GNU Hurd/ hurd/ building

Welcome to... ... the GNU Hurd!

/!\ The following information may very well be incomplete and out-dated.

If you want to build the Hurd libraries and servers (translators) yourself instead of just using pre-built binaries, follow these instructions.

One note before we begin: the likelihood that the compiled result will actually do what you expect it to do is the highest if you try building from the Debian source packages. This is especially true if you want to use your compilation within a Debian system.

Note that for building code to run on GNU/Hurd systems, you need a toolchain for the GNU Hurd. You can either compile on a GNU/Hurd system, or need a cross-compiler targeting GNU/Hurd. Our toolchain page has the details.

  1. Preparing for the Build
  2. Getting the Source Code
  3. Building
  4. RPC IDs
  5. Testing

Preparing for the Build

... on Debian systems

Building the Hurd requires the build-essential and fakeroot packages, their dependencies and additional packages that are specified by the source hurd package:

# apt-get install build-essential fakeroot
# apt-get build-dep hurd

... on non-Debian systems

[TODO]

Getting the Source Code

You can chose between getting the sources from the developers's git:

$ git clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/hurd/hurd.git

... or (if you are working on a Debian system) the ones that are used for the current Debian hurd package:

$ apt-get source hurd

Please see the Debian FAQ before using apt-get source.

The unpacked source tree is around 20 MiB, and the build tree (configured with --disable-profile) is around 100 MiB.

Building

Debian .deb Files

Change into the directory with the downloaded / unpacked Hurd sources, e.g.

$ cd hurd-VERSION

If you want to work on the sources before building them, it's advisable to first make sure that patches that the Debian hurd package additionally contains are applied:

$ dh_quilt_patch

Then edit and change whatever files you want and finally start the build process with

$ dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -nc -b -rfakeroot

The .deb packages will then drop out at the ../ directory.

Building, but not the Debian Way

The Hurd has to be built in a separate directory:

$ mkdir hurd-build
$ cd hurd-build

$ [...]/hurd-VERSION/configure --disable-profile
$ make
$ make install

Notice that make install will install the Hurd in /, not in /usr/local/ or /local/, so your current Hurd servers will be replaced. To install to a different location, specify --prefix=PREFIX as configure parameter, e.g. --prefix=/usr (as done when having a real /usr).

By default profiling versions of all the libraries and code are generated but this is useless in most of the cases, so we disable them by specifying --disable-profile on configure's command line.

If you just want to build a specific server or library, you can pass its name to make:

$ make ext2fs
$ make libtrivfs

This will automatically build all libraries that are required to build the requested server or library.

RPC IDs

[TODO: update / integrate somewhere.]

If you want to trace the RPC calls made by some process by using rpctrace command, you will also want some more human-readable output of this command. This is achieved by generating hurd.msgids file that includes the mapping between the number of the RPC call and its name:

$ cd build/hurd
$ make hurd.msgids
$ cp hurd.msgids ~

Now you can use this file in the following way:

$ rpctrace -i ~/hurd.msgids ls

Testing

Any statically linked binaries (make proc && (cd proc/ && make proc.static)) can be used directly, as they are self-contained regarding the Hurd libraries they're using.

Dynamically linked binaries will use the system's shared Hurd libraries, which may be or may not be what you want.

Check:

$ ldd utils/ps
        libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 => /lib/libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 (0x01036000)
        libps.so.0.3 => /lib/libps.so.0.3 (0x01038000)
        libihash.so.0.3 => /lib/libihash.so.0.3 (0x0104a000)
        libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 => /lib/libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 (0x0104e000)
        libc.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libc.so.0.3 (0x0105a000)
        libhurduser.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libhurduser.so.0.3 (0x011eb000)
        libmachuser.so.1 => /lib/i386-gnu/libmachuser.so.1 (0x01211000)
        /lib/ld.so => /lib/ld.so.1 (0x00001000)

Run:

$ utils/ps
[...]

For example, if you have done changes to libps and now want to test them with ps (which dynamically links to libps), this is not good. To overcome this, LD_LIBRARY_PATH can be used:

Check:

$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$PWD"/libps ldd utils/ps
        libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 => /lib/libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 (0x01036000)
        libps.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/libps/libps.so.0.3 (0x01038000)
        libihash.so.0.3 => /lib/libihash.so.0.3 (0x0104b000)
        libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 => /lib/libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 (0x0104e000)
        libc.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libc.so.0.3 (0x0105a000)
        libhurduser.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libhurduser.so.0.3 (0x011eb000)
        libmachuser.so.1 => /lib/i386-gnu/libmachuser.so.1 (0x01211000)
        /lib/ld.so => /lib/ld.so.1 (0x00001000)

Run:

$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$PWD"/libps utils/ps
[...]

Additionally, a hurd-build/lib directory is populated with links to all shared Hurd libraries.

Check:

$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$PWD"/lib ldd utils/ps
        libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 (0x0102b000)
        libps.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libps.so.0.3 (0x0102d000)
        libihash.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libihash.so.0.3 (0x01040000)
        libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 (0x01043000)
        libc.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libc.so.0.3 (0x0105a000)
        libhurduser.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libhurduser.so.0.3 (0x011eb000)
        libmachuser.so.1 => /lib/i386-gnu/libmachuser.so.1 (0x01211000)
        /lib/ld.so => /lib/ld.so.1 (0x00001000)

Run:

$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$PWD"/lib utils/ps
[...]

