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xPack Build Box v5.0.0 released

· 3 min read
Liviu Ionescu (ilg)
Liviu Ionescu (ilg)

Version 5.0.0 is a new release; it no longer uses monolithic Docker images, but splits the dependencies amongst multiple binary xPacks.

The xPack Build Box (XBB) is a build environment intended for reproducible builds.

Version 5.0.0 represents a major milestone for the xPack project, since it is the first self-sustained release, which allows to build new binary xPacks using previous xPacks, and does not require any custom Docker images, or other compiled tools.

Tools versions​

In version 5.0.0, the main tools are no longer part of the core XBB, but are installed as binary xPacks, so each project can have its own selection of tools from the wide range of available binary xPacks.

Supported platforms​

XBB supports building binaries for the following platforms:

  • x64 GNU/Linux
  • arm64/arm GNU/Linux
  • x64 macOS
  • x64 Windows

Windows binaries are built on GNU/Linux, using mingw-w64-gcc.

Compatibility​

To allow the resulting binaries to run on as many existing systems as possible, the XBB build environments are on purpose based on older GNU/Linux and macOS releases:

  • x64/arm64/arm GNU/Linux: Ubuntu 12.04 with GLIBC 2.27; this should provide compatibility with:
    • Ubuntu 18 or later
    • Debian 10 or later
    • RedHat 8 or later
    • Fedora 29 or later
    • any other distributions using GLIBC 2.15 or higher
  • x64 Windows: Windows 7 with the new Universal C Runtime (UCRT)
  • x64 macOS: 10.13; this should provide compatibility with macOS 10.13 or later
  • arm64 macOS 11.6; this should provide compatibility with macOS 11.6 or later

GLIBC version​

To find out the GLIBC version on a given GNU/Linux distribution, use:

ldd --version

Linux Docker images​

On GNU/Linux, the production XBB consists of several Docker images.

The images are published on Docker Hub (pulling can be done anonymously, pushing requires login).

Intel GNU/Linux:

  • ilegeul/ubuntu:amd64-18.04-xbb-v5.0.0
$ docker images
REPOSITORY       TAG                      IMAGE ID       CREATED         SIZE
ilegeul/ubuntu   amd64-18.04-xbb-v5.0.0   5974fda9979c   3 months ago    908MB

The images were created on a Debian 10 running on an GIGABYTE B550M DS3H with AMD Ryzen 5 5600G.

Arm GNU/Linux:

  • ilegeul/ubuntu:arm64v8-18.04-xbb-v5.0.0
  • ilegeul/ubuntu:arm32v7-18.04-xbb-v5.0.0
REPOSITORY       TAG                        IMAGE ID       CREATED         SIZE
ilegeul/ubuntu   arm64v8-18.04-xbb-v5.0.0   baa7d6c9797e   3 months ago    758MB
ilegeul/ubuntu   arm32v7-18.04-xbb-v5.0.0   b071935af982   3 months ago    657MB

The arm64v8 image was created on a Raspberry Pi4 OS 64-bit running on a RPi4 with 8 GB RAM. The arm32v7 image was built on a Raspberry Pi OS 32-bit with running on a RPi4 with 4 GB RAM.

macOS​

When running on macOS, the build scripts cannot use Docker, since there are no macOS Docker images; instead, a standard system and the Command Line Tools are required.

Command Line Tools​

As usual with macOS, the compiler and other development tools are not packed in the base system and need to be installed separately as part of the Command Line Tools package, available from Apple.

The XBB binaries expect the CLT binary tools to be present in a fixed location, which is:

  • /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin

TeX​

The dependency to TeX was removed.