Friday, February 29. 2008
Building static executables on Linux
An interesting question I had to answer a couple months ago was - how could I compile an executable statically, so then it works on various linux distributions without the need to install some additional libs. Of course, such the executables are bigger as that, which was compiled in order to use the dynamic libs. But if one wanna to have an independent production executable, this is what one could need.
So, I will explain the thing with the help of an example program, which uses ncurses. First I'm creating the project dir, for example:
So, I will explain the thing with the help of an example program, which uses ncurses. First I'm creating the project dir, for example:
BASH:
user@host~$ mkdir ~/programming/static_test user@host~$ cd ~/programming/static_test
Now I'll create the whole folder structure of the project:
So, let me explain, why I'm doing the scheme like this:
- the lib dir will contain all the *.a files, needed to compile statically
- the inc dir will contain all the headers to the lib/*.a files
- the obj dir, where the compiled *.o files will be placed in
- the src dir, where our source files are placed in
- the out dir, where all the compiled binaries etc. are placed in
So now, get the ncurses package, for example from here: ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/. Note, you can surely simply install the ncurses-dev package from your favorite distro, eq. like "apt-get install libncurses-dev" on debian, but than you'll get no example file we need. In the original gnu distribution the demo file can be located in the c++ dir, so I'm doing something like this, to use it:
So, we are using .cpp extentions for c++ sources under linux.
The next step would be to compile ncurses:
and to copy all the archive file *.a to our lib dir:
But this are not really all the libs we need to create a fully statically binary. Also, we need:
If this .a files aren't on your system ... simply install the appropriate development packages (you don't need to compile them from the scratch).
The next and last thing we need to make our project all-sufficient are the headers:
hm ... it looks to be complete *.h list ... but if something isn't present, look for it in the ncurses src dir or in the /usr/include ... I've done it a couple of months ago, so it may be not quite equal for you.
The thing one needs to make a project beautifull is a make or a configure script ... so, if some specific project is being maked, which must be compiled on the multiple platforms, you need the ./configure script (and hence automake etc.). If you're using it only to compile some project without this, it's enough to make a make script (as i'm doing it). It's not really bash, but at the moment I've no plugin to make it visible ..: so it's my Makefile (note, it's not really bash, it's make):
Notice the -static-libgcc g++ param, without which it'll not compile statically (because there is no statically compiled libgcc.a or something else like this).
Lern more about the make files there http://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/ or simply by the printed one.
so then, the following will make the whole project:
Now we got a binary in our out dir ... it's being compiled statically .. it can be used on each platform, your platform is related for. So in my case, the binary works on every 32 bit linux distribution I'm trying.
BASH:
user@host~$ mkdir inc user@host~$ mkdir lib user@host~$ mkdir obj user@host~$ mkdir out user@host~$ mkdir src
So, let me explain, why I'm doing the scheme like this:
- the lib dir will contain all the *.a files, needed to compile statically
- the inc dir will contain all the headers to the lib/*.a files
- the obj dir, where the compiled *.o files will be placed in
- the src dir, where our source files are placed in
- the out dir, where all the compiled binaries etc. are placed in
So now, get the ncurses package, for example from here: ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/. Note, you can surely simply install the ncurses-dev package from your favorite distro, eq. like "apt-get install libncurses-dev" on debian, but than you'll get no example file we need. In the original gnu distribution the demo file can be located in the c++ dir, so I'm doing something like this, to use it:
BASH:
user@host~$ cp ~/programming/ncurses-5.6/c++/demo.cc ~/static_test/demo.cpp
So, we are using .cpp extentions for c++ sources under linux.
The next step would be to compile ncurses:
BASH:
user@host~$ cd /programming/ncurses-5.6 user@host~$ ./configure && make
and to copy all the archive file *.a to our lib dir:
BASH:
user@host~$ cd ~/programming/ncurses-5.6/lib user@host~$ cp libform.a libmenu.a libncurses.a libncurses++.a libpanel.a ~/programming/static_test/lib
But this are not really all the libs we need to create a fully statically binary. Also, we need:
BASH:
user@host~$ cp `g++ -print-file-name=libstdc++.a` ~/programming/satic_test/lib/libstdc++.a user@host~$ cp `g++ -print-file-name=libm.a` ~/programming/static_test/lib/libm.a user@host~$ cp `g++ -print-file-name=libc.a` ~/programming/static_test/lib/libc.a
If this .a files aren't on your system ... simply install the appropriate development packages (you don't need to compile them from the scratch).
The next and last thing we need to make our project all-sufficient are the headers:
BASH:
user@host~$ cd ~/programming/ncurses-5.6 user@host~$ cp c++/cursesapp.h c++/cursesf.h c++/curses.h c++/cursesm.h c++/cursesp.h \ c++/cursesw.h c++/cursslk.h form/form.h menu/menu.h panel/panel.h include/nc*.h include/tic.h \ include/unctrl.h ~/programming/static_test/inc
hm ... it looks to be complete *.h list ... but if something isn't present, look for it in the ncurses src dir or in the /usr/include ... I've done it a couple of months ago, so it may be not quite equal for you.
The thing one needs to make a project beautifull is a make or a configure script ... so, if some specific project is being maked, which must be compiled on the multiple platforms, you need the ./configure script (and hence automake etc.). If you're using it only to compile some project without this, it's enough to make a make script (as i'm doing it). It's not really bash, but at the moment I've no plugin to make it visible ..: so it's my Makefile (note, it's not really bash, it's make):
BASH:
SRC_DIR = ./src OUT_DIR = ./out OBJ_DIR = ./obj INC_DIR = ./inc LIB_DIR = ./lib INCLUDE = -I$(INC_DIR) LIB = -L$(LIB_DIR) -lncurses++ -lform -lmenu -lpanel -lncurses VPATH = $(INC_DIR):$(OBJ_DIR):$(SRC_DIR):$(LIB_DIR) CXXFLAGS = $(INCLUDE) -O2 demo: demo.o\ libncurses++.a \ libform.a libmenu.a libpanel.a libncurses.a \ libstdc++.a libm.a g++ -static-libgcc -o $(OUT_DIR)/demo $(OBJ_DIR)/demo.o $(LIB) demo.o: demo.cpp internal.h ncurses_cfg.h ncurses_def.h \ curses.h unctrl.h cursesm.h cursesp.h panel.h \ menu.h cursesf.h form.h g++ -o $(OBJ_DIR)/demo.o -DNDEBUG $(CXXFLAGS) -c $(SRC_DIR)/demo.cpp clean: rm -f $(OBJ_DIR)/* rm -f $(OUT_DIR)/*
Notice the -static-libgcc g++ param, without which it'll not compile statically (because there is no statically compiled libgcc.a or something else like this).
Lern more about the make files there http://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/ or simply by the printed one.
so then, the following will make the whole project:
BASH:
user@host~$ cd ~/programming/static_test user@host~/programming/static_test$ make
Now we got a binary in our out dir ... it's being compiled statically .. it can be used on each platform, your platform is related for. So in my case, the binary works on every 32 bit linux distribution I'm trying.
BASH:
user@host~$ ldd out/demo not a dynamic executable user@host~$ file out/demo out/demo: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.4.1, statically linked, for GNU/Linux 2.4.1, not stripped
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