Unable to build watchman from source for ubuntu in the latest versions of releases

[shaw91]

I am unable to build watchman from source for ubuntu 23.10 and neither does the latest release have a debs file. Can someone help.

I get error while executing ./autogen.sh

328.9 [66/81] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/fizz.dir/experimental/ktls/AsyncFizzBaseKTLS.cpp.o
328.9 [67/81] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/fizz.dir/client/FizzClientContext.cpp.o
328.9 [68/81] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/fizz.dir/client/State.cpp.o
339.9 Command '['/usr/bin/cmake', '--build', '/tmp/fbcode_builder_getdeps-ZwatchmanZbuildZfbcode_builder-root/build/fizz', '--target', 'install', '--config', 'RelWithDebInfo', '-j', '4']' returned non-zero exit status 1.
339.9 !! Failed
339.9 [69/81] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/fizz.dir/client/PskSerializationUtils.cpp.o
339.9 [70/81] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/fizz.dir/tool/FizzCommandCommon.cpp.o
339.9 FAILED: CMakeFiles/fizz.dir/tool/FizzCommandCommon.cpp.o 
339.9 /usr/bin/c++ -DBOOST_ALL_NO_LIB -DGFLAGS_IS_A_DLL=0 -I/tmp/fbcode_builder_getdeps-ZwatchmanZbuildZfbcode_builder-root/repos/github.com-facebookincubator-fizz.git -I/tmp/fbcode_builder_getdeps-ZwatchmanZbuildZfbcode_builder-root/build/fizz/generated -isystem /tmp/fbcode_builder_getdeps-ZwatchmanZbuildZfbcode_builder-root/installed/folly/include -isystem /tmp/fbcode_builder_getdeps-ZwatchmanZbuildZfbcode_builder-root/installed/fmt-rKIOTtsl9aiwFkmA3-MnEgW_-G5XM1x79LDGCXRTa-A/include -O2 -g -DNDEBUG -std=c++17 -fPIC -MD -MT CMakeFiles/fizz.dir/tool/FizzCommandCommon.cpp.o -MF CMakeFiles/fizz.dir/tool/FizzCommandCommon.cpp.o.d -o CMakeFiles/fizz.dir/tool/FizzCommandCommon.cpp.o -c /tmp/fbcode_builder_getdeps-ZwatchmanZbuildZfbcode_builder-root/repos/github.com-facebookincubator-fizz.git/fizz/tool/FizzCommandCommon.cpp
339.9 In file included from /tmp/fbcode_builder_getdeps-ZwatchmanZbuildZfbcode_builder-root/repos/github.com-facebookincubator-fizz.git/fizz/tool/FizzCommandCommon.cpp:14:
339.9 /tmp/fbcode_builder_getdeps-ZwatchmanZbuildZfbcode_builder-root/repos/github.com-facebookincubator-fizz.git/fizz/tool/FizzCommandCommon.h:19:10: fatal error: folly/json/json.h: No such file or directory
339.9    19 | #include <folly/json/json.h>
339.9       |          ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
339.9 compilation terminated.

[shaw91]

Another similar issue referred here #1185

[tjunghans]

I had similar issues and the instructions for https://facebook.github.io/watchman/docs/install#ubuntu-prebuilt-debs seem to be outdated.

[xxfogs]

Same issue but for Debian 12

[PhillipMwaniki]

Same issue but for linux mint 21.3

[acrois]

Look, this is a 12k+ star project with ~1k forks and over 13 MILLION dependents (it seems, from Insights tab).

You want to easily find a stable release build and precise instructions that can be followed to install it?

Your best bet is to:

1. Look at the last successful build
2. Download the artifact.
3. unzip watchman.zip
4. Tinker with moving the files to the right place (/usr/local/bin)!

[PhillipMwaniki]

Thanks @acrois. It worked.

[acrois]

Thanks @acrois. It worked.

Awesome! Glad I could help you solve it. Hopefully these tips can help others as well 😄

[EloB]

@acrois last successful build is 4 months old and artifact is expired. Anyone managed to build from source? For me it feels like dependency fizz is broken.

Trying to build inside a docker container tested multiple distros and version. I’m on. A Mac with M2.

EDIT: I downloaded https://github.com/facebook/watchman/releases/tag/v2024.10.14.00 and it seems like that is broken because of Fizz changes. When I added fizz-rev.txt to watchman/build/deps/github_hashes/facebookincubator with an older commit then it compiled. The builds are not stable because it doesn't point to specific versions for each dependency. If I downloaded latest main it worked.