fruix/docs/PROGRESS.md

Progress

2026-04-01 — Phase 1.1 started: Guile verified on FreeBSD amd64

Completed work:

• installed/confirmed guile3-3.0.10
• added a reusable verification harness:
  • tests/guile/run-phase1-verification.sh
  • tests/guile/verify-phase1.scm
  • tests/guile/modules/phase1/sample.scm
• verified the following on FreeBSD 15.0-STABLE amd64:
  • module loading
  • deterministic output generation
  • file I/O
  • process handling with primitive-fork/waitpid
  • loopback TCP sockets
  • FFI calls into libc
  • execution of Guix bootstrap-related code from (guix build make-bootstrap)
• wrote the results to docs/reports/phase1-guile-freebsd.md

Notable findings:

• guile3 and guile-3.0 are present, but there is no unversioned guile binary
• system* and open-pipe* currently segfault on this host (exit 139)
• despite that crash, the lower-level process primitives needed for further investigation do work

Current assessment:

• Phase 1.1 has a solid amd64 smoke-verification baseline
• Phase 1.1 is not fully complete yet because i386 has not been checked and the subprocess crash needs investigation
• verification harness committed as e380e88 (Add FreeBSD Guile verification harness)

2026-04-01 — Phase 1.1 follow-up: subprocess crash isolated

Completed work:

• added a dedicated subprocess diagnostic harness:
  • tests/guile/run-subprocess-diagnostics.sh
  • tests/guile/posix-spawn-freebsd-diagnostics.c
• reproduced crashes for:
  • system*
  • spawn
  • open-pipe*
• confirmed all three fail with SIGSEGV / exit 139
• confirmed native FreeBSD posix_spawn + posix_spawn_file_actions_addclosefrom_np works in a standalone C program
• confirmed FreeBSD behavior that triggers gnulib replacement logic:
  • posix_spawn_file_actions_adddup2 accepts an invalid fd in the gnulib probe
  • posix_spawn_file_actions_addopen accepts an invalid fd in the gnulib probe
  • posix_spawnp accepts a shebang-less executable script in the gnulib security probe
• wrote the analysis to docs/reports/phase1-guile-subprocess-crash.md

Conclusion:

• this is most likely an upstream Guile/gnulib ABI bug on FreeBSD, not a Guix-specific problem
• likely sequence:
  1. gnulib enables REPLACE_POSIX_SPAWN=1
  2. Guile still enables HAVE_POSIX_SPAWN_FILE_ACTIONS_ADDCLOSEFROM_NP
  3. Guile passes a gnulib replacement posix_spawn_file_actions_t object to native posix_spawn_file_actions_addclosefrom_np
  4. libc interprets gnulib struct fields as a native pointer and crashes
• evidence from the lldb core matches this hypothesis (*fa = 0x0000000600000008, consistent with gnulib _allocated=8, _used=6)

Current assessment:

• Phase 1.1 amd64 investigation is now much stronger and has a concrete root-cause hypothesis
• the next practical step is to validate a workaround or patch in Guile so subprocess helpers stop crashing
• after that, continue with Phase 1.2 (minimal native build environment / GNU Hello)

2026-04-01 — Phase 1.1 follow-up: local Guile build validated the fix

Completed work:

• installed the additional build tooling needed for a local Guile checkout build:
  • autoconf
  • automake
  • libtool
  • gettext-tools
  • texinfo
  • help2man
  • gperf
  • pkgconf
• confirmed a FreeBSD-specific bootstrap quirk:
  • Guile autogen.sh needs GNU m4
  • FreeBSD base /usr/bin/m4 is not sufficient
  • M4=gm4 ./autogen.sh works
• built a disposable validation copy from ~/repos/guile
• confirmed ~/repos/guile already contains upstream commit:
  • eb828801f621d3e130b6fe88cfc4acaa69b98a03
  • Don't use posix_spawn_file_actions_addclosefrom_np with glib posix_spawn
• updated the local test harnesses so they can test non-system Guile builds:
  • tests/guile/run-phase1-verification.sh
  • tests/guile/run-subprocess-diagnostics.sh
  • both now accept GUILE_BIN
  • both now prepend the sibling ../lib directory to LD_LIBRARY_PATH when a matching local libguile-3.0.so.1 exists
  • subprocess diagnostics now supports EXPECT_GUILE_SUBPROCESS_CRASH=0 for fixed builds
• validated that the packaged Guile still reproduces the crash
• validated that the locally built Guile succeeds for:
  • system*
  • spawn
  • open-pipe*
• re-ran the broader Phase 1.1 Scheme verification suite successfully against the local Guile build
• wrote the results to docs/reports/phase1-guile-local-build-validation.md

Important findings:

• the local Guile executable initially still crashed until it was forced to load its matching local libguile-3.0.so.1
• once LD_LIBRARY_PATH pointed at the local install lib directory, subprocess helpers worked correctly
• this strongly supports the earlier diagnosis and shows that the upstream Guile fix resolves the problem in practice
• the local ~/repos/bdwgc checkout was not needed for this step; packaged boehm-gc-threaded was sufficient so far

Current assessment:

• Phase 1.1 now has both a root-cause analysis and a working validated fix path on amd64
• no source changes were needed in ~/repos/guile because the local checkout already contains the relevant upstream fix
• no source changes were needed in ~/repos/bdwgc yet, but the earlier FreeBSD warning keeps it on the watch list
• the project can now move on to Phase 1.2 with a known-good local Guile fallback

2026-04-01 — Phase 1.2 started: native GNU Hello build validated on FreeBSD

Completed work:

