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authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2026-02-11 13:40:35 -0800
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2026-02-11 13:40:35 -0800
commit41f1a08645abb5ef7d2a3ed8835c747334878774 (patch)
treee79f0bbc52b04e3034a309e3c06823968b304031 /Documentation/dev-tools
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Merge tag 'kbuild-7.0-1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/kbuild/linux
Pull Kbuild/Kconfig updates from Nathan Chancellor: "Kbuild: - Drop '*_probe' pattern from modpost section check allowlist, which hid legitimate warnings (Johan Hovold) - Disable -Wtype-limits altogether, instead of enabling at W=2 (Vincent Mailhol) - Improve UAPI testing to skip testing headers that require a libc when CONFIG_CC_CAN_LINK is not set, opening up testing of headers with no libc dependencies to more environments (Thomas Weißschuh) - Update gendwarfksyms documentation with required dependencies (Jihan LIN) - Reject invalid LLVM= values to avoid unintentionally falling back to system toolchain (Thomas Weißschuh) - Add a script to help run the kernel build process in a container for consistent environments and testing (Guillaume Tucker) - Simplify kallsyms by getting rid of the relative base (Ard Biesheuvel) - Performance and usability improvements to scripts/make_fit.py (Simon Glass) - Minor various clean ups and fixes Kconfig: - Move XPM icons to individual files, clearing up GTK deprecation warnings (Rostislav Krasny) - Support depends on FOO if BAR as syntactic sugar for depends on FOO || !BAR (Nicolas Pitre, Graham Roff) - Refactor merge_config.sh to use awk over shell/sed/grep, dramatically speeding up processing large number of config fragments (Anders Roxell, Mikko Rapeli)" * tag 'kbuild-7.0-1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/kbuild/linux: (39 commits) kbuild: remove dependency of run-command on config scripts/make_fit: Compress dtbs in parallel scripts/make_fit: Support a few more parallel compressors kbuild: Support a FIT_EXTRA_ARGS environment variable scripts/make_fit: Move dtb processing into a function scripts/make_fit: Support an initial ramdisk scripts/make_fit: Speed up operation rust: kconfig: Don't require RUST_IS_AVAILABLE for rustc-option MAINTAINERS: Add scripts/install.sh into Kbuild entry modpost: Amend ppc64 save/restfpr symnames for -Os build MIPS: tools: relocs: Ship a definition of R_MIPS_PC32 streamline_config.pl: remove superfluous exclamation mark kbuild: dummy-tools: Add python3 scripts: kconfig: merge_config.sh: warn on duplicate input files scripts: kconfig: merge_config.sh: use awk in checks too scripts: kconfig: merge_config.sh: refactor from shell/sed/grep to awk kallsyms: Get rid of kallsyms relative base mips: Add support for PC32 relocations in vmlinux Documentation: dev-tools: add container.rst page scripts: add tool to run containerized builds ...
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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only
+.. Copyright (C) 2025 Guillaume Tucker
+
+====================
+Containerized Builds
+====================
+
+The ``container`` tool can be used to run any command in the kernel source tree
+from within a container. Doing so facilitates reproducing builds across
+various platforms, for example when a test bot has reported an issue which
+requires a specific version of a compiler or an external test suite. While
+this can already be done by users who are familiar with containers, having a
+dedicated tool in the kernel tree lowers the barrier to entry by solving common
+problems once and for all (e.g. user id management). It also makes it easier
+to share an exact command line leading to a particular result. The main use
+case is likely to be kernel builds but virtually anything can be run: KUnit,
+checkpatch etc. provided a suitable image is available.
+
+
+Options
+=======
+
+Command line syntax::
+
+ scripts/container -i IMAGE [OPTION]... CMD...
+
+Available options:
+
+``-e, --env-file ENV_FILE``
+
+ Path to an environment file to load in the container.
+
+``-g, --gid GID``
+
+ Group id to use inside the container.
+
+``-i, --image IMAGE``
+
+ Container image name (required).
+
+``-r, --runtime RUNTIME``
+
+ Container runtime name. Supported runtimes: ``docker``, ``podman``.
+
+ If not specified, the first one found on the system will be used
+ i.e. Podman if present, otherwise Docker.
+
+``-s, --shell``
+
+ Run the container in an interactive shell.
+
+``-u, --uid UID``
+
+ User id to use inside the container.
+
+ If the ``-g`` option is not specified, the user id will also be used for
+ the group id.
+
+``-v, --verbose``
+
+ Enable verbose output.
+
+``-h, --help``
+
+ Show the help message and exit.
+
+
+Usage
+=====
+
+It's entirely up to the user to choose which image to use and the ``CMD``
+arguments are passed directly as an arbitrary command line to run in the
+container. The tool will take care of mounting the source tree as the current
+working directory and adjust the user and group id as needed.
+
+The container image which would typically include a compiler toolchain is
+provided by the user and selected via the ``-i`` option. The container runtime
+can be selected with the ``-r`` option, which can be either ``docker`` or
+``podman``. If none is specified, the first one found on the system will be
+used while giving priority to Podman. Support for other runtimes may be added
+later depending on their popularity among users.
+
+By default, commands are run non-interactively. The user can abort a running
+container with SIGINT (Ctrl-C). To run commands interactively with a TTY, the
+``--shell`` or ``-s`` option can be used. Signals will then be received by the
+shell directly rather than the parent ``container`` process. To exit an
+interactive shell, use Ctrl-D or ``exit``.
