Static Cross-compiler Automation Toolkit

A toolkit that simplifies cross-compiling static binaries for any Linux target.

Currently supported:

Binaries: bash, busybox, curl, dropbear, netcat, nmap, socat, strace, tcpdump, zstd
Libraries: curl, libressl, ncurses, openssl, pcap, readline, wolfssl, zlib

🤖 Pre-compiled binaries for common targets can be found on the releases page!

Pull requests are welcome!
Want to add your favorite tool? See CONTRIBUTING for details!

💻 Supported Targets 💻

Any Linux target supported by musl-cross-make is supported.
This includes, but is not limited to:

ARM
MicroBlaze
MIPS
PowerPC
RISC-V
x86
x86_64

For a complete list of targets, consult the latest musl documentation.

⭐️ Once a target toolchain has been built, a list of all supported CPU architectures can be displayed with:
make TARGET=your-target-here archlist

🧰 Build Requirements 🧰

This project uses musl-cross-make to build a cross-compiler toolchain and compile all prerequisites for the output binaries.
As a result, only a small number of common build packages are required:

curl or wget
GCC + recommended packages
- gcc, g++, make, autoconf, autotools, libtool, flex, bison
Archive utilities
- tar, gzip, bzip2, xz-utils

Alternately, the provided Dockerfile and build.sh script can be used for a reproducible build environment.

⭐️ Builds have been successfully completed on Ubuntu, Debian, macOS, and RaspberryPi OS.

🛠 Usage 🛠

USAGE: make TARGET=musl-toolchain [ARCH=cpu-arch] [program ...]
The TARGET value must be a musl-cross-make toolchain target.
The optional ARCH value must be a valid GCC -march CPU type.

Examples targets:
  TARGET=arm-linux-musleabi
  TARGET=arm-linux-musleabihf ARCH=armv7-a+fp
  TARGET=mips-linux-musl
  TARGET=mipsel-linux-muslsf
  TARGET=x86_64-linux-musl
  ...
  For additional targets, consult the musl manual:
    https://musl.libc.org/doc/1.1.24/manual.html

Goals:
  all
    Builds all available programs:
    ...
  default
    Builds default subset of programs:
    ...
  musl
    Builds the cross-compiler toolchain for TARGET.
  archlist
    Shows available CPU architectures for TARGET.
  env
    Shows shell commands to activate TARGET toolchain.
  usage
    Shows this message.
  mostlyclean
    Removes source code and temporary objects.
  clean
    Removes cross-compiler toolchain, sources, and objects.

Basic Examples

Building the default subset of binaries for MIPS:
make TARGET=mips-linux-musl default

Building all binaries for the ARMv7 architecture (with hardware floating point support):
make TARGET=arm-linux-musleabihf ARCH=armv7-a+fp all

Building only the cross-compiler toolchain for a generic ARM target:
make TARGET=arm-linux-musleabi musl

Listing all ARCH values supported by the x86 target:
make TARGET=x86-linux-musl archlist

Output shell environment variables for manual cross-compiling:
make TARGET=mipsel-linux-muslsf env

Advanced Examples

Optimizing binaries for speed instead of size:
make TARGET=... CFLAGS="-O2" all

Build binaries using OpenSSL instead of LibreSSL:
make TARGET=... OPENSSL=openssl all

Tweaking a package's configuration using *_CONFIG flags:
make TARGET=... curl CURL_CONFIG="--extra-curl-configs"

📖 FAQ 📖

What inspired this project?

I occasionally tinker with embedded Linux environments that don't have access to package managers or compilers.
Being able to statically cross-compile my favorite tools makes it much easier to work on those systems.

How long does this take to build?

Using make -j for parallel builds, the musl cross-compiler can be built in 15-30 minutes depending on the target.
From there, building all of the programs usually takes 10-15 minutes.

For example build times, check this project's GitHub Actions workflows.

What if I want even smaller binaries?

You can shrink the binaries by a further 40% by using a packer like UPX.
I've decided not to include UPX for a few reasons:

Some anti-virus programs will detect UPX packed binaries as potentially malicious.
I wanted the pre-compiled binaries on the releases page to be reproducible.
Running packed binaries requires additional memory, something most embedded environments don't have.

Why distribute pre-compiled binaries?

Because some people are lazy and I absolutely respect that. 😎

Are the pre-compiled binaries reproducible?

To the best of my ability, yes.
Building the binaries using the docker_build.sh script should result in byte-for-byte identical results.
Alternately, fork the repo and trigger the GitHub Actions workflow that builds and publishes the releases.

When will __________ be added to the toolkit?

As soon as you submit a pull request to add it! 😉

llamasoft/static-cross-bins