Solving Nushell Installation Woes on Linux Mint

If you’re diving into the world of modern command-line interfaces on Linux Mint, Nushell (nu) might have caught your eye with its promise of a more intuitive and powerful shell experience. However, you might have hit a snag during installation. This blog post details how I resolved a common issue when trying to install Nushell.

The Problem

While trying to compile Nushell using Cargo, I was met with an error message that didn’t immediately pinpoint what was wrong:

warning: build failed, waiting for other jobs to finish...
error: failed to compile `nu v0.101.0`, intermediate artifacts can be found at `/tmp/cargo-installvIEkDI`.
To reuse those artifacts with a future compilation, set the environment variable `CARGO_TARGET_DIR` to that path.

Despite trying various troubleshooting steps, including looking through build logs and ensuring my Rust installation was up-to-date, the issue persisted.

The Solution

After some digging, I realized the problem stemmed from missing system dependencies. Here’s what finally fixed it for me:

Step-by-Step Fix

Install Necessary Packages: The error was due to missing development libraries that Nushell and its dependencies require. Specifically, I needed:

libssl-dev for SSL/TLS support.
pkg-config to handle library dependencies during compilation. To install these, I ran the following command:

   sudo apt-get install libssl-dev pkg-config

Retry the Installation: After installing these packages, I retried the Nushell installation:

   cargo install nu

This time, the installation completed without errors.

Why This Worked

libssl-dev: Many Rust projects, including Nushell, use OpenSSL for secure communications. Without the development libraries, the project can’t compile against OpenSSL.
pkg-config: This tool helps in providing the correct flags to the compiler for linking against installed libraries. Without it, the build system might not find or correctly link against necessary libraries.

Lessons Learned

Check System Dependencies: Before diving into complex troubleshooting, ensure all required system libraries and tools are installed. This is especially true for projects that interface with lower-level system functionalities like networking.
Keep Your Tools Updated: Both your package manager and your Rust toolchain should be kept up-to-date. Sometimes, a simple update can resolve compatibility issues:

  sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
  rustup update

Community Resources: If you’re stuck, look at project documentation, GitHub issues, or community forums. Often, someone else has already encountered and solved your problem.

Conclusion

Installing Nushell on Linux Mint was not straightforward due to missing dependencies, but once identified, the fix was simple. This experience underscores the importance of understanding the environment in which you’re compiling software, especially when working with languages like Rust that often rely on system libraries for performance and functionality. Hopefully, this helps someone else navigate through similar issues with Nushell or any other Rust project.