doc: add alpine build instructions

willcl-ark commented at 9:49 am on May 19, 2025: member

Closes: #32512

Provide Alpine build instructions in build-unix.md.
Instructions cover building all components except USDT which is marked as unsupported for Alpine.

DrahtBot commented at 9:49 am on May 19, 2025: contributor

The following sections might be updated with supplementary metadata relevant to reviewers and maintainers.

Code Coverage & Benchmarks

For details see: https://corecheck.dev/bitcoin/bitcoin/pulls/32559.

Reviews

See the guideline for information on the review process. A summary of reviews will appear here.

DrahtBot added the label Docs on May 19, 2025

in doc/build-unix.md:148 in 5937bc78ae outdated

143+
144+#### Dependency Build Instructions
145+
146+Build requirements:
147+
148+    apk add build-base cmake libressl libtool linux-headers python3

hebasto commented at 10:59 am on May 19, 2025:

Why libtool?

hebasto commented at 11:01 am on May 19, 2025:

I’d add pkgconf.

fanquake commented at 11:43 am on May 19, 2025:

libressl ?

willcl-ark commented at 9:19 am on May 20, 2025:

Crikey that’s an old hangover….

I ported initial requirements from my current Alpine Dockerfile

I foolishly assumed this was just the case of Alpine splitting packages more granularly that e.g. Ubuntu, but taking a closer look now suspect this is a hangover from pre 0.12 where we supported SSL on RPC?

Removed in 5332082d009

willcl-ark commented at 9:19 am on May 20, 2025:

Thanks, dropped libtool and added pkgconf

willcl-ark force-pushed on May 20, 2025

doc: add alpine build instructions 5332082d00

willcl-ark force-pushed on May 20, 2025

in depends/README.md:58 in 030c06562c outdated

52@@ -53,6 +53,21 @@ To build dependencies for the current arch+OS:
53 
54     gmake
55 
56+### Alpine
57+
58+    apk add bash build-base cmake curl m4 make patch

fanquake commented at 3:54 pm on May 20, 2025:

Don’t think you need m4 here?

willcl-ark commented at 6:41 pm on May 20, 2025:

Verified correct. thanks

in depends/README.md:69 in 030c06562c outdated

64+To build dependencies for the current arch+OS:
65+
66+    make
67+
68+> [!TIP]
69+> Avoid parallel build jobs when building depends on Alpine.

luke-jr commented at 6:22 pm on May 20, 2025:

Why?

fanquake commented at 6:24 pm on May 20, 2025:

Can be dropped after #32568.

fanquake commented at 10:03 am on June 4, 2025:

#32568 landed.

willcl-ark commented at 10:08 am on June 4, 2025:

Dropped in 64986e1a44e108628b245ca977d2b8eb69ed5580

willcl-ark force-pushed on May 20, 2025

willcl-ark force-pushed on Jun 4, 2025

willcl-ark marked this as ready for review on Jun 4, 2025

in doc/build-unix.md:152 in 64986e1a44 outdated

147+
148+    apk add build-base cmake linux-headers pkgconf python3
149+
150+Now, you can either build from self-compiled [depends](#dependencies) or install the required dependencies:
151+
152+    apk add libevent-dev boost-dev

hebasto commented at 4:04 pm on June 27, 2025:

FWIW, linux-headers is a dependency of boost-dev on my system.

in depends/README.md:66 in 64986e1a44 outdated

61+
62+    apk add bison linux-headers ninja-build pkgconf python3 xz
63+
64+To build dependencies for the current arch+OS:
65+
66+    make

hebasto commented at 4:09 pm on June 27, 2025:

not even a nit: gmake, which explicitly refers to GNU Make, also works.

in doc/build-unix.md:165 in 64986e1a44 outdated

160+ZMQ dependencies (provides ZMQ API):
161+
162+    apk add zeromq-dev
163+
164+User-Space, Statically Defined Tracing (USDT) is not directly compatible on
165+Alpine as it uses libc functionality not available on musl.

hebasto commented at 4:12 pm on June 27, 2025:

However, depends build the systemtap package. The subsequent configuration results in:

0# cmake -B build --toolchain depends/x86_64-pc-linux-musl/toolchain.cmake
1<snip>
2  USDT tracing ........................ ON
3<snip>

And the build succeeds.

cc @0xB10C

fanquake commented at 3:13 pm on July 15, 2025:

Did using the tracepoints work? Depends and a build will likely succeed, depends is just copying a header, and the CMake existence check is basic.

willcl-ark commented at 8:37 pm on July 15, 2025:

I don’t have a good way to test this personally, as I’m primarily using alpine in a container. I’ve therefore updated the comment here to:

0User-Space, Statically Defined Tracing (USDT) is not supported or tested on Alpine Linux at this time.

…which I think is more accurate having done more research into systemtap/dtrace/usdt support on Alpine. This doesn’t preclude someone from getting it working/documenting the steps in the future.

in depends/README.md:62 in 64986e1a44 outdated

57+
58+    apk add bash build-base cmake curl make patch
59+
60+Skip the following packages if you don't intend to use the GUI and will build with [`NO_QT=1`](#dependency-options):
61+
62+    apk add bison linux-headers ninja-build pkgconf python3 xz

hebasto commented at 4:37 pm on June 27, 2025:

I think we should consider a note from apk:

0Executing ninja-build-1.12.1-r1.post-install
1* this only installs ninja to /usr/lib/ninja-build/bin/ninja
2* add that to your path to use it, or invoke it directly.
3* for most uses, you want samurai instead:
4*  $ apk add samurai
5* which has a "ninja" executable compatible with ninja.

and install samurai. Otherwise, Qt still complains:

0CMake Warning at qtbase/cmake/QtBuildHelpers.cmake:12 (message):
1  The officially supported CMake generator for building Qt is Ninja / Ninja
2  Multi-Config.  You are using: 'Unix Makefiles' instead.  Thus, you might
3  encounter issues.  Use at your own risk.

Is xz really necessary?

fanquake commented at 2:51 pm on July 15, 2025:

Is xz really necessary?

It’s currently pulled in as a cmake dep, but it also seems fine to be explicit.

and install samurai.

Yea, I think we should use samurai here.

willcl-ark commented at 8:34 pm on July 15, 2025:

Updated to samurai and removed explicit xz (seems preferable to let this be pulled in as a dependency, or not, by cmake) in 4f502baf8f649e30d9495760b54080c272882213

fanquake commented at 10:01 pm on July 15, 2025:

seems preferable to let this be pulled in as a dependency, or not, by cmake

Not sure? It’s a dep for Qt, and some of its sub deps. Nothing to do with CMake (just happens to also be pulled in by it).

hebasto commented at 11:25 am on July 17, 2025:

On Alpine Linux v3.22:

0$ apk info -e xz | wc -l
10
2$ gmake -C depends freetype_extracted  # Succeeds, just like for any other package with a .tar.xz tarball.

hebasto commented at 4:39 pm on June 27, 2025: member

Tested 64986e1a44e108628b245ca977d2b8eb69ed5580 on Alpine Linux v3.22.

doc: add alpine depends build instructions 4f502baf8f

willcl-ark force-pushed on Jul 15, 2025

hebasto commented at 11:26 am on July 17, 2025: member

ACK 4f502baf8f649e30d9495760b54080c272882213.

fanquake merged this on Aug 1, 2025

fanquake closed this on Aug 1, 2025

doc: add alpine build instructions #32559

Code Coverage & Benchmarks

Reviews