Likewise, if there is a reason to, it is possible to use the system's /bin/ps with a freshly built libps:

$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$PWD"/libps /bin/ps
[...]

Etc.

And, the same is possible with translators, too.

Check, system's shared Hurd libraries:

$ ldd tmpfs/tmpfs
        libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 => /lib/libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 (0x01036000)
        libdiskfs.so.0.3 => /lib/libdiskfs.so.0.3 (0x01038000)
        libpager.so.0.3 => /lib/libpager.so.0.3 (0x01060000)
        libiohelp.so.0.3 => /lib/libiohelp.so.0.3 (0x01069000)
        libfshelp.so.0.3 => /lib/libfshelp.so.0.3 (0x0106c000)
        libstore.so.0.3 => /lib/libstore.so.0.3 (0x01072000)
        libthreads.so.0.3 => /lib/libthreads.so.0.3 (0x010ba000)
        libports.so.0.3 => /lib/libports.so.0.3 (0x010c1000)
        libihash.so.0.3 => /lib/libihash.so.0.3 (0x010ca000)
        libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 => /lib/libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 (0x010ce000)
        libc.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libc.so.0.3 (0x010da000)
        libmachuser.so.1 => /lib/i386-gnu/libmachuser.so.1 (0x0126b000)
        libhurduser.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libhurduser.so.0.3 (0x01282000)
        libparted.so.0 => /lib/libparted.so.0 (0x012a8000)
        libuuid.so.1 => /lib/libuuid.so.1 (0x01315000)
        libdl.so.2 => /lib/i386-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x01319000)
        /lib/ld.so => /lib/ld.so.1 (0x00001000)

Check, local libdiskfs, and otherwise system's shared Hurd libraries:

$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$PWD"/libdiskfs ldd tmpfs/tmpfs
        libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 => /lib/libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 (0x01036000)
        libdiskfs.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/libdiskfs/libdiskfs.so.0.3 (0x01038000)
        libpager.so.0.3 => /lib/libpager.so.0.3 (0x01061000)
        libiohelp.so.0.3 => /lib/libiohelp.so.0.3 (0x01069000)
        libfshelp.so.0.3 => /lib/libfshelp.so.0.3 (0x0106c000)
        libstore.so.0.3 => /lib/libstore.so.0.3 (0x01072000)
        libthreads.so.0.3 => /lib/libthreads.so.0.3 (0x010ba000)
        libports.so.0.3 => /lib/libports.so.0.3 (0x010c1000)
        libihash.so.0.3 => /lib/libihash.so.0.3 (0x010cb000)
        libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 => /lib/libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 (0x010ce000)
        libc.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libc.so.0.3 (0x010da000)
        libmachuser.so.1 => /lib/i386-gnu/libmachuser.so.1 (0x0126b000)
        libhurduser.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libhurduser.so.0.3 (0x01282000)
        libparted.so.0 => /lib/libparted.so.0 (0x012a9000)
        libuuid.so.1 => /lib/libuuid.so.1 (0x01315000)
        libdl.so.2 => /lib/i386-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x01319000)
        /lib/ld.so => /lib/ld.so.1 (0x00001000)

Check, all local shared Hurd libraries:

$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$PWD"/lib ldd tmpfs/tmpfs
        libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libhurdbugaddr.so.0.3 (0x0102b000)
        libdiskfs.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libdiskfs.so.0.3 (0x0102d000)
        libpager.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libpager.so.0.3 (0x01056000)
        libiohelp.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libiohelp.so.0.3 (0x0105e000)
        libfshelp.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libfshelp.so.0.3 (0x01061000)
        libstore.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libstore.so.0.3 (0x01066000)
        libthreads.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libthreads.so.0.3 (0x010ae000)
        libports.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libports.so.0.3 (0x010b6000)
        libihash.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libihash.so.0.3 (0x010be000)
        libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 => /home/thomas/tmp/hurd/git.build/lib/libshouldbeinlibc.so.0.3 (0x010c1000)
        libc.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libc.so.0.3 (0x010d8000)
        libmachuser.so.1 => /lib/i386-gnu/libmachuser.so.1 (0x01269000)
        libhurduser.so.0.3 => /lib/i386-gnu/libhurduser.so.0.3 (0x01281000)
        libparted.so.0 => /lib/libparted.so.0 (0x012a7000)
        libuuid.so.1 => /lib/libuuid.so.1 (0x01313000)
        libdl.so.2 => /lib/i386-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x01317000)
        /lib/ld.so => /lib/ld.so.1 (0x00001000)

Run, system's shared Hurd libraries:

$ settrans -ca tmp-0 /usr/bin/env "$PWD"/tmpfs 32M

Run, local libdiskfs, and otherwise system's shared Hurd libraries:

$ settrans -ca tmp-0 /usr/bin/env LD_LIBRARAY_PATH="$PWD"/libdiskfs "$PWD"/tmpfs 32M

Run, all local shared Hurd libraries:

$ settrans -ca tmp-0 /usr/bin/env LD_LIBRARAY_PATH="$PWD"/lib "$PWD"/tmpfs 32M

Likewise, if there is a reason to, it is possible to use the system's /hurd/tmpfs with a freshly built libdiskfs:

$ settrans -ca tmp-0 /usr/bin/env LD_LIBRARAY_PATH="$PWD"/libdiskfs /hurd/tmpfs 32M

Etc.