Statically Linked Binary and MultiArch Docker images for ARM64 and AMD64 Architectures

[da-moon]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

• Convco, Is distributed as a deb package. this can make it difficult to use in non-Debian environments, such as Alpine based Docker images, which is the base image I use most often with Visual Studio Code Remote - Containers to set up my development environment
• Many laptop manufacturers are moving to use aarch64 as their CPU architecture, especially after Apple released the M1 chip. I have a Surface Pro X and it is based on aarch64 and I have to compile Convco from the source there, which as you know, is a CPU-intensive task.

Describe the solution you'd like

• static builds for both aarch64 and amd64 architecture
• Multi-Arch Docker images with Convco statically built. I would like to be able to use COPY directive in my own Dockerfiles, like COPY --from=convco/convco:latest /usr/bin/convco /usr/local/bin/convco to add Convco to my image.

Describe alternatives you've considered

• I have my own docker image in which I am cross-compiling and statically linking Convco

[hdevalke]

The docker image is based on alpine, because of an issue in gitlab to use single binary images, see: #9 (comment) .

We can probably build for multiple architectures using images based on https://github.com/rust-embedded/cross.
Seems like docker hub removed the automated builds unless i register convco as an open source project. So i will have either register or change the workflow to build and push from a github action.

[da-moon]

I can get it working for you if you are OK with using my alpine-rust-builder image. I already have cross-compiled Convco in Alpine Docker Image.

Setting up a job on Github actions is also quite easy, I have a bash script that you can use in Github actions to build the image using docker buildx plugin. Recently, I have moved on to using docker buildx bake which makes building and pushing images even easier. this is the github action I am using to build and push all my docker images.

[hdevalke]

I am open for a pull request. I had trouble to cross compile using cross (linker problems).
It would be good to move the build of the images to github actions instead of docker hub auto builds

[da-moon]

OK. I will open a pr tmrw

[da-moon]

@hdevalke sorry about the delay; I was having difficulties with the Nvidia driver on my machine.
#28

[hdevalke]

Currently the build fails, because the version of curl should be updated.

 > [linux/amd64 upx-downloader 2/3] RUN                                                                                                                            apk add --no-cache                                                                                                             curl=7.78.0-r0                                                                                                               jq=1.6-r1                                                                                                                    xz=5.2.5-r0 ;:
#30 0.112 fetch https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.14/main/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz
#30 0.356 fetch https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.14/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz
#30 0.629 ERROR: unable to select packages:
#30 0.668   curl-7.79.0-r0:
#30 0.668     breaks: world[curl=7.78.0-r0]

It still worked locally, but docker buildx .. was using a cache.
I think it is easier to remove the versions than to have to maintain them.

[da-moon]

@hdevalke That's something I have been struggling with. hadolint complains if you don't pin versions, but I have experienced package breakage too often when I pinned releases. Initially, I thought it was because I was using edge packages but it looks like that's also the case in stable packages.
I will leave it to your discretion to keep/remove packages; same with the compression layer; if you think it is valuable, keep them; if you think the cons outweigh the pros, remove them.

[hdevalke]

I removed the versions, but now the build was stuck: https://github.com/convco/convco/runs/3645509471?check_suite_focus=true#step:6:808

I can't reproduce it locally though. I could remove the upx step, but I don't think the issue is caused by it.

[da-moon]

I will explore this a bit and get back to you

[da-moon]

I think we can drop patch-releases and use this approach hadolint/hadolint#204 (comment)

I will commit a fix soon

The problem of freezing might be due to build cache ( cache-from directive in docker-bake.hcl )

[hdevalke]

I removed the upx step and the build was successfully. https://github.com/convco/convco/actions/runs/1296474571

[scizzorz]

Is there an update to this? I'd love to use convco to automate some release work, but I'm having trouble arranging the installation in our CI system because it's not Ubuntu / Debian based.

[hdevalke]

The docker image already contains statically linked binaries. You should be able to use COPY --from=.. in your Dockerfile. The binary in the convco image is /entrypoint.

[scizzorz]

Oh, great! Thank you so much!