Evening,
   I ran into the same issue on FreeBSD-14.4.  I fixed it by manually
   removing the offending "-L/usr/local/lib" from the various "*_LIBS = "
   definitions in src/auth/Makefile.  I had claude take a look and here's
   what it reported:

   ** Here's the summary of the problem and the fix:

     Root cause: In 2.4.4, am__append_8 was changed to include both
   $(LIBDOVECOT_LUA) (a .la file dep) and $(LUA_LIBS) (raw linker flags:

     -L/usr/local/lib -llua-5.4 -lm). This append goes into auth_libs, which
   is used verbatim in auth_DEPENDENCIES. GNU make treats

     everything in a target's prerequisite list as files to build -- it
   handles -l<name> specially, but -L<path> is taken literally,

     causing "no rule to make target '-L/usr/local/lib'".


     Fix:

     1. Strip $(LUA_LIBS) from am__append_8 -- leave only $(LIBDOVECOT_LUA)
   (the actual file dep)

     2. Add am__append_10 = $(LUA_LIBS), scoped to plugin mode only
   (AUTH_LUA_PLUGIN_TRUE && HAVE_LUA_TRUE) -- in non-plugin mode,

     $(LUA_LIBS) is already covered by AUTH_LUA_LDADD

     3. Append $(am__append_10) to the five LDADD variables that need it



     To apply: patch src/auth/Makefile.in /path/to/patch-src-auth-Makefile.in

   Here's the patch I used that resulted in a clean build:

   *** src/auth/Makefile.in.orig

   --- src/auth/Makefile.in

   ***************

   *** 107,111 ****

     @HAVE_LDAP_TRUE@@LDAP_PLUGIN_TRUE@am__append_6 = libauthdb_ldap.la

     @HAVE_LDAP_TRUE@@LDAP_PLUGIN_FALSE@am__append_7 = $(LIBDOVECOT_LDAP)

   - @HAVE_LUA_TRUE@am__append_8 = $(LIBDOVECOT_LUA) $(LUA_LIBS)

     @AUTH_LUA_PLUGIN_TRUE@am__append_9 = libauthdb_lua.la

     subdir = src/auth

   --- 107,112 ----

     @HAVE_LDAP_TRUE@@LDAP_PLUGIN_TRUE@am__append_6 = libauthdb_ldap.la

     @HAVE_LDAP_TRUE@@LDAP_PLUGIN_FALSE@am__append_7 = $(LIBDOVECOT_LDAP)

   + @HAVE_LUA_TRUE@am__append_8 = $(LIBDOVECOT_LUA)

   + @AUTH_LUA_PLUGIN_TRUE@@HAVE_LUA_TRUE@am__append_10 = $(LUA_LIBS)

     @AUTH_LUA_PLUGIN_TRUE@am__append_9 = libauthdb_lua.la

     subdir = src/auth

   ***************

   *** 1119,1123 ****

           $(am__append_8)

     auth_CPPFLAGS = $(AM_CPPFLAGS) $(BINARY_CFLAGS)

   ! auth_LDADD = $(auth_libs) $(LIBDOVECOT) $(AUTH_LIBS) $(BINARY_LDFLAGS)
   $(AUTH_LUA_LDADD)

     auth_DEPENDENCIES = $(auth_libs) $(LIBDOVECOT_DEPS)

     auth_SOURCES = main.c $(auth_common_sources)

   --- 1120,1124 ----

           $(am__append_8)

     auth_CPPFLAGS = $(AM_CPPFLAGS) $(BINARY_CFLAGS)

   ! auth_LDADD = $(auth_libs) $(LIBDOVECOT) $(AUTH_LIBS) $(BINARY_LDFLAGS)
   $(AUTH_LUA_LDADD) $(am__append_10)

     auth_DEPENDENCIES = $(auth_libs) $(LIBDOVECOT_DEPS)

     auth_SOURCES = main.c $(auth_common_sources)

   ***************

   *** 1230,1234 ****

           test-main.c

   ! test_auth_LDADD = $(test_auth_ldadd_plugins) $(LIBDOVECOT) $(auth_libs)
   $(AUTH_LIBS)

     test_auth_DEPENDENCIES = $(test_auth_ldadd_plugins)
   $(pkglibexec_PROGRAMS) $(LIBDOVECOT_DEPS)

     test_mech_SOURCES = \

   --- 1231,1235 ----

           test-main.c

   ! test_auth_LDADD = $(test_auth_ldadd_plugins) $(LIBDOVECOT) $(auth_libs)
   $(AUTH_LIBS) $(am__append_10)

     test_auth_DEPENDENCIES = $(test_auth_ldadd_plugins)
   $(pkglibexec_PROGRAMS) $(LIBDOVECOT_DEPS)

     test_mech_SOURCES = \

   ***************

   *** 1238,1242 ****

           test-mech.c

   ! test_mech_LDADD = $(LIBDOVECOT) $(auth_libs) $(AUTH_LIBS)

     test_mech_DEPENDENCIES = $(pkglibexec_PROGRAMS) $(LIBDOVECOT_DEPS)

