kernel-build-containers

This project provides Docker containers for building the Linux kernel (or other software) with many different compilers.

License: GPL-3.0.

It's very useful for testing gcc-plugins for the Linux kernel, for example. Goodbye headache!

Repositories

• At GitHub https://github.com/a13xp0p0v/kernel-build-containers
• At Codeberg: https://codeberg.org/a13xp0p0v/kernel-build-containers (go there if something goes wrong with GitHub)
• At GitFlic: https://gitflic.ru/project/a13xp0p0v/kernel-build-containers

Supported features

Supported build targets:

• x86_64
• i386
• arm64 or aarch64
• arm or aarch32

Supported gcc versions:

• gcc-4.9 (doesn't support gcc-plugins for arm64 and arm)
• gcc-5
• gcc-6
• gcc-7
• gcc-8
• gcc-9
• gcc-10
• gcc-11
• gcc-12
• gcc-13
• gcc-14

Supported clang versions:

• clang-12
• clang-13
• clang-14
• clang-15
• clang-16
• clang-17

Usage

Building all containers

$ bash build_containers.sh

Created containers:

$ sudo docker image list | grep kernel-build-container
kernel-build-container   clang-17   c24d2754f36d   About a minute ago   6.01GB
kernel-build-container   clang-16   9b3f7dce5f5b   12 minutes ago       6.01GB
kernel-build-container   clang-15   9f62c82c4826   24 minutes ago       3.83GB
kernel-build-container   clang-14   83523b7c7241   41 minutes ago       2.21GB
kernel-build-container   clang-13   8c0f0e68075a   46 minutes ago       2.27GB
kernel-build-container   clang-12   ac2cea3e0e97   51 minutes ago       2.21GB
kernel-build-container   gcc-14     ff56932d9a3e   7 hours ago          4.36GB
kernel-build-container   gcc-13     b05623469193   7 hours ago          3.14GB
kernel-build-container   gcc-12     63562d1fbb5e   7 hours ago          1.55GB
kernel-build-container   gcc-11     c4b2e14874f2   7 hours ago          1.03GB
kernel-build-container   gcc-10     bcbfb78c4a6c   7 hours ago          1.27GB
kernel-build-container   gcc-9      76f580f18759   7 hours ago          833MB
kernel-build-container   gcc-8      e22bee633dff   8 hours ago          1.12GB
kernel-build-container   gcc-7      e79708f81b84   8 hours ago          740MB
kernel-build-container   gcc-6      61f40d3e3e58   8 hours ago          992MB
kernel-build-container   gcc-5      ed6270a767c6   8 hours ago          720MB
kernel-build-container   gcc-4.9    408db89527ec   8 hours ago          913MB

Running a container

Get help:

$ bash start_container.sh
Hey, we gonna use sudo for running docker
usage: start_container.sh compiler src_dir out_dir [-n] [-e VAR] [-h] [-v] [-- cmd with args]
  -n    launch container in non-interactive mode
  -e    add environment variable in the container (may be used multiple times)
  -h    print this help
  -v    enable debug output

  If cmd is empty, we will start an interactive bash in the container.

Run interactive bash in the container:

$ bash start_container.sh gcc-12 ~/linux-stable/linux-stable/ ~/linux-stable/build_out/
Hey, we gonna use sudo for running docker
Starting "kernel-build-container:gcc-12"
Gonna run docker in interactive mode
Mount source code directory "/home/a13x/linux-stable/linux-stable/" at "/home/a13x/src"
Mount build output directory "/home/a13x/linux-stable/build_out/" at "/home/a13x/out"
Gonna run bash

To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>".
See "man sudo_root" for details.

a13x@38f63939b504:~/src$

Execute a command in the container:

$ bash start_container.sh clang-15 ~/linux-stable/linux-stable/ ~/linux-stable/build_out/ -- make defconfig
Hey, we gonna use sudo for running docker
Starting "kernel-build-container:clang-15"
Gonna run docker in interactive mode
Mount source code directory "/home/a13x/linux-stable/linux-stable/" at "/home/a13x/src"
Mount build output directory "/home/a13x/linux-stable/build_out/" at "/home/a13x/out"
Gonna run command "make defconfig"

*** Default configuration is based on 'x86_64_defconfig'
...

Building the Linux kernel

Get help:

$ python3 make_linux.py --help
usage: make_linux.py [-h] -c {gcc-4.9,gcc-5,gcc-6,gcc-7,gcc-8,gcc-9,gcc-10,gcc-11,gcc-12,gcc-13,gcc-14,
                     clang-12,clang-13,clang-14,clang-15,clang-16,clang-17,all} -a {x86_64,i386,arm64,arm}
                     -s src -o out [-k kconfig] [-q] [-t]
                     ...