• added a reusable native build harness:
  • tests/native-build/run-gnu-hello.sh
• used the current Guix package definition in ~/repos/guix/gnu/packages/base.scm as the source of truth for:
  • GNU Hello version 2.12.3
  • expected Guix nix-base32 source hash 183a6rxnhixiyykd7qis0y9g9cfqhpkk872a245y3zl28can0pqd
• verified the downloaded tarball against the translated SHA256:
  • 0d5f60154382fee10b114a1c34e785d8b1f492073ae2d3a6f7b147687b366aa0
• successfully executed the standard native build lifecycle on FreeBSD 15.0-STABLE amd64:
  • fetch
  • hash verification
  • extract
  • configure
  • build
  • staged install
  • runtime execution
• confirmed the staged binary runs and prints:
  • Hello, world!
• captured build metadata including:
  • compiler and make versions
  • host triplet
  • configure command
  • staged output path
  • runtime shared-library dependencies
• wrote the results to docs/reports/phase1-native-gnu-hello.md

Important findings:

• GNU Hello built successfully with FreeBSD base make, not just gmake
• that contrasts with the earlier local Guile build, which did require GNU gmake
• even this minimal GNU package links against FreeBSD-userland-provided libraries such as libiconv and libintl, which is useful data for later Guix package modeling
• this step is still a native shell-driven build exercise, not yet a real Guix package build

Current assessment:

• Phase 1.2 now has a concrete native autotools success case on FreeBSD
• the host can perform the basic fetch/verify/configure/build/install/run cycle needed for later gnu-build-system adaptation work
• Guix-specific build orchestration is still missing, but the environmental baseline is stronger now

Recent commits:

• e380e88 — Add FreeBSD Guile verification harness
• cd721b1 — Update progress after Guile verification
• 27916cb — Diagnose Guile subprocess crash on FreeBSD
• 02f7a7f — Validate local Guile fix on FreeBSD

Next recommended step:

1. extend Phase 1.2 with at least one additional representative GNU/autotools package build on FreeBSD, or
2. prototype a tiny Scheme-based gnu-build-system-like phase runner using the known-good local Guile path, starting from the GNU Hello flow
3. continue keeping ~/repos/bdwgc in reserve if later FreeBSD-specific GC/thread issues appear

2026-04-01 — Phase 1.2 follow-up: Guix builder-side GNU Hello phase runner validated

Completed work:

• added a Scheme-driven GNU Hello build prototype:
  • tests/native-build/gnu-hello-guix-phase-runner.scm
  • tests/native-build/run-gnu-hello-guix-phase-runner.sh
• required the previously validated fixed local Guile build for this harness because it depends on subprocess-heavy Scheme operations
• used Guix modules directly from ~/repos/guix, including:
  • (guix base32)
  • (guix build gnu-build-system)
  • (guix build utils)
• fetched and hash-verified GNU Hello 2.12.3 again against the Guix package hash:
  • nix-base32: 183a6rxnhixiyykd7qis0y9g9cfqhpkk872a245y3zl28can0pqd
  • SHA256: 0d5f60154382fee10b114a1c34e785d8b1f492073ae2d3a6f7b147687b366aa0
• successfully executed a subset of Guix builder-side %standard-phases on FreeBSD:
  • set-SOURCE-DATE-EPOCH
  • unpack
  • configure
  • build
  • check
  • install
• installed GNU Hello into a store-like output path under the temporary work directory rather than using a /usr/local DESTDIR staging layout
• executed the resulting binary successfully and confirmed output:
  • Hello, world!
• captured metadata including:
  • host triplet
  • selected phase list
  • runtime dependencies
  • test-suite summary
• wrote the results to docs/reports/phase1-guix-gnu-hello-phase-runner.md

Important findings:

• this is the first validation step in the repo that successfully exercised actual Guix builder-side GNU build logic on FreeBSD instead of only a shell approximation
• the harness works when driven by the fixed local Guile build, confirming that the earlier Guile subprocess-fix validation is directly useful for FreeBSD Guix build orchestration
• GNU Hello's make check test suite also passed in this mode:
  • total: 7
  • pass: 7
  • fail: 0
• the resulting binary's runtime dependencies differ from the earlier /usr/local-prefixed native shell harness; in this store-like output layout it only showed:
  • libc.so.7
  • libsys.so.7
• that difference is a useful clue that Guix-style output layout/build invocation can materially affect FreeBSD runtime linkage behavior

Current assessment:

• Phase 1.2 now has both:
  • a shell-driven native GNU Hello build harness, and
  • a Scheme-driven prototype that uses real Guix builder-side GNU phases
• this is still short of a true Guix package/derivation build, but it significantly narrows the gap between host validation and real gnu-build-system execution on FreeBSD
• the known-good local Guile path is now validated as part of a practical Guix-adjacent build workflow, not just standalone subprocess diagnostics

Recent commits:

• e380e88 — Add FreeBSD Guile verification harness
• cd721b1 — Update progress after Guile verification
• 27916cb — Diagnose Guile subprocess crash on FreeBSD
• 02f7a7f — Validate local Guile fix on FreeBSD
• 4aebea4 — Add native GNU Hello FreeBSD build harness

Next recommended step:

1. run the Scheme-driven phase-runner pattern against at least one more small GNU/autotools package on FreeBSD, or
2. document the concrete gaps between this prototype and a real Guix package/derivation build, especially around store management and build isolation
3. continue keeping ~/repos/bdwgc in reserve if later FreeBSD-specific GC/thread issues appear