180701. Port of elfutils to musl.

This post is for those who know what "elfutils" and "musl" are and would like to get one into the other.

In 2018, I ported "elfutils" 0.173, which seemed to be the latest official release as of 180701, to musl 1.1.19.

Other ports existed. However, most were distro-specific or for older releases of "elfutils".

My 2018 port is undoubtedly obsolete today. However, the pro­cess that was used may be instruc­tive.

This wasn't a small task.

elfutils is madness
elfutils is horror
elfutils is descent into pit
Into musl elfutils does not fit

So, I'll share the resulting patch file and pro­ce­dure with others inter­est­ed in "musl".

For me, at any rate, the patch file and pro­ce­dure produce a clean "elfutils" build including executables and both static and dynamic libraries.

The "gcc" and "binutils" used were releases 6.4.0 and 2.27, respectively, as built by Rich Felker's "musl" cross make toolkit, which was located at:

https://github.com/richfelker/musl-cross-make

You can down­load all of the special files required, not including musl cross make, in a single ZIP archive at this link:

http://coderbits.haggishell.com/elfmusl/elfutils-oldcoder-180701.zip

The link will probably change later.

The ZIP file con­tains these files. You can down­load the ZIP file at this link. Or you can get the files inside it at the links be­low. Text files linked here have been renamed to "*.txt".

Here's the "build" pro­ce­dure. You'll most like­ly need to make changes based on your OS con­fig­ur­a­tion.

1. Start with a distro based on "musl" 1.1.19, "gcc" 6.4.0 or 7.2.0 or above, and "binutils" 2.27 or 2.28.

You'll need a full stand­ard development toolkit, including recent releases of "autoconf", "automake", and re­la­ted packages. "bzip2", "xzutils", and "zlib" libraries and header files as well.

In the fol­low­ing sections, you can change the PREFIX setting used, but two rules apply:

* The same PREFIX setting should be used in each script
* $PREFIX/include should be a dir­ec­tory that "gcc -I" knows about

2. You may, or may not, need to rebuild var­ious existing libraries with either or both of these two changes:

* Use the "gcc -fPIC" flag
* Build both static and dynamic libraries

Skip this part initially. If you get error messages later re­la­ted to linking with existing libraries, come back to this point and decide whether or not rebuilds might help.

3. If your distro doesn't pro­vide the "libargp.*" library and as­soc­i­a­ted header files, build and install "argp-standalone". Use the two Alpine patches provided.

The fol­low­ing script may work, with changes:

Warning: This package shouldn't be installed on a "glibc"-based system unless you take steps to prevent it from being used with­out special "gcc -I" and "ld -L" switches.

Even on a "musl"-based system, this package may break GNU "tar". If this happens, you'll probably be able to fix the prob­lem by fiddling with "tar" Makefiles.

4. If your distro doesn't pro­vide the "libobstack.*" library and the as­soc­i­a­ted header file, build and install "obstack". The fol­low­ing script may work, with changes:

5. Edit "musl-elfutils-180701.patch". Look for this part:

If "libargp.* is installed somewhere besides "/usr/local/lib", modify the "argp_LDADD" line appropriately.

If "libobstack.* is installed somewhere besides "/usr/local/lib", modify the "obstack_LDADD" line appropriately.

6. Build and install "elfutils". The fol­low­ing script may work, with changes: