Create one portable statically linked executable file using Nuitka

Hi! Thank you for Nuitka!

For xxh project (console tool) I created one portable statically linked executable file using Nuitka:

https://github.com/xxh/xxh-portable/blob/e26e48985621a33cde32772d672f11c3b3843f16/xxh-portable-musl-alpine.Dockerfile#L16-L28

As you can see I build the Python library first (libpython3.8.a with appropriate modules) and then use it in LDFLAGS before running Nuitka. I did this in Alpine with musl and as result I get the one portable statically linked ./xxh binary file that could be run on many Linux distributes.

Is there a way now or future feature to do this in Nuitka by one command and by using one option i.e. --standalone-static?

Thanks!

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[emsi]

--onefile does not produce statically linked executable. When moved to another system it tries to use host’s glibc. My guess it’s AppImage?

$ file python_app.bin 
ludo.bin: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1, dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, for GNU/Linux 2.6.18, stripped


$ ./python_app.bin 
./ludo.bin: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.29' not found (required by ./ludo.bin)
./ludo.bin: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.29' not found (required by /tmp/.mount_ludo.bcgjdNl/libpython3.8.so.1.0)
./ludo.bin: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.28' not found (required by /tmp/.mount_ludo.bcgjdNl/libpython3.8.so.1.0)
./ludo.bin: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.25' not found (required by /tmp/.mount_ludo.bcgjdNl/libpython3.8.so.1.0)
./ludo.bin: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.26' not found (required by /tmp/.mount_ludo.bcgjdNl/libpython3.8.so.1.0)
./ludo.bin: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.27' not found (required by /tmp/.mount_ludo.bcgjdNl/libpython3.8.so.1.0)
./ludo.bin: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.25' not found (required by /tmp/.mount_ludo.bcgjdNl/libexpat.so.1)

Having an option to build truly statically linked binary would be great for producing portable applications.

[kayhayen]

There is a hacky way to enable non-appimage, using --onefile-tempdir, which is undocumented, and enables the code used on macOS, FreeBSD, etc. and actually I didn’t consider static linking of glibc for libc for those, as they won’t have the issue.

For commercial users, there is a Linux container with old glibc and new tools chain, that you build these in, and then they ought to be portable:

https://nuitka.net/pages/commercial.html

I think Nuitka creates binaries dynamically linked by default, and chances are that Python you are using does it as well. The only way to produce forward working binaries, is to do it on the oldest system you want to support. On Linux, things are not really geared well for backward porting of binaries.