Build pmacct on Mac OSX from source

2023-01-26 1 min read Monitoring Ronny Trommer

I need a way to generate real-world NetFlow data, and pmacct is a great tool that helped me with various things. I couldn’t find a precompiled package so I have compiled it from the source myself. To get it running on my MacBook Pro with Apple Silicon, I had to jump through a few hoops to get it running. Here is a quick guide to making it work for someone else, including my future self :)

Install some build dependencies using Homebrew.

brew install autoconf automake librdkafka

Clone the Git repository and change into the pmacct directory.

git clone https://github.com/pmacct/pmacct.git
cd pmacct

Add the librdkafka header files to your search path.

export C_INCLUDE_PATH=/opt/homebrew/Cellar/librdkafka/2.0.2/include
export LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/homebrew/Cellar/librdkafka/2.0.2/lib

You need to adapt the version number, at the point in time, I got version 2.0.2 installed.

Run the configure and make commands to build the tool.

./autogen.sh
./configure
make

The binary files are src directory. If you want to install them run make install and they will be copied to /usr/local/bin. You need root permissions to do it.

You can run it now with ./pmacctd -f /path/to/your/pmacctd.conf.

gl&hf