mussel

mussel is the shortest and fastest script available today to build working cross compilers that target musl libc

Features

1. Up-to-date: uses latest available upstream sources for packages
2. Fast: probably the fastest script around to build a cross compiler targeting musl libc, and runs fully under dash
3. Short: has the least amount of steps (see below) required to build a cross compiler targeting musl libc (even less than musl-cross-make)
4. Small: all installation steps use install-strip where applicable
5. Simple: easy to read, modify and extend
6. POSIX Compliant: the entire script is POSIX compliant
7. Well Documented: the script comes with a DOCUMENTATION.md file that includes state of the art information explaining what is being done and why

Requirements:

To confirm you have all required packages, please execute ./check

Usage

Building a Cross Compiler

./mussel (arch) (flags)

(arch): See Supported Architectures below

(flags):

  f | -f | --enable-fortran        Enable optional Fortran support
  k | -k | --enable-pkg-config     Enable optional pkg-config support
  l | -l | --enable-linux-headers  Enable optional Linux Headers support
  o | -o | --enable-openmp         Enable optional OpenMP support
  p | -p | --parallel              Use all available cores on the host system
  q | -q | --enable-quadmath       Enable optional libquadmath support (default for Fortran)
  x | -x | --disable-cxx           Disable optional C++ support

Other Commands

./mussel (command)

(command):

  c | -c | --clean                 Clean mussel's build environment
  h | -h | --help                  Display this help message

Sources will be preserved

Supported Architectures

• aarch64
• armv4t
• armv5te
• armv6
• armv6kz (Raspberry Pi 1 Models A, B, B+, the Compute Module, and the Raspberry Pi Zero)
• armv7
• i486
• i586
• i686
• m68k
• microblaze
• microblazeel
• mips64
• mips64el
• mipsisa64r6
• mipsisa64r6el
• or1k
• powerpc
• powerpcle
• powerpc64
• powerpc64le
• riscv64
• s390x
• sh2
• sh2be
• sh2-fdpic
• sh2be-fdpic
• sh4
• sh4be
• x86-64

Packages

1. binutils: 2.43.1
2. gcc: 14.2.0
3. gmp: 6.3.0
4. isl: 0.27
5. linux: 6.11.8 (Optional Linux Headers Support) (Disabled by default)
6. mpc: 1.3.1
7. mpfr: 4.2.1
8. musl: 1.2.5
9. pkgconf: 2.3.0 (Optional pkg-config Support) (Disabled by default)

How Is mussel Doing It?

1. Install musl headers
2. Configure, build and install cross binutils
3. Configure, build and install cross gcc (with libgcc-static)
4. Configure, build and install musl
5. Build, and install libgcc-shared

Optional Steps

• Build and install libstdc++-v3 (Optional C++ Support) (Enabled by default)
• Build and install libgomp (Optional OpenMP Support) (Disabled by default)
• Build and install libquadmath (Optional Quadruple-precision Support) (Disabled by default, Enabled for Fortran)
• Build and install libgfortran (Optional Fortran Support) (Disabled by default)
• Install linux-headers (Optional Linux Headers Support) (Disabled by default)
• Configure, build and install pkgconf (Optional pkg-config Support) (Disabled by default)

Using mussel With Host's pkg-config or pkgconf

The reason we included pkgconf with mussel as an optional step is because we can easily configure the host's pkg-config or pkgconf to work with mussel without having to build our own version of pkg-config or pkgconf.

Here are the five magical environment variables that we need to set to configure the host's pkg-config or pkgconf to work with mussel:

export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$MSYSROOT/usr/lib/pkgconfig:$MSYSROOT/usr/share/pkgconfig
export PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR=$MSYSROOT/usr/lib/pkgconfig:$MSYSROOT/usr/share/pkgconfig
export PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR=$MSYSROOT

export PKG_CONFIG_SYSTEM_INCLUDE_PATH=$MSYSROOT/usr/include
export PKG_CONFIG_SYSTEM_LIBRARY_PATH=$MSYSROOT/usr/lib

The last two I believe are pkgconf specific but setting them won't do any harm.

Using mussel With Host's meson

mussel now provides cross-compilation configuration files for meson that support all listed architectures, and a wrapper around host's meson (mussel-meson) in an effort to make dealing with meson a bit easier.

Projects Using mussel

• CMLFS
• Copacabana Linux
• glaucus
• Hanh Linux
• qLinux
• Raptix
• Spider Linux
• Tin Can Linux
• Yeti OS

Credits and Inspiration

mussel is possible thanks to the awesome work done by Aurelian, Rich Felker, qword, The Managarm Project, glaucus (where it's actually implemented) and musl-cross-make

Author

Firas Khalil Khana (firasuke) <firasuke@glaucuslinux.org>

Contributors

• Alexander Barris (AwlsomeAlex) <alex@awlsome.com>
• Andrew Blue <andy@antareslinux.org>
• ayb <ayb@3hg.fr>
• Luiz Antônio Rangel at Pindorama (takusuman) <luiz.antonio.rangel@outlook.com.br>

License

mussel is licensed under the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) license

Dedication

mussel is dedicated to all those that believe setting up a cross compiler targeting musl libc is a complicated process.

Community

• Reddit

Mirrors

• Codeberg
• GitHub
• SourceHut