Slackware port to musl libc

Out of interest, i started porting slackware64-current to utilize musl-libc instead of glibc.
http://computer-nr3.de/muskat64-current/

Be aware that it's a work in progress, lots of packages aren't ported yet.

You may check it out with this template to create an lxc-container:

curl http://computer-nr3.de/muskat64-current/lxc-muskat > /usr/share/lxc/templates/lxc-muskat
chmod 755 /usr/share/lxc/templates/lxc-muskat
curl http://computer-nr3.de/muskat64-current/GPG-KEY | gpg --import

Here is a basic example for those who aren't familiar with lxc:

echo 'USE_LXC_BRIDGE="true"' > /etc/default/lxc-net
mkdir /var/lib/misc
/usr/libexec/lxc/lxc-net start
cat << EOF > /var/lib/lxc/default.conf
lxc.network.type = veth
lxc.network.flags = up
lxc.network.link = lxcbr0
EOF
lxc-create -n muskat -t muskat -f /var/lib/lxc/default.conf
lxc-start -n muskat
lxc-attach -n muskat

I hope this port is of interest for some of you, feedback ist appreciated :-)

Very nice, I don't have time to test this out right now, but it's a cool initiative!

Thanks. I think it is the instinct of avoiding bloat and keep things simple but functional that motivates me for this project.
Musl devs says that it's advantages over other libc's are "size, correctness, static linking support, and clean code".
Hard to say if it brings some perfomance boost, more likely it saves some ram.
At least it brings independence from glibc, and works surprisingly well.

On my 10 Years old lenovo laptop i compiled qt5 against musl, where it failed for some reasons(ram/swap if i remember correctly)
to compile qt5 with slackware 14.2/glibc.

I also like the attitude of the main developer from musl, here is a comment from him on a vte bugreport regarding musl.

great news! it would be awesome to get rid of the atrocity called glibc.

rich felker is indeed a no bullshit guy. his blog http://ewontfix.com/ is an interesting read.

keep up the good work!

I've added some more packages, http://computer-nr3.de/muskat64-current/ChangeLog.txt
The "rust" package doesn't build yet and is a showstopper, as mozjs78 and others depend on it, on mozjs78 in turn does polkit and others depend on etc.

809 out of 1557 builds are compiled, 748 builds to go.

Originally Posted by franzen I've added some more packages, http://computer-nr3.de/muskat64-current/ChangeLog.txt The "rust" package doesn't build yet and is a showstopper, as mozjs78 and others depend on it, on mozjs78 in turn does polkit and others depend on etc. 809 out of 1557 builds are compiled, 748 builds to go.

Nice... I am myself in the process of moving/adding my system from glibc to musl so might look to you for ideas if necessary.

I am not used to musl whatsoever so will take considerable auditing and patching before I got this sorted no doubt.

rust is an annoyance when it comes to bootstrapping. Are you using mrustc to bootstrap it or? Just doing a static downloaded seed ?

Originally Posted by lakmilis Nice... I am myself in the process of moving/adding my system from glibc to musl so might look to you for ideas if necessary.

Yor're welcome :-) I myself get the most patches from Alpine https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages and Void https://github.com/void-linux/void-p...master/srcpkgs

rust is an annoyance when it comes to bootstrapping. Are you using mrustc to bootstrap it or? Just doing a static downloaded seed ?

I didn't knew of mrustc. What didn't work for bootstrapping was manual installation of rust/cargo, as the installed version of rust on the system needs to be max. one version off to version to be build.
What worked here to build rust 1.48.0 was the following(adapted from the slackware buildscripts), download

https://static.rust-lang.org/dist/rustc-1.48.0-src.tar.gz
https://static.rust-lang.org/dist/2020-10-08/cargo-0.48.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz
https://static.rust-lang.org/dist/2020-10-08/rust-std-1.47.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz
https://static.rust-lang.org/dist/2020-10-08/rustc-1.47.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz

extract rustc-1.48.0-src.tar.gz, and enter rustc-1.48.0-src, then

mkdir -p build/cache/2020-10-08
cp  \
  rust-std-1.47.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz \
  rustc-1.47.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz \
  cargo-0.48.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz \
  build/cache/2020-10-08

.. and then go on with setting config.toml and build with "python x.py dist".
I did also use various patches from https://github.com/void-linux/void-p...r/srcpkgs/rust

thats very very nice a port too musl sounds great, what about gcompat package, that would help to run glibc packages in musl.

Originally Posted by adcdam thats very very nice a port too musl sounds great, what about gcompat package, that would help to run glibc packages in musl.

Thanks for that hint, didn't know about gcompat.
I think about providing an extra repository for packages like that to make it more inviting to try out the port, but the port/packages itself should stay as near as possible to slackware, so no extra packages which aren't absolutely needed there.

Btw., i made some progress, some more packages were added, X is working now. I installed the port a laptop, and i could login into xfce :-)

Excellent!!!! perhaps you can check this too https://ch1p.io/void-linux-musl-glibc/
https://github.com/gch1p/voidnsrun and perhaps fork it case it doesnt work in Slackware just in case someone want to run some glibc program in a musl slackware.

also gcompat if its needed https://github.com/AdelieLinux/gcompat