     test_auth_client_SOURCES = \

   --- 1239,1243 ----

           test-mech.c

   ! test_mech_LDADD = $(LIBDOVECOT) $(auth_libs) $(AUTH_LIBS)
   $(am__append_10)

     test_mech_DEPENDENCIES = $(pkglibexec_PROGRAMS) $(LIBDOVECOT_DEPS)

     test_auth_client_SOURCES = \

   ***************

   *** 1246,1250 ****

           test-auth-client.c

   ! test_auth_client_LDADD = $(LIBDOVECOT) $(auth_libs) $(AUTH_LIBS)

     test_auth_client_DEPENDENCIES = $(pkglibexec_PROGRAMS)
   $(LIBDOVECOT_DEPS)

     test_auth_master_SOURCES = \

   --- 1247,1251 ----

           test-auth-client.c

   ! test_auth_client_LDADD = $(LIBDOVECOT) $(auth_libs) $(AUTH_LIBS)
   $(am__append_10)

     test_auth_client_DEPENDENCIES = $(pkglibexec_PROGRAMS)
   $(LIBDOVECOT_DEPS)

     test_auth_master_SOURCES = \

   ***************

   *** 1255,1259 ****

           test-auth-master-server.c

   ! test_auth_master_LDADD = $(LIBDOVECOT) $(auth_libs) $(AUTH_LIBS)

     test_auth_master_DEPENDENCIES = $(pkglibexec_PROGRAMS)
   $(LIBDOVECOT_DEPS)

     all: all-am

   --- 1256,1260 ----

           test-auth-master-server.c

   ! test_auth_master_LDADD = $(LIBDOVECOT) $(auth_libs) $(AUTH_LIBS)
   $(am__append_10)

     test_auth_master_DEPENDENCIES = $(pkglibexec_PROGRAMS)
   $(LIBDOVECOT_DEPS)

     all: all-am

   I haven't tested the binary yet, but at least it did successfully complete
   the build.
   The right fix is to update src/auth/Makefile.am, but perhaps someone more
   familiar with this can take a look and confirm.
   --Jeff

     On May 17, 2026, at 19:59, Frank Volf via dovecot <[email protected]>
     wrote:
       Hi,

       I'm trying to build dovecot-2.4.4 on FreeBSD 14.4 and I get a strange
       error message.

       What I did is download and extract dovecot-2.4.4.tar.gz and then run
       ./configure without any arguments.
       After typing make the build started without any problems until this
     point:

         ....
         Making all in auth
           CC       test_auth_cache-auth-cache.o
           CC       test_auth_cache-test-auth-cache.o
           CC       auth-main.o
           CC       auth-auth.o
           CC       auth-auth-cache.o
           CC       auth-auth-client-connection.o
           CC       auth-auth-master-connection.o
           CC       auth-auth-policy.o
           CC       auth-auth-penalty.o
           CC       auth-auth-request.o
           CC       auth-auth-request-fields.o
           CC       auth-auth-request-handler.o
           CC       auth-auth-request-var-expand.o
           CC       auth-auth-sasl-mech-apop.o
           CC       auth-auth-sasl-mech-dovecot-token.o
           CC       auth-auth-sasl-mech-oauth2.o
           CC       auth-auth-sasl.o
           CC       auth-auth-settings.o
           CC       auth-auth-fields.o
           CC       auth-auth-token.o
           CC       auth-auth-worker-connection.o
           CC       auth-auth-worker-server.o
           CC       auth-db-oauth2.o
           CC       auth-db-sql.o
           CC       auth-db-passwd-file.o
           CC       auth-passdb.o
           CC       auth-passdb-blocking.o
           CC       auth-passdb-bsdauth.o
           CC       auth-passdb-cache.o
           CC       auth-passdb-oauth2.o
           CC       auth-passdb-passwd.o
           CC       auth-passdb-passwd-file.o
           CC       auth-passdb-pam.o
           CC       auth-passdb-sql.o
           CC       auth-passdb-static.o
           CC       auth-userdb.o
           CC       auth-userdb-blocking.o
           CC       auth-userdb-passwd.o
           CC       auth-userdb-passwd-file.o
           CC       auth-userdb-prefetch.o
           CC       auth-userdb-static.o
           CC       auth-userdb-sql.o
           CC       auth-db-ldap.o
           CC       auth-db-ldap-sasl.o
           CC       auth-db-ldap-settings.o
           CC       auth-passdb-ldap.o
           CC       auth-userdb-ldap.o
           CC       auth-db-lua.o
           CC       auth-passdb-lua.o
           CC       auth-userdb-lua.o
         make[3]: don't know how to make -L/usr/local/lib. Stop

         make[3]: stopped making "all" in /home/volf/dovecot-2.4.4/src/auth
         *** Error code 1

       So, apparently make is confused and thinks that the compiler/linker
       commandline option is an item to build.
       I'm at loss how to solve this.

       I would appreciate it, if somebody could give me a hint how to solve
     this.

       Kind regards,

       Frank
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