path: root/contrib/guix/README.md

# Bootstrappable Bitcoin Core Builds

This directory contains the files necessary to perform bootstrappable Bitcoin
Core builds.

[Bootstrappability][b17e] furthers our binary security guarantees by allowing us
to _audit and reproduce_ our toolchain instead of blindly _trusting_ binary
downloads.

We achieve bootstrappability by using Guix as a functional package manager.

## Requirements

Conservatively, a x86_64 machine with:

- 16GB of free disk space on the partition that /gnu/store will reside in
- 8GB of free disk space per platform triple you're planning on building (see
  the `HOSTS` environment variable description)

## Setup

### Installing Guix

If you're just testing this out, you can use the
[Dockerfile][fanquake/guix-docker] for convenience. It automatically speeds up
your builds by [using substitutes](#speeding-up-builds-with-substitute-servers).
If you don't want this behaviour, refer to the [next
section](#choosing-your-security-model).

Otherwise, follow the [Guix installation guide][guix/bin-install].

> Note: For those who like to keep their filesystems clean, Guix is designed to
> be very standalone and _will not_ conflict with your system's package
> manager/existing setup. It _only_ touches `/var/guix`, `/gnu`, and
> `~/.config/guix`.

### Choosing your security model

Guix allows us to achieve better binary security by using our CPU time to build
everything from scratch. However, it doesn't sacrifice user choice in pursuit of
this: users can decide whether or not to bootstrap and to use substitutes
(pre-built packages).

After installation, you may want to consider [adding substitute
servers](#speeding-up-builds-with-substitute-servers) from which to download
pre-built packages to speed up your build if that fits your security model (say,
if you're just testing that this works). Substitute servers are set up by
default if you're using the [Dockerfile][fanquake/guix-docker].

If you prefer not to use any substitutes, make sure to supply `--no-substitutes`
like in the following snippet. The first build will take a while, but the
resulting packages will be cached for future builds.

```sh
export ADDITIONAL_GUIX_COMMON_FLAGS='--no-substitutes'
```

Likewise, to perform a bootstrapped build (takes even longer):

```sh
export ADDITIONAL_GUIX_COMMON_FLAGS='--no-substitutes' ADDITIONAL_GUIX_ENVIRONMENT_FLAGS='--bootstrap'
```

### Using a version of Guix with `guix time-machine` capabilities

> Note: This entire section can be skipped if you are already using a version of
> Guix that has [the `guix time-machine` command][guix/time-machine].

Once Guix is installed, if it doesn't have the `guix time-machine` command, pull
the latest `guix`.

```sh
guix pull --max-jobs=4 # change number of jobs accordingly
```

Make sure that you are using your current profile. (You are prompted to do this
at the end of the `guix pull`)

```bash
export PATH="${HOME}/.config/guix/current/bin${PATH:+:}$PATH"
```

### Controlling the number of threads used by `guix` build commands

By default, the scripts under `./contrib/guix` will invoke all `guix` build
commands with `--cores="$JOBS"`. Note that `$JOBS` defaults to `$(nproc)` if not
specified. However, astute manual readers will also notice that there is a
`--max-jobs=` flag (which defaults to 1 if unspecified).

Here is the difference between `--cores=` and `--max-jobs=`:

> Note: When I say "derivation," think "package"

`--cores=`

  - controls the number of CPU cores to build each derivation. This is the value
    passed to `make`'s `--jobs=` flag.

`--max-jobs=`

  - controls how many derivations can be built in parallel
  - defaults to 1

Therefore, the default is for `guix` build commands to build one derivation at a
time, utilizing `$JOBS` threads.

Specifying the `$JOBS` environment variable will only modify `--cores=`, but you
can also modify the value for `--max-jobs=` by specifying
`$ADDITIONAL_GUIX_COMMON_FLAGS`. For example, if you have a LOT of memory, you
may want to set:

```sh
export ADDITIONAL_GUIX_COMMON_FLAGS='--max-jobs=8'
```

Which allows for a maximum of 8 derivations to be built at the same time, each
utilizing `$JOBS` threads.