Build the Linux kernel using kernel-build-containers

positional arguments:
  ...                   additional arguments for 'make', can be separated by -- delimiter

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -c {gcc-4.9,gcc-5,gcc-6,gcc-7,gcc-8,gcc-9,gcc-10,gcc-11,gcc-12,gcc-13,gcc-14,
      clang-12,clang-13,clang-14,clang-15,clang-16,clang-17,all}
                        building compiler ('all' to build with each of them)
  -a {x86_64,i386,arm64,arm}
                        build target architecture
  -s src                Linux kernel sources directory
  -o out                build output directory
  -k kconfig            path to kernel kconfig file
  -q                    for running `make` in quiet mode
  -t                    for running `make` in single-threaded mode (multi-threaded by default)

Configure the Linux kernel with menuconfig in the needed container:

$ python3 make_linux.py -a arm64 -k ~/linux-stable/experiment.config -s ~/linux-stable/linux-stable -o ~/linux-stable/build_out -c gcc-13 -- menuconfig
[+] Going to build the Linux kernel for arm64
[+] Using "/home/a13x/linux-stable/experiment.config" as kernel config
[+] Using "/home/a13x/linux-stable/linux-stable" as Linux kernel sources directory
[+] Using "/home/a13x/linux-stable/build_out" as build output directory
[+] Going to build with: gcc-13
[+] Have additional arguments for 'make': menuconfig
[+] Going to run 'make' on 8 CPUs

=== Building with gcc-13 ===
Output subdirectory for this build: /home/a13x/linux-stable/build_out/experiment__arm64__gcc-13
Output subdirectory already exists, use it (no cleaning!)
kconfig files "/home/a13x/linux-stable/experiment.config" and "/home/a13x/linux-stable/build_out/experiment__arm64__gcc-13/.config" are identical, proceed
Going to run the container in the interactive mode (without build log)
Add arguments for cross-compilation: ARCH=arm64 CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu-
Run the container: bash /home/a13x/kernel-build-containers/start_container.sh gcc-13 /home/a13x/linux-stable/linux-stable /home/a13x/linux-stable/build_out/experiment__arm64__gcc-13 -- make O=../out/ ARCH=arm64 CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu- -j 8 menuconfig
Hey, we gonna use sudo for running docker
Starting "kernel-build-container:gcc-13"
Gonna run docker in interactive mode
Mount source code directory "/home/a13x/linux-stable/linux-stable" at "/home/a13x/src"
Mount build output directory "/home/a13x/linux-stable/build_out/experiment__arm64__gcc-13" at "/home/a13x/out"
Gonna run command "make O=../out/ ARCH=arm64 CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu- -j 8 menuconfig"

make[1]: Entering directory '/home/a13x/out'
  GEN     Makefile

...

*** End of the configuration.
*** Execute 'make' to start the build or try 'make help'.

make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/a13x/out'
The container returned 0
Finish building the kernel
Only remove the container id file:
    Hey, we gonna use sudo for running docker
    Search "container.id" file in build output directory "/home/a13x/linux-stable/build_out/experiment__arm64__gcc-13"
    NO such file, nothing to do, exit
The finish_container.sh script returned 2

[+] Done, see the results

Build the Linux kernel in the needed container:

$ python3 make_linux.py -a arm64 -k ~/linux-stable/experiment.config -s ~/linux-stable/linux-stable -o ~/linux-stable/build_out -c gcc-13
[+] Going to build the Linux kernel for arm64
[+] Using "/home/a13x/linux-stable/experiment.config" as kernel config
[+] Using "/home/a13x/linux-stable/linux-stable" as Linux kernel sources directory
[+] Using "/home/a13x/linux-stable/build_out" as build output directory
[+] Going to build with: gcc-13
[+] Going to run 'make' on 8 CPUs

