ci: Add CI job to build on Debian Wheezy #1871

pull hebasto wants to merge 2 commits into bitcoin-core:master from hebasto:260612-ci-debian7 changing 3 files +66 −13

hebasto commented at 11:25 AM on June 13, 2026: member
It is widely expected that libsecp256k1, which requires only C89 and <stdint.h>, can be built with any toolchain that meets those requirements, including old and ancient ones.

This PR introduces a CI job that builds on Debian Wheezy, which could serve as a baseline for such expectations.

Wheezy is the earliest Debian release that ships all Autotools components with supported versions (Autoconf>=2.60, Automake>=1.11.2). This allows us to reuse our testing script with minimal adjustments.

The exact compiler version, GCC 4.4, was chosen to be able to catch issues like this one.

This PR also raises the following questions:
1. There are some warnings that are excluded from errors:https://github.com/bitcoin-core/secp256k1/blob/5362c070b7682840e4f258a31cc4ef606c39a02f/.github/workflows/ci.yml#L307 Do we want to improve code hygiene and fix them?
2. This branch exposes an example issue with compatibility with retro Linux systems:https://github.com/bitcoin-core/secp256k1/blob/5362c070b7682840e4f258a31cc4ef606c39a02f/.github/workflows/ci.yml#L303-L305 Do we want to fix it?
3. The test script runs make testvectors only if not cross-compiling. But it seems it should run fine even when cross-compiling as it uses Python scripts.

ci: Improve `ci/ci.sh` portability

1. Use `git show -s` instead of `git show --no-patch` for older Git
   versions.
2. Skip commands that require `python3` when it is not available.

aff4c08dba

ci: Add CI job to build on Debian Wheezy

Wheezy is the earliest Debian release that ships all Autotools
components with supported versions (Autoconf>=2.60, Automake>=1.11.2).

5362c070b7

hebasto commented at 3:22 PM on June 13, 2026: member

This PR introduces a CI job that builds on Debian Wheezy, which could serve as a baseline for such expectations.

The real baseline in the Debian world is Debian 2.2 Potato, which ships glibc 2.1.3. It's the first Debian release to deliver the <stdint.h> header.

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