Custom Packages
The following instructions assume you are building from an official release tarball or directly from the git repository. Most users should not need to do this and should preferentially use the distribution packages. As a general rule the distribution packages will be more tightly integrated, widely tested, and better supported. However, if your distribution of choice doesn't provide packages, or you're a developer and want to roll your own, here's how to do it.
The first thing to be aware of is that the build system is capable of generating several different types of packages. Which type of package you choose depends on what's supported on your platform and exactly what your needs are.
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DKMS packages contain only the source code and scripts for rebuilding the kernel modules. When the DKMS package is installed kernel modules will be built for all available kernels. Additionally, when the kernel is upgraded new kernel modules will be automatically built for that kernel. This is particularly convenient for desktop systems which receive frequent kernel updates. The downside is that because the DKMS packages build the kernel modules from source a full development environment is required which may not be appropriate for large deployments.
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kmods packages are binary kernel modules which are compiled against a specific version of the kernel. This means that if you update the kernel you must compile and install a new kmod package. If you don't frequently update your kernel, or if you're managing a large number of systems, then kmod packages are a good choice.
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kABI-tracking kmod Packages are similar to standard binary kmods and may be used with Enterprise Linux distributions like Red Hat and CentOS. These distributions provide a stable kABI (Kernel Application Binary Interface) which allows the same binary modules to be used with new versions of the distribution provided kernel.
By default the build system will generate user packages and both DKMS and kmod style kernel packages if possible. The user packages can be used with either set of kernel packages and do not need to be rebuilt when the kernel is updated. You can also streamline the build process by building only the DKMS or kmod packages as shown below.
Be aware that when building directly from a git repository you must first run the autogen.sh script to create the configure script. This will require installing the GNU autotools packages for your distribution. To perform any of the builds, you must install all the necessary development tools and headers for your distribution.
It is important to note that if the development kernel headers for the currently running kernel aren't installed, the modules won't compile properly.
Make sure that the required packages are installed:
$ sudo yum groupinstall "Development Tools"
$ sudo yum install autoconf automake libtool wget libtirpc-devel rpm-build
$ sudo yum install zlib-devel libuuid-devel libattr-devel libblkid-devel libselinux-devel libudev-devel libaio-devel
$ sudo yum install parted lsscsi ksh openssl-devel elfutils-libelf-devel
$ sudo yum install kernel-devel-$(uname -r)
# If you want to use pyzfs, otherwise use `./configure --disable-pyzfs` to disable it later
$ sudo yum install epel-release
$ sudo yum install python36
Building rpm-based DKMS and user packages can be done as follows:
$ find spl zfs -name \*.ko -delete
$ cd spl
$ ./configure --with-config=srpm
$ make -s -j$(nproc)
$ make -j1 pkg-utils rpm-dkms
$ sudo yum localinstall *.$(uname -p).rpm *.noarch.rpm
$ cd ../zfs
$ ./configure --with-config=srpm
$ make -s -j$(nproc)
$ make -j1 pkg-utils rpm-dkms
$ sudo yum localinstall *.$(uname -p).rpm *.noarch.rpm
The key thing to know when building a kmod package is that a specific Linux kernel must be specified. At configure time the build system will make an educated guess as to which kernel you want to build against. However, if configure is unable to locate your kernel development headers, or you want to build against a different kernel, you must specify the exact path with the --with-linux and --with-linux-obj options.
$ find spl zfs -name \*.ko -delete
$ cd spl
$ ./configure
$ make -s -j$(nproc)
$ make -j1 pkg-utils pkg-kmod
$ sudo yum localinstall *.$(uname -p).rpm
$ cd ../zfs
$ ./configure
$ make -s -j$(nproc)
$ make -j1 pkg-utils pkg-kmod
$ sudo yum localinstall *.$(uname -p).rpm
The process for building kABI-tracking kmods is almost identical to for building normal kmods. However, it will only produce binaries which can be used by multiple kernels if the distribution supports a stable kABI. In order to request kABI-tracking package the --with-spec=redhat option must be passed to configure.
NOTE: This type of package is not available for Fedora.
$ find spl zfs -name \*.ko -delete
$ cd spl
$ ./configure --with-spec=redhat
$ make -s -j$(nproc)
$ make -j1 pkg-utils pkg-kmod
$ sudo yum localinstall *.$(uname -p).rpm
$ cd ../zfs
$ ./configure --with-spec=redhat
$ make -s -j$(nproc)
$ make -j1 pkg-utils pkg-kmod
$ sudo yum localinstall *.$(uname -p).rpm
Make sure that the required packages are installed:
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf libtool gawk alien fakeroot
$ sudo apt-get install gdebi wget
$ sudo apt-get install zlib1g-dev uuid-dev libattr1-dev libblkid-dev libselinux-dev libudev-dev libaio-dev
$ sudo apt-get install parted lsscsi ksh libssl-dev libelf-dev
$ sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
# If you want to use pyzfs, otherwise use `./configure --disable-pyzfs` to disable it later
$ sudo apt-get install python3
The key thing to know when building a kmod package is that a specific Linux kernel must be specified. At configure time the build system will make an educated guess as to which kernel you want to build against. However, if configure is unable to locate your kernel development headers, or you want to build against a different kernel, you must specify the exact path with the --with-linux and --with-linux-obj options.
$ find spl zfs -name \*.ko -delete
$ cd spl$ ./configure
$ make -s -j$(nproc)
$ make -j1 deb
$ for file in *.deb; do sudo gdebi -q --non-interactive $file; done
$ cd ../zfs
$ ./configure
$ make -s -j$(nproc)
$ make -j1 deb
$ for file in *.deb; do sudo gdebi -q --non-interactive $file; done
The released tarball contains the latest fully tested and released version of ZFS. This is the preferred source code location for use in production systems. If you want to use the official released tarballs, then use the following commands to fetch and prepare the source.
$ wget http://archive.zfsonlinux.org/downloads/zfsonlinux/spl/spl-x.y.z.tar.gz
$ wget http://archive.zfsonlinux.org/downloads/zfsonlinux/zfs/zfs-x.y.z.tar.gz
$ tar -xzf spl-x.y.z.tar.gz
$ tar -xzf zfs-x.y.z.tar.gz
The Git master branch contains the latest version of the software, and will probably contain fixes that, for some reason, weren't included in the released tarball. This is the preferred source code location for developers who intend to modify ZFS. If you would like to use the git version, you can clone it from Github and prepare the source like this.
$ git clone https://github.com/zfsonlinux/spl.git
$ git clone https://github.com/zfsonlinux/zfs.git
$ cd spl
$ ./autogen.sh
$ cd ../zfs
$ ./autogen.sh
$ cd ..
Once the source has been prepared you'll need to decide what kind of packages you're building and jump the to appropriate section below. Note that not all package types are supported for all platforms.
