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0compile: Chroot Build

This page explains how to build in a chroot sandbox environment using 0compile. It offers a few advantages:

  • Building doesn't affect the host environment, and the host doesn't influence the build.
  • Builds can target a different architecture, such as building x86 packages from a x64 host.
  • The build sandbox is smaller than a virtual machine, and the download is typically smaller.

The build system (chroot) comes with development tools such as gcc and make, and the 0launch command.

Warning

This page is very out-of-date. Consider using Docker to sandbox builds instead.

Chroot setup

Alternatives:

  • Build on a Debian system (including Ubuntu), using APT and .deb with pbuilder
  • Build on a Red Hat system (including Fedora), using Yum and .rpm with mock
  • Build on a Linux From Scratch system, using only source tarballs with chroot

For all systems we use a build directory, that is bind-mounted inside the chroot, to hold our build results.

Debian

http://pbuilder.alioth.debian.org/

Install and configure the software:

$ sudo apt-get install pbuilder

$ mkdir -p build
$ echo "BINDMOUNTS='build'" >> /etc/pbuilderrc

Prepare the build environment cache:

MIRROR=http://ftp.debian.org/debian/
DIST=lenny

ARCH=i386 ## or amd64
CPU=i486 ## or x86_64

BASEDIR=/var/cache/pbuilder
TGZ=${BASEDIR}/${DIST}-${ARCH}.tgz

$ sudo pbuilder --create --basetgz $TGZ --mirror $MIRROR \
                --distribution $DIST --architecture $ARCH \
                --extrapackages "zeroinstall-injector"

Enter the build environment chroot:

$ setarch $CPU sudo pbuilder --login --basetgz $TGZ
## cat /etc/debian_version
5.0.8
## 0launch --version
0launch (zero-install) 0.34
Copyright (C) 2007 Thomas Leonard
...

Has build-essential dependencies:

  • dpkg-dev
    • dpkg
    • perl5
    • perl-modules
    • cpio
    • bzip2
    • lzma
    • patch
    • make
    • binutils
    • libtimedate-perl
    • gcc | c-compiler
  • g++
  • libc6-dev | libc-dev
  • make

Red Hat

https://fedorahosted.org/mock/

Install and configure the software:

$ su -c "yum install mock"
$ su -c "usermod -G mock $USER"

$ mkdir -p build
$ echo "config_opts['plugin_conf']['bind_mount_opts']['dirs'].append(('./build', '/build'))" >> /etc/mock/site-defaults.cfg

Prepare the build environment cache:

ARCH=i386 ## or x86_64

ROOT=epel-5-$ARCH

$ mock --root=$ROOT --arch=$ARCH --init
$ mock --root=$ROOT --arch=$ARCH --install "zeroinstall-injector"

Enter the build environment chroot:

$ mock --root=$ROOT --arch=$ARCH --shell
> cat /etc/redhat-release
CentOS release 5.6 (Final)
> 0launch --version
0launch (zero-install) 0.38
Copyright (C) 2007 Thomas Leonard
...

$ mock --root=$ROOT --arch=$ARCH --clean

Has buildsys-build dependencies:

  • bash
  • buildsys-macros
  • bzip2
  • coreutils
  • cpio
  • diffutils
  • elfutils
  • gcc-c++
  • gcc
  • gzip
  • make
  • patch
  • perl
  • redhat-release
  • redhat-rpm-config
  • rpm-build
  • sed
  • tar
  • unzip
  • which

Linux From Scratch

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/

Build LFS:

Enter chroot:

export LFS=/mnt/lfs

sudo mount -v --bind /dev $LFS/dev

sudo mount -vt devpts devpts $LFS/dev/pts
sudo mount -vt tmpfs shm $LFS/dev/shm
sudo mount -vt proc proc $LFS/proc
sudo mount -vt sysfs sysfs $LFS/sys

sudo mkdir -pv $LFS/build
sudo mount -v --bind ./build $LFS/build

$ sudo chroot $LFS /usr/bin/env -i \
    HOME=/root TERM="$TERM" PS1='\u:\w\$ ' \
    PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin \
    /bin/bash --login
## cat /etc/lfs-release
6.8

BLFS packages:

Zero Install itself:

0compile setup

Now we have a chroot with 0launch, and can add 0compile:

CMD="0compile"
URI="https://apps.0install.net/0install/0compile.xml"

$ yes Y | /usr/bin/0launch -cd $URI
$ 0alias -d /usr/bin $CMD $URI

Note

Depending on your build OS and Python version, you might need to use an older version of 0compile.

0compile build

Begin with downloading the source code, in console mode:

$ 0launch -cd -s http://www.example.com/interfaces/foo.xml

Then we setup the build sub-directory using the source feed:

$ cd /build
$ 0compile setup http://www.example.com/interfaces/foo.xml foo

Next we proceed with building the binary from the source:

$ cd foo
$ 0compile build

Finally we tell 0compile to prepare the binary feed/archive:

$ 0compile publish http://www.example.com/implementations

After exiting the chroot, we can find the results in build/foo.

Publish results

The new binary feed is now ready to be merged with our source feed, signed (using 0publish --xmlsign), and published with the archives.

Since we used a new clean chroot to build the binary, we can be reasonably sure that all dependencies are included in the source feed.

Future directions

In the future it might be possible to use the Open Build Service (OBS), to build Zero Install packages using a distributed development platform.

Currently it (OBS) supports building RPM and Debian packages, those can be converted to Zero Install feeds using pkg2zero (when relocatable).