sovietbuilder

script to generate a soviet linux build

SUMMARY
This build script uses a host machine to create a new soviet build on a target machine. It could work on any Linux distro with the normal suite of compiling tools (gcc, automake, meson, cmake, etc), if you also install the cccp and libspm package management tools.

Soviet Linux can be used to build itself, and any one of the recent (2024 onwards) sovietlinux-*-core.tar.gz builds can be used. When in doubt, use the most recent.

These scripts are designed to be simple to understand, and easy to modify if you want to make your own custom soviet build.

INSTRUCTIONS
It's recommended to review the cccp.conf file from the soviet-files directory and copy the contents to the host system's /etc/cccp.conf file. Edit the MAKEFLAGS and NINJAJOBS variables to something useful for your system. These numbers represent the number of cpu cores being used to compile. More cores, reduced build time.
If you're building only for your own system, switching -march=x86-64-v2 to -march=native is a good idea.

1. edit the sovietbuilder.sh file:
   There are three variables starting at appx line 20, that point to directories. The default options use $PWD (present working directory), and will create folders in the same directory that you run the script from. These three variables should be the only things you need to change in the script.

2. if you're installing to a partition or other mounted location, make sure you create the necessary folders (that you named in the sovietbuilder.sh file, as above) and mount your targets. If you're not mounting anything, the script will create these folders for you. Note that the soviet build generated in this script will take up about 2.5G of space, and compiling the kernel will take 10-15G. Plan accordingly.

3. run the sovietbuilder.sh script. This will probably take several hours, depending on your machine.

4. The build will use a generic, everything included kernel config that will take a long time to build. If you have a custom file, add a line in cccp.conf, LINUX_CONFIG=/path/to/config/file.

LAYOUT

sovietbuilder
|
|_ soviet-build
  |_ rebuilder.sh
|_ soviet-files
  |_ (many exciting files)
|_ README.md
|_ 01-dirs.sh
|_ 02-soviet.sh
|_ 03-files.sh
|_ 04-config.sh
|_ 05-final.sh
|_ sovietbuilder.sh

The sovietbuilder.sh script calls 5 other scripts to create the soviet build:

• 01-dirs.sh creates a directory tree in the target location.
• 02-soviet.sh runs the cccp package installer on the host system, and compiles everything the prog-list file. This is intended to be every program included in the base soviet build. This will take a long time to run (probably hours).
• 03-files.sh copies pre-made configuration files from the $SOV_FILES directory into the target system.
• 04-config.sh uses systemd-nspawn to enter the target system, and runs a variety of configuration tasks.
• 05-build.sh creates the standard soviet deployment files - a sovietlinux-*-core.tar.xz file, and a sovietlinux-*-installation.img file. It also creates a usr-*-tar.xz that might get used for an immutable system.
• rebuilder.sh is used after the main script has completed. If you later alter your build (by chrooting or nspawning into your new build dir and making changes), the rebuilder.sh script will repeat the steps in 05-build.sh to create new deployment files.

TO DO:

• installer does not work!
• installer sucks tho
• strip.sh crashes during use.
• strip.sh should parse lib numbers instead of manually changing them.
• needs some more checks, epecially in 03 and 05, to not overwrite files or crash because a file already exists or has been deleted.
• the build time tracker gives a 'bad substitution' error at the very end.
• there's probably a more efficient way to loop through prog-list in 02?
• some of the 03 files might not actually be necessary. Some are possibly overwriting program files from 02.
• there's inconsistent conditionals through the scripts - some ||, some &&, some [ if -* ]. Needs to be standardized. Also inconsistent linking.
• fix the readme to actually list the files in the soviet-files dir.
• rebuilder functions properly, but needs a lot of work.
• ?? probably a thousand more things.