017

This is from one of my Ubuntu 14.04 systems that is current right now. I have gmake 3.81 and I'm running kernel 3.13. (Obviously the Japanese bits there are due to region.)

Pulling the sources for gmake 4.21 just now, building it and installing it to /opt/gmake seems to have worked just fine:

sudo mkdir /opt/gmake
sudo chown "$USER:$USER" /opt/gmake
mkdir foo
cd foo
wget http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/make-4.2.1.tar.bz2
tar -jxf make-4.2.1.tar.bz2
cd make-4.2.1
./configure --prefix=/opt/gmake
make
make install

Assuming you've got gcc installed, this should work without any problem and you'll have gmake 4.21 in /opt/gmake/bin/make.

Hooking erlang.mk and your special installed location for gmake will require a bit of pathyness correction, but if you have a $HOME/bin/ already in your path then the following should work:

ceverett@changa:~/foo$ sudo ln -s /opt/gmake/bin/make $HOME/bin/make
ceverett@changa:~/foo$ bash
ceverett@changa:~/foo$ make --version
GNU Make 4.2.1
このプログラムは x86_64-pc-linux-gnu 用にビルドされました
Copyright (C) 1988-2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
ライセンス GPLv3+: GNU GPL バージョン 3 以降 <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
これはフリーソフトウェアです: 自由に変更および配布できます.
法律の許す限り、　無保証　です.

I don't have any projects that use erlang.mk and also require code in other languages to be built, but from running make devel in a test project this seems to have worked just fine.