How to statically compile iperf3?

[JodieChuang]

Dear iperf3 developers,

I want to use iperf3 in a minimal filesystem with a linux kernel. i have to statically compile the programs to use inside the filesystem. Is that possible to statically compile iperf3?
I did
$ ./configure --build=arm-none-linux-gnueabi --host=arm-none-linux-gnueabi CFLAGS=-static CXXFLAGS=-static
$ make

But I get
/src$ file iperf3
iperf3: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, for GNU/Linux 2.6.32, BuildID[sha1]=33df741e068aaf7a9ae8a24a6243de87c35c6ca5, not stripped

best regards,
Jiahuan

[TheRealDJ]

./configure --enable-static --disable-shared ; make ; make install

[bmah888]

I haven't tried this for a long time, but that looks the right answer, thanks @TheRealDJ!

[oliwer]

This does not seem to work anymore. It builds the static library but not the executables.

[shibumi]

Hi,
I can confirm this. I tried building iperf3 as static executable but it still links against a few libraries:

❯ ldd ./iperf3
	linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00006284def24000)
	libcrypto.so.1.1 => /usr/lib/libcrypto.so.1.1 (0x00006284debef000)
	libc.so.6 => /usr/lib/libc.so.6 (0x00006284dea29000)
	libdl.so.2 => /usr/lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00006284dea24000)
	libpthread.so.0 => /usr/lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x00006284dea02000)
	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 => /usr/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00006284def26000)

build via: ./configure --enable-static --disable-shared

[mariusleu]

This worked for me:

./configure "LDFLAGS=--static" --disable-shared --without-sctp
make
make install

$ ldd iperf3 
	not a dynamic executable

It's also on the documentation: https://software.es.net/iperf/faq.html

[adroutley]

hi there,

i used these configure options to create a static iperf3, but my ./configure gives me this:-

./configure "LDFLAGS=--static" --disable-shared --without-sctp
configure: loading site script /usr/share/site/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /usr/bin/mkdir -p
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking whether make supports nested variables... yes
checking whether make supports nested variables... (cached) yes
checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking how to print strings... printf
checking whether make supports the include directive... yes (GNU style)
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether the C compiler works... no
configure: error: in /home/andrew/Downloads/iperf3': configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables See config.log' for more details

a simple
./configure --disable-shared --without-sctp
...always works

nothing in config.log stands out

any ideas why i get "C compiler cannot create executables" ??? i have googled the heck out of it and also read https://software.es.net/iperf/faq.html multiple times....

my environment:-

uname -a
Linux lap 5.11.15-1-default #1 SMP Fri Apr 16 16:47:34 UTC 2021 (64fb5bf) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
cat /etc/issue
Welcome to openSUSE Tumbleweed 20210422 - Kernel \r (\l).

(all "base development" packages have been installed via [YAST)]

[TheRealDJ]

Short Answer

You are missing the libc static development files.
"..." indicates output not posted

# cat /etc/os-release | grep '^NAME=\|^VERSION_ID='
NAME="openSUSE Tumbleweed"
VERSION_ID="20210428"

# zypper install glibc-devel-static
...

# ./configure --enable-static --enable-static-bin --disable-shared
...

# make -j4
...

# file src/iperf3
src/iperf3: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (GNU/Linux), statically linked, BuildID[sha1]=18fa0d433830d9b68f193ebce3ec5a54bb09afc6, for GNU/Linux 3.2.0, with debug_info, not stripped

# ldd src/iperf3
	not a dynamic executable

Long Answer

I found the error by trying to compile a simple printf("Hello\n"); program

Before glibc-devel-static install

# gcc -static -o hello hello.c 
/usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-suse-linux/10/../../../../x86_64-suse-linux/bin/ld: cannot find -lc
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status

Error = cannot find -lc
-lc = statically link to libc

After glibc-devel-static install

# gcc -static -o hello hello.c 

# file hello
hello: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (GNU/Linux), statically linked, BuildID[sha1]=9e925bb7a1c61f5f782d13c64b96252f2cfe7811, for GNU/Linux 3.2.0, with debug_info, not stripped

# ldd hello
	not a dynamic executable

Without -static flag

# gcc -o hello hello.c 

# file hello
hello: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, BuildID[sha1]=632761a8aedf8127d7a53414ad9cef1b1ffeb4d2, for GNU/Linux 3.2.0, with debug_info, not stripped

# ldd hello
	linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffefd9a4000)
	libc.so.6 => /lib64/libc.so.6 (0x00007febad7d4000)
	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007febad9ab000)

DJ

[adroutley]

Dear TheRealDJ, it works- you're a greek god mate! (I have just sacrificed a bull in your honor.....) Although in my defence I actually did have this library already installed just the "-32-bit" flavour which was not being used. ;)

[adroutley]

Hi again @TheRealDJ

Thanks for helping me do the static build of iperf.

just a small iteration to this usecase: is it possible to compile iperf with dynamic libraries, but force make to copy each required library into a side location ("./configure --prefix=/tmp/portable" ), where iperf can use the side-library on the foreign server ?

BACKGROUND:
Static linking is the best way to make a utility truly "portable", but what if the resultant binary is huge?  Can we force-create a portable /lib that we can also move to the foreign server ?

[TheRealDJ]

You could, but I don't know why you would want to.

# mkdir -p /usr/local/iperf3
# ./configure --disable-static --prefix=/usr/local/iperf3
# make -j4
# make install

# du -sh /usr/local/iperf3/
752K	/usr/local/iperf3/

# ls -aFlh iperf3-static*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1.8M May 21 16:26 iperf3-static*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1.2M May 21 16:17 iperf3-static-stripped*

So the unstripped static binary is 1.8M, stripped 1.2M ... The dynamic method results in 752K. You would save ~460K using dynamic.

On the remote server, you would have to create the prefix path, copy the files in, and create /etc/ld.so.conf.d/iperf3.conf with the following:

# iperf3 dynamic libs
/usr/local/iperf3/lib

Then run ldconfig to update cache.

My opinion: Seems like quite a bit of effort to save 460K.

[adroutley]

Actually I meant it not just for iperf specifically, but rather any application where the resultant static binary would be too large.

Ok so the secret sauce is:-

./configure --disable-static --prefix=/usr/local/iperf3

....But unfortunately the target server is Holy and cannot be modified, so changing /etc/ld.so.conf.d cannot be done but I believe I can point to my portable libraries this way instead:-

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/local/iperf3/lib

....and run it standalone:-

/usr/local/iperf3/bin/iperf

Thx!

[smashingly]

Just replying to confirming that this worked for me - statically compiling it on an AWS VM running Amazon Linux and SCP'ing it to an Azure VM running RHEL 8. The AWS VM had s/w repo access and already had iperf 3.16, but I needed 3.16 on the Azure VM which had no internet access and no s/w repo access. So I was able to DNF install gcc/make, the glibc dev static module (which was named slightly differently under Amazon Linux - but it was easy to find by grepping the output of 'DNF list' for 'glibc' and 'static'.
Your post (and this entire topic thread) really saved my bacon, thanks everyone, I was dealing with an iPerf3 hung test issue and getting both ends to the latest iPerf3 version helped me eliminate iPerf3 entirely as a cause.