# Cannot determine Bro source directory, use --bro-dist=DIR.

**URL:** <https://community.zeek.org/t/cannot-determine-bro-source-directory-use-bro-dist-dir/5900>\
**Category:** Zeek\
**Created:** [November 12, 2019, 9:05pm UTC](https://community.zeek.org/t/cannot-determine-bro-source-directory-use-bro-dist-dir/5900 "2019-11-12T21:05:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Fadel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f1d935/32.png) [@Fadel](https://community.zeek.org/u/Fadel)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2019, 9:05pm UTC](https://community.zeek.org/t/cannot-determine-bro-source-directory-use-bro-dist-dir/5900/1 "2019-11-12T21:05:22Z")

</div>

Hi, I’ve been trying to install this plugin and it seems to have some issues or confusion between bro and zeek for that plugin.  
Anyone encountered this issue?  
Thanks!

~]# zkg install apache/metron-bro-plugin-kafka  
The following packages will be INSTALLED:  
zeek/apache/metron-bro-plugin-kafka (0.3)

Verify the following REQUIRED external dependencies:  
(Ensure their installation on all relevant systems before proceeding):  
from zeek/apache/metron-bro-plugin-kafka (0.3):  
librdkafka ~0.11.5

Proceed? [Y/n]  
zeek/apache/metron-bro-plugin-kafka asks for LIBRDKAFKA\_ROOT (Path to librdkafka installation tree) ? [/usr/local/lib]  
Saved answers to config file: /root/.zkg/config  
Running unit tests for “zeek/apache/metron-bro-plugin-kafka”  
error: failed to run tests for zeek/apache/metron-bro-plugin-kafka: package build\_command failed, see log in /root/.zkg/logs/metron-bro-plugin-kafka-build.log  
Proceed to install anyway? [N/y]

~]# cat /root/.zkg/logs/metron-bro-plugin-kafka-build.log  
=== STDERR ===  
=== STDOUT ===  
Cannot determine Bro source directory, use --bro-dist=DIR.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Fadel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f1d935/32.png) [@Fadel](https://community.zeek.org/u/Fadel)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 2:48pm UTC](https://community.zeek.org/t/cannot-determine-bro-source-directory-use-bro-dist-dir/5900/2 "2019-11-27T14:48:29Z")

</div>

Hello zeek community,  
Could anyone please help me solve this issue?  
I’m not able to move forward…

Thanks very much!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jeffry\_Lang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3e96dc/32.png) [@Jeffry\_Lang](https://community.zeek.org/u/Jeffry_Lang)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 3:04pm UTC](https://community.zeek.org/t/cannot-determine-bro-source-directory-use-bro-dist-dir/5900/3 "2019-11-27T15:04:54Z")

</div>

I’ve not attempted to install that plugin but looking at the github for it, [https://github.com/apache/metron-bro-plugin-kafka](https://github.com/apache/metron-bro-plugin-kafka), it has this statement “bro-pkg is the preferred mechanism for installing this plugin, as it will dynamically retrieve, build, test, and load the plugin.” That leads me to the zkg config file documentation at [https://docs.zeek.org/projects/package-manager/en/stable/zkg.html#zkg-config-file](https://docs.zeek.org/projects/package-manager/en/stable/zkg.html#zkg-config-file)

```auto
# The directory containing Zeek distribution source code. This is only
# needed when installing packages that contain Zeek plugins that are
# not pre-built. The legacy name of this option is "bro_dist".
zeek_dist =

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/zeek/original/1X/f09d732bc2cc7c7cc7e35db67cf4e1d5233ce7a7.png) [@system](https://community.zeek.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2022, 3:46pm UTC](https://community.zeek.org/t/cannot-determine-bro-source-directory-use-bro-dist-dir/5900/4 "2022-05-06T15:46:52Z")

</div>