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Intermediate

 

Cronosd build with Nix

This tutorial provides a step-by-step guide to building the Cronosd binaries using the Nix package manager. The Cronosd software is used for running a node on the Chain, and with Nix, it is possible to create reproducible builds of the software. The tutorial outlines the prerequisites for building the software, including installing Nix and enabling the Cronos binary cache using cachix. The tutorial also provides a matrix of different build types, including network type, database backend, and build type. The tutorial then shows how to create a reproducible build by constructing a package name based on the chosen build parameters and using the Nix flake URL to build the software. Finally, the tutorial explains the content of the resulting redistributable tarball, which includes all runtime dependencies and shared libraries.

Prerequisites

  • Install nix, following the instructions here: ​

  • Install cachix and enable cronos binary cache:

    nix-env -iA cachix -f https://cachix.org/api/v1/install
cachix use cronos

     

Build Type Matrix

Below are listed the different possible parameters

  • Network Type

    • mainnet (default)

    • testnet

  • DB Backend

    • rocksdb (default)

    • goleveldb

  • Build Type

    • normal nix package (default)

    • re-distributable bundle

    • re-distributable tarball, the tarball of the above bundle.

Creating a reproducible build

The package name is constructed by joining the above three properties with a separator -, omitting the default values, for example:

  • cronosd: defaults to the mainnet rocksdb nix package.

  • cronosd-tarball: mainnet rocksdb re-distributable tarball.

  • cronosd-goleveldb-tarball: mainnet goleveldb re-distributable tarball.

  • cronosd-testnet-goleveldb-tarball: testnet goleveldb re-distributable tarball.

The nix flake url is: github:crypto-org-chain/cronos/$TAG_NAME#$PACKAGE_NAME, replace the $TAG_NAME and $PACKAGE_NAME to the one you needed, for example: The full command to build a v0.8.1 rocksdb mainnet re-distributable tarball is:

nix build github:crypto-org-chain/cronos/v0.8.1#cronosd-tarball

result -> /nix/store/dlhqc2ii8jj1ryrgki90l6j92r2by06g-bundle-cronosd-v0.8.1

 

The result will reside in ./result by default, you can copy the tarball to other machines with the same OS and arch. The re-distributable bundle/tarball has dynamic libraries included, no extra runtime dependencies are needed.

​

mkdir tmp/cronosd
tar xfz ./result -C /tmp/cronosd/

 

If you get error: experimental Nix feature 'nix-command' is disabled; use ‘–extra-experimental-features nix-command’ to override, e.g. by adding: --extra-experimental-features nix-command --extra-experimental-features flakes

Tarball Content

To keep the tarball redistributable, it has all the runtime dependencies included, the dynamic linker, and the shared libraries. They are located in a relative path, so it’s important that the whole package is moved together.

  • bin/cronosd: the entry point, it’s a wrapper script that executes the binary using the included dynamic linker.

  • exe/cronosd: the executable.

  • lib/: all the shared libraries.