Or, if you'd like to avoid spurious build failures caused by issues with
parallelism within a single package, but would still like to build multiple
packages when the dependency graph allows for it, you may want to try:

```sh
export JOBS=1 ADDITIONAL_GUIX_COMMON_FLAGS='--max-jobs=8'
```

## Usage

### As a Tool for Deterministic Builds

From the top of a clean Bitcoin Core repository:

```sh
./contrib/guix/guix-build
```

After the build finishes successfully (check the status code please), compare
hashes:

```sh
find output/ -type f -print0 | sort -z | xargs -r0 sha256sum
```

#### Recognized environment variables

* _**HOSTS**_

  Override the space-separated list of platform triples for which to perform a
  bootstrappable build. _(defaults to "x86\_64-linux-gnu arm-linux-gnueabihf
  aarch64-linux-gnu riscv64-linux-gnu powerpc64-linux-gnu powerpc64le-linux-gnu
  x86\_64-w64-mingw32 x86\_64-apple-darwin18")_

* _**SOURCES_PATH**_

  Set the depends tree download cache for sources. This is passed through to the
  depends tree. Setting this to the same directory across multiple builds of the
  depends tree can eliminate unnecessary redownloading of package sources.

* _**BASE_CACHE**_

  Set the depends tree cache for built packages. This is passed through to the
  depends tree. Setting this to the same directory across multiple builds of the
  depends tree can eliminate unnecessary building of packages.

* _**SDK_PATH**_

  Set the path where _extracted_ SDKs can be found. This is passed through to
  the depends tree. Note that this is should be set to the _parent_ directory of
  the actual SDK (e.g. SDK_PATH=$HOME/Downloads/macOS-SDKs instead of
  $HOME/Downloads/macOS-SDKs/Xcode-11.3.1-11C505-extracted-SDK-with-libcxx-headers).

* _**JOBS**_

  Override the number of jobs to run simultaneously, you might want to do so on
  a memory-limited machine. This may be passed to:

  - `guix` build commands as in `guix environment --cores="$JOBS"`
  - `make` as in `make --jobs="$JOBS"`
  - `xargs` as in `xargs -P"$JOBS"`

  _(defaults to the value of `nproc` outside the container)_

* _**SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH**_

  Override the reference UNIX timestamp used for bit-for-bit reproducibility,
  the variable name conforms to [standard][r12e/source-date-epoch]. _(defaults
  to the output of `$(git log --format=%at -1)`)_

* _**V**_

  If non-empty, will pass `V=1` to all `make` invocations, making `make` output
  verbose.

  Note that any given value is ignored. The variable is only checked for
  emptiness. More concretely, this means that `V=` (setting `V` to the empty
  string) is interpreted the same way as not setting `V` at all, and that `V=0`
  has the same effect as `V=1`.

* _**SUBSTITUTE_URLS**_

  A whitespace-delimited list of URLs from which to download pre-built packages.
  A URL is only used if its signing key is authorized (refer to the [substitute
  servers section](#speeding-up-builds-with-substitute-servers) for more
  details).

* _**ADDITIONAL_GUIX_COMMON_FLAGS**_

  Additional flags to be passed to all `guix` commands. For a fully-bootstrapped
  build, set this to `--bootstrap --no-substitutes` (refer to the [security
  model section](#choosing-your-security-model) for more details). Note that a
  fully-bootstrapped build will take quite a long time on the first run.

* _**ADDITIONAL_GUIX_TIMEMACHINE_FLAGS**_

  Additional flags to be passed to `guix time-machine`.

* _**ADDITIONAL_GUIX_ENVIRONMENT_FLAGS**_

  Additional flags to be passed to the invocation of `guix environment` inside
  `guix time-machine`.

## Tips and Tricks

### Speeding up builds with substitute servers

_This whole section is automatically done in the convenience
[Dockerfiles][fanquake/guix-docker]_

For those who are used to life in the fast _(and trustful)_ lane, you can
specify [substitute servers][guix/substitutes] from which to download pre-built
packages.

> For those who only want to use substitutes from the official Guix build farm
> and have authorized the build farm's signing key during Guix's installation,
> you don't need to do anything.

#### Step 1: Authorize the signing keys

For the official Guix build farm at https://ci.guix.gnu.org, run as root:

```
guix archive --authorize < ~root/.config/guix/current/share/guix/ci.guix.gnu.org.pub
```

For dongcarl's substitute server at https://guix.carldong.io, run as root:

```sh
wget -qO- 'https://guix.carldong.io/signing-key.pub' | guix archive --authorize
```

#### Step 2: Specify the substitute servers

The official Guix build farm at https://ci.guix.gnu.org is automatically used
unless the `--no-substitutes` flag is supplied.

This can be overridden for all `guix` invocations by passing the
`--substitute-urls` option to your invocation of `guix-daemon`. This can also be
overridden on a call-by-call basis by passing the same `--substitute-urls`
option to client tools such at `guix environment`.

To use dongcarl's substitute server for Bitcoin Core builds after having
[authorized his signing key](#authorize-the-signing-keys):

```
export SUBSTITUTE_URLS='https://guix.carldong.io https://ci.guix.gnu.org'
```

## Troubleshooting

### Derivation failed to build

When you see a build failure like below:

```
building /gnu/store/...-foo-3.6.12.drv...
/ 'check' phasenote: keeping build directory `/tmp/guix-build-foo-3.6.12.drv-0'
builder for `/gnu/store/...-foo-3.6.12.drv' failed with exit code 1
build of /gnu/store/...-foo-3.6.12.drv failed
View build log at '/var/log/guix/drvs/../...-foo-3.6.12.drv.bz2'.
cannot build derivation `/gnu/store/...-qux-7.69.1.drv': 1 dependencies couldn't be built
cannot build derivation `/gnu/store/...-bar-3.16.5.drv': 1 dependencies couldn't be built
cannot build derivation `/gnu/store/...-baz-2.0.5.drv': 1 dependencies couldn't be built
guix time-machine: error: build of `/gnu/store/...-baz-2.0.5.drv' failed
```

It means that `guix` failed to build a package named `foo`, which was a
dependency of `qux`, `bar`, and `baz`. Importantly, note that the last "failed"
line is not necessarily the root cause, the first "failed" line is.

Most of the time, the build failure is due to a spurious test failure or the
package's build system/test suite breaking when running multi-threaded. To
rebuild _just_ this derivation in a single-threaded fashion:

```sh
$ guix build --cores=1 /gnu/store/...-foo-3.6.12.drv
```

If the single-threaded rebuild did not succeed, you may need to dig deeper.
You may view `foo`'s build logs in `less` like so (please replace paths with the
path you see in the build failure output):

```sh
$ bzcat /var/log/guix/drvs/../...-foo-3.6.12.drv.bz2 | less
```

`foo`'s build directory is also preserved and available at
`/tmp/guix-build-foo-3.6.12.drv-0`. However, if you fail to build `foo` multiple
times, it may be `/tmp/...drv-1` or `/tmp/...drv-2`. Always consult the build
failure output for the most accurate, up-to-date information.

#### python(-minimal): [Errno 84] Invalid or incomplete multibyte or wide character

This error occurs when your `$TMPDIR` (default: /tmp) exists on a filesystem
which rejects characters not present in the UTF-8 character code set. An example
is ZFS with the utf8only=on option set.

More information: https://bugs.python.org/issue37584

## FAQ

### How can I trust the binary installation?

As mentioned at the bottom of [this manual page][guix/bin-install]:

> The binary installation tarballs can be (re)produced and verified simply by
> running the following command in the Guix source tree:
>
>     make guix-binary.x86_64-linux.tar.xz

### Is Guix packaged in my operating system?

Guix is shipped starting with [Debian Bullseye][debian/guix-bullseye] and
[Ubuntu 21.04 "Hirsute Hippo"][ubuntu/guix-hirsute]. Other operating systems
are working on packaging Guix as well.

[b17e]: http://bootstrappable.org/
[r12e/source-date-epoch]: https://reproducible-builds.org/docs/source-date-epoch/

[guix/install.sh]: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/plain/etc/guix-install.sh
[guix/bin-install]: https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/en/html_node/Binary-Installation.html
[guix/env-setup]: https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/en/html_node/Build-Environment-Setup.html
[guix/substitutes]: https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/en/html_node/Substitutes.html
[guix/substitute-server-auth]: https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/en/html_node/Substitute-Server-Authorization.html
[guix/time-machine]: https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Invoking-guix-time_002dmachine.html

[debian/guix-bullseye]: https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/guix
[ubuntu/guix-hirsute]: https://packages.ubuntu.com/hirsute/guix
[fanquake/guix-docker]: https://github.com/fanquake/core-review/tree/master/guix