[Bug]: would it be possible to somehow fix proot-distro to be compatible with building packages on-device?

[robertkirkman]

Problem description

using ./build-package.sh from https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/blob/master/build-package.sh inside termux usually fails with this error if any proot-distro containers are installed

uninstalling all of the proot-distro containers resolves this error, but it is inconvenient for some people, and I'm not completely sure what the best way to fix it is.

usually I just uninstall all proot-distros before building any packages inside Termux, but this is difficult and tedious for a lot of people.

Building dependency libc++ if necessary...
libc++@29 installed - skipping
Building dependency net-tools if necessary...
net-tools@2.10.0-1 installed - skipping
Downloading termux-tailscale@1.0.0 source from 'https://github.com/banyadm/termux-tailscale-package/archive/1.0.0.tar.gz' if necessary...
Downloading https://github.com/banyadm/termux-tailscale-package/archive/1.0.0.tar.gz
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed  Time    Time    Time   Current
                                 Dload  Upload  Total   Spent   Left   Speed
  0      0   0      0   0      0      0      0                  0      0   0      0   0      0      0      0                  0      0   0      0   0      0      0      0                              0
  0      0   0      0   0      0      0      0                100   1897 100   1897   0      0   1867      0   00:01   00:01100   1897 100   1897   0      0   1867      0   00:01   00:01100   1897 100   1897   0      0   1866      0   00:01   00:01              0
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/ubuntu/rootfs/data/data/com.termux/files/usr: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/ubuntu/rootfs/data/data/com.termux/files/home: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/ubuntu/rootfs/data/data/com.termux/cache: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/ubuntu/rootfs/data/misc/apexdata/com.android.art/dalvik-cache: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/ubuntu/rootfs/data/dalvik-cache: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/ubuntu/rootfs/data/app: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/ubuntu/rootfs/linkerconfig/com.android.art/ld.config.txt: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/ubuntu/rootfs/linkerconfig/ld.config.txt: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/ubuntu/rootfs/vendor: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/ubuntu/rootfs/system_ext: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/ubuntu/rootfs/system: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/ubuntu/rootfs/product: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/ubuntu/rootfs/odm: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/ubuntu/rootfs/apex: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/ubuntu/rootfs/storage/self/primary: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/ubuntu/rootfs/storage/emulated/0: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/ubuntu/rootfs/sdcard: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/ubuntu/rootfs/dev: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/arch/rootfs/run/systemd/dissect-root: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/arch/rootfs/usr/lib/dbus-daemon-launch-helper: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/arch/rootfs/data/app: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/arch/rootfs/data/dalvik-cache: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/arch/rootfs/data/misc/apexdata/com.android.art/dalvik-cache: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/arch/rootfs/data/data/com.termux/cache: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: ./var/lib/proot-distro/containers/arch/rootfs/data/data/com.termux/files/home: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors

╭─ [Banyadm 󰀲 localhost] [~/termux-packages]  master
╰─❯

What steps will reproduce the bug?

pkg upgrade
pkg install proot-distro
proot-distro install debian
proot-distro login debian
exit
git clone https://github.com/termux/termux-packages
cd termux-packages
scripts/setup-termux.sh
./build-package.sh -I -f grep

What is the expected behavior?

Maybe termux-packages should exclude proot-distro during termux_step_copy_into_massagedir, but i'm not sure exactly how to do that safely or if there is any better way

[BanyAdm]

i have the same problem
please fix!

[robertkirkman]

It's true that I did personally add __pycache__ to the exclusion. however, this seems like a slightly different type of error from the __pycache__ error from a long time ago, and also, adding too many paths to the exclusion seems like it risks creating a mess or requiring additional handling elsewhere.

[robertkirkman]

@BanyAdm you can, temporarily, try to work around this by using the termux-docker image to build your packages on-device inside a Termux container:

proot-distro install termux/termux-docker
proot-distro login termux-docker

however, it has a performance penalty to the speed of the build.

[sylirre]

This is issue of proot, binding target will have 000 permissions. I don't know original proot's author decisions behind this. Not fixable at the side of proot-distro.

Even if this behavior in proot will be changed, you still have distribution files which for whatever reasons can have zero access permissions. So you can't rely on proot-distro or proot.

[sylirre]

I have a different question, why proot-distro files appear in the "massage" directory of Termux build system?

u0_a335@localhost ~/termux-packages (master) $ ls /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.termux-build/ed/massage//data/data/com.termux/files/usr/var/lib/
apt  dbus  dpkg  proot-distro

[sylirre]

@robertkirkman Patch for termux-packages repo:

diff --git a/scripts/build/termux_step_copy_into_massagedir.sh b/scripts/build/termux_step_copy_into_massagedir.sh
index 888ac35203..6941527ec1 100644
--- a/scripts/build/termux_step_copy_into_massagedir.sh
+++ b/scripts/build/termux_step_copy_into_massagedir.sh
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ termux_step_copy_into_massagedir() {
        local DEST="$TERMUX_PKG_MASSAGEDIR/$TERMUX_PREFIX_CLASSICAL"
        mkdir -p "$DEST"
        # Copy files changed during the build into massagedir in order to massage them
-       tar -C "$TERMUX_PREFIX_CLASSICAL" -N "$TERMUX_BUILD_TS_FILE" --exclude='tmp' --exclude='__pycache__' -cf - . | \
-               tar -C "$DEST" -xf -
+       find "$TERMUX_PREFIX_CLASSICAL" \( -type d \( ! -readable -o ! -executable \) -prune \) -o \
+               \( -type f -readable -newer "$TERMUX_BUILD_TS_FILE" -printf '%P\0' \) | \
+               rsync -a --from0 --files-from=- "$TERMUX_PREFIX_CLASSICAL"/ "$DEST"/
 }

Works for me.