=== Building with gcc-13 ===
Output subdirectory for this build: /home/a13x/linux-stable/build_out/experiment__arm64__gcc-13
Output subdirectory already exists, use it (no cleaning!)
kconfig files "/home/a13x/linux-stable/experiment.config" and "/home/a13x/linux-stable/build_out/experiment__arm64__gcc-13/.config" are identical, proceed
Going to save build log to "build_log.txt" in output subdirectory
Add arguments for cross-compilation: ARCH=arm64 CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu-
Run the container: bash /home/a13x/kernel-build-containers/start_container.sh gcc-13 /home/a13x/linux-stable/linux-stable /home/a13x/linux-stable/build_out/experiment__arm64__gcc-13 -n -- make O=../out/ ARCH=arm64 CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu- -j 8 2>&1
    Hey, we gonna use sudo for running docker
    Run docker in NON-interactive mode
    Starting "kernel-build-container:gcc-13"
    Mount source code directory "/home/a13x/linux-stable/linux-stable" at "/home/a13x/src"
    Mount build output directory "/home/a13x/linux-stable/build_out/experiment__arm64__gcc-13" at "/home/a13x/out"
    Gonna run command "make O=../out/ ARCH=arm64 CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu- -j 8 2>&1"
    
    make[1]: Entering directory '/home/a13x/out'
      GEN     Makefile
...
    make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/a13x/out'
The container returned 0
Finish building the kernel
Only remove the container id file:
    Hey, we gonna use sudo for running docker
    Search "container.id" file in build output directory "/home/a13x/linux-stable/build_out/experiment__arm64__gcc-13"
    OK, "container.id" file exists, removing it
    OK, container a2e51ec1524e247cc5d3d861c106bbc7fd584e970dba1e0f1c960b736a55dfc8 doesn't run
The finish_container.sh script returned 0
See the build log: /home/a13x/linux-stable/build_out/experiment__arm64__gcc-13/build_log.txt

[+] Done, see the results

The tool returns an error if the kconfig file specified with -k differs from the .config in the build output directory:

$ python3 make_linux.py -a arm64 -k ~/linux-stable/experiment.config -s ~/linux-stable/linux-stable -o ~/linux-stable/build_out -c gcc-13
[+] Going to build the Linux kernel for arm64
[+] Using "/home/a13x/linux-stable/experiment.config" as kernel config
[+] Using "/home/a13x/linux-stable/linux-stable" as Linux kernel sources directory
[+] Using "/home/a13x/linux-stable/build_out" as build output directory
[+] Going to build with: gcc-13
[+] Going to run 'make' on 8 CPUs

=== Building with gcc-13 ===
Output subdirectory for this build: /home/a13x/linux-stable/build_out/experiment__arm64__gcc-13
Output subdirectory already exists, use it (no cleaning!)
kconfig files "/home/a13x/linux-stable/experiment.config" and "/home/a13x/linux-stable/build_out/experiment__arm64__gcc-13/.config" differ, stop
[!] ERROR: kconfig files are different, check the diff and consider copying

In that case please check the diff and synchronize the kconfig files:

$ diff ~/linux-stable/experiment.config ~/linux-stable/build_out/experiment__arm64__gcc-13/.config
1622,1623c1622
< CONFIG_NFC_S3FWRN5=m
< CONFIG_NFC_S3FWRN5_I2C=m
---
> # CONFIG_NFC_S3FWRN5_I2C is not set
$ cp ~/linux-stable/build_out/experiment__arm64__gcc-13/.config ~/linux-stable/experiment.config
$ python3 make_linux.py -a arm64 -k ~/linux-stable/experiment.config -s ~/linux-stable/linux-stable -o ~/linux-stable/build_out -c gcc-13

Finishing with the container

That tool is used by make_linux.py for fast stopping the kernel build.

Get help:

$ bash finish_container.sh
Hey, we gonna use sudo for running docker
usage: finish_container.sh kill/nokill out_dir
  kill/nokill -- how to finish: kill the container and then clean up / only clean up
  out_dir -- build output directory used by this container (with container.id file)

Removing created Docker images

$ bash rm_containers.sh