Static binaries for releases

[itamarst]

As someone else commented on lobste.rs, it would be nice to have pre-generated static binaries so users who don't have Nix and Haskell setup don't have to install a whole new toolchain to use Neuron.

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[text below added by @srid]

• Static binaries for Linux (and Windows, through WSL2)
• Static binaries for macOS
• Host static binaries for release, and link to from docs

[srid]

I could use some help on this. It seems we will need to use this: https://github.com/nh2/static-haskell-nix#static-haskell-nix

[itamarst]

FWIW a semi-static executable that only depends on libc would probably be fine for most people? Like what you get from Go and Rust, often. Unless you're linking against some other C libraries.

[srid]

FWIW, this is what the current executable links to (on linux):

$ ldd (which neuron)
        linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffe79d92000)
        libm.so.6 => /nix/store/pnd2kl27sag76h23wa5kl95a76n3k9i3-glibc-2.27/lib/libm.so.6 (0x00007f7bb2490000)
        libz.so.1 => /nix/store/3bfzi6w3067hbdyl15vmypjn4q6az9j6-zlib-1.2.11/lib/libz.so.1 (0x00007f7bb2471000)
        liblua.so.5.3 => /nix/store/yaim51rzjyrp2dia8d954fywnwkp77na-lua-5.3.5/lib/liblua.so.5.3 (0x00007f7bb2436000)
        libncursesw.so.6 => /nix/store/zp8v7wkbplvmzyds87icn1rk070hizdc-ncurses-6.1-20190112/lib/libncursesw.so.6 (0x00007f7bb23c4000)
        libpthread.so.0 => /nix/store/pnd2kl27sag76h23wa5kl95a76n3k9i3-glibc-2.27/lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007f7bb23a3000)
        librt.so.1 => /nix/store/pnd2kl27sag76h23wa5kl95a76n3k9i3-glibc-2.27/lib/librt.so.1 (0x00007f7bb2397000)
        libutil.so.1 => /nix/store/pnd2kl27sag76h23wa5kl95a76n3k9i3-glibc-2.27/lib/libutil.so.1 (0x00007f7bb2392000)
        libdl.so.2 => /nix/store/pnd2kl27sag76h23wa5kl95a76n3k9i3-glibc-2.27/lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00007f7bb238d000)
        libgmp.so.10 => /nix/store/av3zmkb577zk4ds4xhzixdhvdvh726r7-gmp-6.1.2/lib/libgmp.so.10 (0x00007f7bb22f7000)
        libffi.so.6 => /nix/store/j1gs46vkawlk9mz8lc9g0xfi94hwrcv7-libffi-3.2.1/lib/libffi.so.6 (0x00007f7bb22eb000)
        libc.so.6 => /nix/store/pnd2kl27sag76h23wa5kl95a76n3k9i3-glibc-2.27/lib/libc.so.6 (0x00007f7bb2135000)
        /nix/store/pnd2kl27sag76h23wa5kl95a76n3k9i3-glibc-2.27/lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 => /nix/store/9hy6c2hv8lcwc6clnc1p2jf09cs5q9dp-glibc-2.30/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f7bb2628000)

[pjones]

FWIW I've been working on building static Haskell binaries for a couple of weeks now. I bundled all my work into my nix-hs tool. If you're open to the idea of moving this project over to nix-hs I'd be glad to help.

[srid]

@pjones Note that neuron uses reflex-platform (which has its own nixpkgs pinned), for GHCJS support (all of ./neuron/src/lib must compile on GHCJS) that is required for the upcoming web app (see #182).

That said, for compiling neuron itself we use only GHC (not GHCJS), so in theory it should be possible to support static binary builds in reflex-platform; though it pinning an older nixpkgs version might make it all tricky.

EDIT: neuron doesn't use reflex-platform anymore.

[pjones]

Neither nix-hs nor static-haskell-nix care which pinned version of nixpkgs you are using as long as it can produce a working GHC compiled/linked with musl. I imagine that you'd want to use GHCJS directly (without reaching through static-haskell-nix) but use GHC via the statically compiled route.

When I have some time I'll take a look at the current build system and try to understand it.

[srid]

#262 might be a useful step towards this. cf. NixOS/nixpkgs#43795 (comment)

[srid]

We now have a docker image (autoupdates in CI) that weighs ~100MB: https://neuron.zettel.page/c6176636.html

Static binaries are still an easier way to allow packaging for other distribution / operating systems.

[TanayB11]

I think that it is extremely important to get binaries going as soon as possible. I love the idea, but I definitely do not want to install a brand new package manager and Haskell support just to run this.

What I love about Neuron is that it's lightweight and portable; while that's definitely true with the markdown files, it's not true with Neuron itself yet. It should be as simple as a brew install or a brew cask install to get going. A Docker image is fine for now, but it won't cut it because on a PC the daemon has to be running 24/7.