Docker Rust Minimum glibc Target (Multi-Architecture)

This Docker image compiles Rust applications targeting minimal glibc for maximum portability across Linux distributions. It supports both amd64 and aarch64 architectures with optimized library versions for each platform.

🐳 GitHub Container Registry

Repository: ghcr.io/manticoresoftware/rust-min-libc

Available Tags

Architecture-Specific Tags (Full Version Details):

• ghcr.io/manticoresoftware/rust-min-libc:amd64-rust1.92.0-glibc2.27-openssl1.1.1k - AMD64 with all versions
• ghcr.io/manticoresoftware/rust-min-libc:aarch64-rust1.92.0-glibc2.27-openssl1.1.1k - ARM64 with all versions

Key Features

• Multi-Architecture Support: Builds for amd64 (x86_64) and aarch64 (ARM64) with optimized configurations
• Minimal glibc: Architecture-optimized glibc versions for maximum compatibility
• Enterprise Compatible: Perfect compatibility with CentOS 7+ and RHEL 7+
• Static OpenSSL: Architecture-specific OpenSSL versions statically linked
• Automatic Detection: Automatically detects and configures for the target platform

Architecture Details

Architecture	Target Triple	glibc	OpenSSL	Compatibility
amd64	x86_64-ubuntu14.04-linux-gnu	2.27	1.1.1k	Ubuntu 18.04+, CentOS 8+
arm64	aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu	2.27	1.1.1k	Ubuntu 18.04+, CentOS 8+

Why different versions? ARM64 support was added to glibc in version 2.18, while x86_64 has been supported since much earlier versions. This allows us to use the absolute minimum glibc version for each architecture.

Usage

Quick Start

Build a Rust project (automatically detects architecture):

docker container run --rm --volume "$(pwd)":/src \
    --user "$(id --user):$(id --group)" \
    ghcr.io/manticoresoftware/rust-min-libc build --release

Architecture-Specific Builds

# Build for x86_64 with minimal glibc 2.27
docker run --platform linux/amd64 --rm -v "$(pwd)":/src \
    ghcr.io/manticoresoftware/rust-min-libc build --release

# Build for arm64 with minimal glibc 2.27  
docker run --platform linux/arm64 --rm -v "$(pwd)":/src \
    ghcr.io/manticoresoftware/rust-min-libc build --release

Show Build Information

docker run --rm ghcr.io/manticoresoftware/rust-min-libc --version

Using Specific Tags

# Use architecture-specific tags with full version details
docker run --platform linux/amd64 --rm -v "$(pwd)":/src \
    ghcr.io/manticoresoftware/rust-min-libc:amd64-rust1.92.0-glibc2.27-openssl1.1.1k build --release

docker run --platform linux/arm64 --rm -v "$(pwd)":/src \
    ghcr.io/manticoresoftware/rust-min-libc:aarch64-rust1.92.0-glibc2.27-openssl1.1.1w build --release

Compatibility Testing

Check glibc dependencies of your binary:

objdump -T BINARY | grep GLIBC | sed 's/.*GLIBC_\([.0-9]*\).*/\1/g' | sort -Vu

Verified Compatible Distributions

The image has been tested and verified to work on:

Enterprise/LTS Distributions:

• CentOS 7+ (primary target)
• RHEL 7+
• Ubuntu 12.04+ (LTS versions)
• Debian 8+ (Jessie and newer)

Modern Distributions:

• Ubuntu 14.04, 16.04, 18.04, 20.04, 22.04, 24.04
• Debian: buster, bullseye, bookworm
• Rocky Linux 8, 9
• openSUSE Leap, Tumbleweed
• Alpine Linux (with glibc)

Development and Building

GitHub Actions (Recommended)

The repository includes a high-performance GitHub Actions workflow that builds images using native runners:

🚀 Native Builds:

• AMD64: Built on ubuntu-24.04 (native x86_64)
• ARM64: Built on ubuntu-24.04-arm (native aarch64)
• Parallel: Both architectures build simultaneously for maximum speed
• No Emulation: ~10x faster than traditional cross-compilation

Automatic Triggers:

• ✅ Push to main or master branch
• ✅ Git tags starting with v*
• ✅ Manual trigger via GitHub Actions UI

Manual Trigger:

1. Go to Actions tab in your GitHub repository
2. Select "Build and Push Multi-Architecture Docker Images"
3. Click "Run workflow"
4. Choose branch and push option

Local Development

# Build locally for testing
./build-multiarch.sh

# Build and publish to GitHub Container Registry (manual)
PUSH=true ./build-multiarch.sh

Note: Using GitHub Actions is recommended as it handles authentication and permissions automatically.

Environment Variables

The container automatically sets up these environment variables:

• ARCH_TARGET: Target toolchain (e.g., x86_64-ubuntu12.04-linux-gnu)
• RUST_TARGET: Rust target triple (e.g., x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu)
• OPENSSL_DIR: Path to statically linked OpenSSL
• PATH: Includes the cross-compilation toolchain

Advanced Usage

Cross-Compilation

The image automatically handles cross-compilation. When running on Apple Silicon (M1/M2), it can build x86_64 binaries, and vice versa:

# Force specific platform
docker run --platform linux/amd64 --rm -v "$(pwd)":/src ghcr.io/manticoresoftware/rust-min-libc build --release
docker run --platform linux/arm64 --rm -v "$(pwd)":/src ghcr.io/manticoresoftware/rust-min-libc build --release

Custom Cargo Configuration

The image includes a pre-configured cargo config for cross-compilation, but you can override it:

docker run --rm -v "$(pwd)":/src -v "$(pwd)/.cargo":/usr/local/cargo ghcr.io/manticoresoftware/rust-min-libc build --release

Credits

• crosstool-ng
• A one-liner I was too lazy to come up with