Can't install Erlang 27.2.4. OpenSSL issues. MacOS Sequoia

What happens if you don’t pass the --with-ssl flag? Do you get the same error?

Yes

Here’s the output:

$ KERL_CONFIGURE_OPTIONS="--without-javac" asdf install erlang 27.2.4
[asdf-erlang] ⚠️ Warning: fop is optional and not installed. Please install it using 'brew install fop'.
[asdf-erlang] ⚠️ Warning: openjdk is optional and not installed. Please install it using 'brew install openjdk'.
[asdf-erlang] 🛟 Added unixodbc to KERL_CONFIGURE_OPTIONS:  --with-odbc=/opt/homebrew/opt/unixodbc
[asdf-erlang] 🛟 No CC found. Setting CC to: /usr/bin/clang -I/opt/homebrew/opt/unixodbc/include
[asdf-erlang] 🛟 Added /opt/homebrew/opt/unixodbc/lib to LDFLAGS env var
[asdf-erlang] 🛟 Added openssl to KERL_CONFIGURE_OPTIONS:  --with-ssl=/opt/homebrew/opt/openssl@3
[asdf-erlang] 🛟 OpenJDK has been added to PATH for this terminal session: /opt/homebrew/opt/openjdk/bin
[asdf-erlang] Please ensure this is included in your shell's dot files (.zshrc, .bashrc, etc.)
[asdf-erlang] 📦 Building with KERL_CONFIGURE_OPTIONS=--without-javac  --with-odbc=/opt/homebrew/opt/unixodbc  --with-ssl=/opt/homebrew/opt/openssl@3
[asdf-erlang] ❄️ No kerl installation to cleanup for asdf_27.2.4
[asdf-erlang] ❄️ No kerl build to cleanup for asdf_27.2.4
Extracting source code for normal build...
Building (normal) Erlang/OTP 27.2.4 (asdf_27.2.4); please wait...
Initializing (build) log file at /Users/johnny/.asdf/plugins/erlang/kerl-home/builds/asdf_27.2.4/otp_build_27.2.4.log.
ERROR: configure failed.
checking for linker flags for loadable drivers... -m64 -bundle -bundle_loader /Users/johnny/.asdf/plugins/erlang/kerl-home/builds/asdf_27.2.4/otp_src_27.2.4/bin/x86_64-apple-darwin24.3.0/beam.smp
checking for 'runtime library path' linker flag... not found
checking for multiarch directory... not found
checking size of void *... (cached) 8
checking for static zlib... no
checking how to run the C preprocessor... /usr/bin/clang -I/opt/homebrew/opt/unixodbc/include -E
checking for egrep -e... /usr/bin/grep -E
checking for OpenSSL header in /opt/homebrew/opt/openssl@3... yes
checking for OpenSSL in /opt/homebrew/opt/openssl@3... configure: error: neither static nor dynamic crypto library found in /opt/homebrew/opt/openssl@3
ERROR: /Users/johnny/.asdf/plugins/erlang/kerl-home/builds/asdf_27.2.4/otp_src_27.2.4/lib/crypto/configure failed!

Please see /Users/johnny/.asdf/plugins/erlang/kerl-home/builds/asdf_27.2.4/otp_build_27.2.4.log for full details.
Auto cleaning all artifacts except the log file...
(use KERL_AUTOCLEAN=0 to keep build on failure, if desired)
Cleaning up compilation products for 'asdf_27.2.4' under:
  - /Users/johnny/.asdf/plugins/erlang/kerl-home/builds...
  - /Users/johnny/.asdf/downloads/erlang/27.2.4...
... done.

Is your mac with a M chip?(ARM architecture) If yes, check that your terminal is not using rosetta, that can be potentially a problem as you might have a mismatch between the architecture of binaries.

I’ve just built successfully the version you mentioned on my air m1, without any custom kerl flags, it just works.

I have before, too, and something went haywire.

arch returns arm64. Terminal is not using Rosetta

sysctl -n sysctl.proc_translated returns 0

My linker is looking for x86_64:

checking for linker flags for loadable drivers... -m64 -bundle -bundle_loader /Users/johnny/.asdf/plugins/erlang/kerl-home/builds/asdf_27.2.4/otp_src_27.2.4/bin/x86_64-apple-darwin24.3.0/beam.smp

So that’s an issue. How do I solve that?

That too, but this is also a issue:

It might be some linking error, check the /opt/homebrew/opt/ folder for presence of openssl@3, it might be possible that you have openssl@3.3 or something like that, I have multiple 3.x versions present there.

Also ensure that the following folders are present inside of openssl installation: bin, share, include, lib.

PS: To rule out any other potential errors, you can actually disable building of OTP libraries that require openssl by passing the flag --without-ssl, if that works then the problem is strictly related to openssl linking.

In the meantime you can also check GitHub - michallepicki/asdf-erlang-prebuilt-macos: Erlang plugin for asdf version manager, using Erlang builds by erlef/otp_builds for macOS · GitHub.

See Support for precompiled binaries? · Issue #165 · asdf-vm/asdf-erlang · GitHub for more information.

What a trip. asdf info was reporting I was on x86_64. So I finally found out that /usr/local/bin/bash was x86_64.

I ran brew install bash and now I have the arm64 version. (Even though for some reason my interactive bash was arm64)

erlang 27.4.2 succesfully built.

Now everything just works

Thank you both for your help