Btw it even appears to be faster than tar.

[robertkirkman]

twaik previously used something like that instead of tar, which I approved, but then twaik mysteriously cancelled the change and reverted it back to tar because of something that they discovered. i think @twaik should see and review this idea.

[twaik]

The change was cancelled because the behaviour of the solution was slightly different and there were problems with symlinks or something, I do not remember.

[sylirre]

@robertkirkman It was different: termux/termux-packages@08e61ec

Updated my variant for symlinks:

diff --git a/scripts/build/termux_step_copy_into_massagedir.sh b/scripts/build/termux_step_copy_into_massagedir.sh
index 888ac35203..30a7d5da1a 100644
--- a/scripts/build/termux_step_copy_into_massagedir.sh
+++ b/scripts/build/termux_step_copy_into_massagedir.sh
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ termux_step_copy_into_massagedir() {
 	local DEST="$TERMUX_PKG_MASSAGEDIR/$TERMUX_PREFIX_CLASSICAL"
 	mkdir -p "$DEST"
 	# Copy files changed during the build into massagedir in order to massage them
-	tar -C "$TERMUX_PREFIX_CLASSICAL" -N "$TERMUX_BUILD_TS_FILE" --exclude='tmp' --exclude='__pycache__' -cf - . | \
-		tar -C "$DEST" -xf -
+	find "$TERMUX_PREFIX_CLASSICAL" \( -type d \( ! -readable -o ! -executable \) -prune \) -o \
+		\( -type f -readable -newer "$TERMUX_BUILD_TS_FILE" -printf '%P\0' \) -o \
+		\( -type l -newer "$TERMUX_BUILD_TS_FILE" -printf '%P\0' \) | \
+		rsync -a --from0 --files-from=- "$TERMUX_PREFIX_CLASSICAL"/ "$DEST"/
 }

However it should be possible to fix tar too, something like --ignore-failed-read --warning=no-failed-read

[robertkirkman]

Unfortunately, without the exclusion it does result in a regression of the __pycache__ issue,

~/termux-packages/output $ apt reinstall ./python-cmake_4.3.2_x86_64.deb 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting 'python-cmake' instead of './python-cmake_4.3.2_x86_64.deb'
The following packages will be upgraded:
  python-cmake
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 6 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/675 kB of archives.
After this operation, 2290 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 /data/data/com.termux/files/home/termux-packages/output/python-cmake_4.3.2_x86_64.deb python-cmake x86_64 4.3.2 [675 kB]
(Reading database ... 171739 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../python-cmake_4.3.2_x86_64.deb ...
Unpacking python-cmake (4.3.2) over (4.3.2) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /data/data/com.termux/files/home/termux-packages/output/python-cmake_4.3.2_x86_64.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/python3.13/__pycache__/__future__.cpython-313.pyc', which is also in package python-pyppmd 1.3.1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /data/data/com.termux/files/home/termux-packages/output/python-cmake_4.3.2_x86_64.deb
E: Sub-process /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
~/termux-packages/output $ 

but I will try to add the exclusion again to this version and try to figure out if that's possible.

[robertkirkman]

This might work, I will test this

termux_step_copy_into_massagedir() {
	local DEST="$TERMUX_PKG_MASSAGEDIR/$TERMUX_PREFIX_CLASSICAL"
	mkdir -p "$DEST"
	# Copy files changed during the build into massagedir in order to massage them
	find "$TERMUX_PREFIX_CLASSICAL" \( -type d \( ! -readable -o ! -executable -o -name 'tmp' -o -name '__pycache__' \) -prune \) -o \
		\( -type f -readable -newer "$TERMUX_BUILD_TS_FILE" -printf '%P\0' \) -o \
		\( -type l -newer "$TERMUX_BUILD_TS_FILE" -printf '%P\0' \) | \
		rsync -a --from0 --files-from=- "$TERMUX_PREFIX_CLASSICAL"/ "$DEST"/
}

[Manamama]

Re: 'error if any proot-distro containers are installed' - by chance I experienced it a month ago when building some massive package (alas, I forgot which one by now, probably opencv one, but indeed: https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/blob/master/build-package.sh was involved for that). As I was pressed for time, indeed I had to resort to the dirty move of : mv /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/var/lib/proot-distro/containers $HOME first (instant and does not increase disk storage, etc) and then the compilation worked (and then I mv-ed the containers back of course). Now I know why...

[robertkirkman]

@Manamama , if you build a lot of packages, would you like to help test by applying that patch above that I sent (most recent message) while you build with proot-distro containers installed, and let me know if any strange problem ever occurs?

I need to test it for longer, because I want to make sure that it works with building a lot of packages, but it takes a long time.