How to fix "fatal error: security/pam_modules.h: No such file or directory"

Last updated on August 16, 2020 by Dan Nanni

Question: I was trying to compile a program on [insert your Linux distro], but was getting the following compile error:

"pam_otpw.c:27:34: fatal error: security/pam_modules.h: No such file or directory"

How can I fix this error?

The missing header file security/pam_modules.h is part of development files for libpam, a PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) library. Thus to fix this error, you need to install libpam development package, as described below.

On Debian, Ubuntu or Linux Mint:

$ sudo apt-get install libpam0g-dev

On CentOS, Fedora or RHEL:

$ sudo yum install gcc pam-devel

Now verify that the missing header file is installed under /usr/include/security.

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