+
+.. note::
+
+ The only host requirement aside from a container runtime is Python 3.10 or
+ later.
+
+.. note::
+
+ Out-of-tree builds are not fully supported yet. The ``O=`` option can
+ however already be used with a relative path inside the source tree to keep
+ separate build outputs. A workaround to build outside the tree is to use
+ ``mount --bind``, see the examples section further down.
+
+
+Environment Variables
+=====================
+
+Environment variables are not propagated to the container so they have to be
+either defined in the image itself or via the ``-e`` option using an
+environment file. In some cases it makes more sense to have them defined in
+the Containerfile used to create the image. For example, a Clang-only compiler
+toolchain image may have ``LLVM=1`` defined.
+
+The local environment file is more useful for user-specific variables added
+during development. It is passed as-is to the container runtime so its format
+may vary. Typically, it will look like the output of ``env``. For example::
+
+ INSTALL_MOD_STRIP=1
+ SOME_RANDOM_TEXT=One upon a time
+
+Please also note that ``make`` options can still be passed on the command line,
+so while this can't be done since the first argument needs to be the
+executable::
+
+ scripts/container -i docker.io/tuxmake/korg-clang LLVM=1 make # won't work
+
+this will work::
+
+ scripts/container -i docker.io/tuxmake/korg-clang make LLVM=1
+
+
+User IDs
+========
+
+This is an area where the behaviour will vary slightly depending on the
+container runtime. The goal is to run commands as the user invoking the tool.
+With Podman, a namespace is created to map the current user id to a different
+one in the container (1000 by default). With Docker, while this is also
+possible with recent versions it requires a special feature to be enabled in
+the daemon so it's not used here for simplicity. Instead, the container is run
+with the current user id directly. In both cases, this will provide the same
+file permissions for the kernel source tree mounted as a volume. The only
+difference is that when using Docker without a namespace, the user id may not
+be the same as the default one set in the image.
+
+Say, we're using an image which sets up a default user with id 1000 and the
+current user calling the ``container`` tool has id 1234. The kernel source
+tree was checked out by this same user so the files belong to user 1234. With
+Podman, the container will be running as user id 1000 with a mapping to id 1234
+so that the files from the mounted volume appear to belong to id 1000 inside
+the container. With Docker and no namespace, the container will be running
+with user id 1234 which can access the files in the volume but not in the user
+1000 home directory. This shouldn't be an issue when running commands only in
+the kernel tree but it is worth highlighting here as it might matter for
+special corner cases.
+
+.. note::
+
+ Podman's `Docker compatibility
+ <https://podman-desktop.io/docs/migrating-from-docker/managing-docker-compatibility>`__
+ mode to run ``docker`` commands on top of a Podman backend is more complex
+ and not fully supported yet. As such, Podman will take priority if both
+ runtimes are available on the system.
+
+
+Examples
+========
+
+The TuxMake project provides a variety of prebuilt container images available
+on `Docker Hub <https://hub.docker.com/u/tuxmake>`__. Here's the shortest
+example to build a kernel using a TuxMake Clang image::
+
+ scripts/container -i docker.io/tuxmake/korg-clang -- make LLVM=1 defconfig
+ scripts/container -i docker.io/tuxmake/korg-clang -- make LLVM=1 -j$(nproc)
+
+.. note::
+
+ When running a command with options within the container, it should be
+ separated with a double dash ``--`` to not confuse them with the
+ ``container`` tool options. Plain commands with no options don't strictly
+ require the double dashes e.g.::
+
+ scripts/container -i docker.io/tuxmake/korg-clang make mrproper
+
+To run ``checkpatch.pl`` in a ``patches`` directory with a generic Perl image::
+
+ scripts/container -i perl:slim-trixie scripts/checkpatch.pl patches/*
+
+As an alternative to the TuxMake images, the examples below refer to
+``kernel.org`` images which are based on the `kernel.org compiler toolchains
+<https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/pub/tools/>`__. These aren't (yet) officially
+available in any public registry but users can build their own locally instead
+using this `experimental repository
+<https://gitlab.com/gtucker/korg-containers>`__ by running ``make
+PREFIX=kernel.org/``.
+
+To build just ``bzImage`` using Clang::
+
+ scripts/container -i kernel.org/clang -- make bzImage -j$(nproc)
+
+Same with GCC 15 as a particular version tag::
+
+ scripts/container -i kernel.org/gcc:15 -- make bzImage -j$(nproc)
+
+For an out-of-tree build, a trick is to bind-mount the destination directory to
+a relative path inside the source tree::
+
+ mkdir -p $HOME/tmp/my-kernel-build
+ mkdir -p build
+ sudo mount --bind $HOME/tmp/my-kernel-build build
+ scripts/container -i kernel.org/gcc -- make mrproper
+ scripts/container -i kernel.org/gcc -- make O=build defconfig
+ scripts/container -i kernel.org/gcc -- make O=build -j$(nproc)
+
+To run KUnit in an interactive shell and get the full output::
+
+ scripts/container -s -i kernel.org/gcc:kunit -- \
+ tools/testing/kunit/kunit.py \
+ run \
+ --arch=x86_64 \
+ --cross_compile=x86_64-linux-
+
+To just start an interactive shell::
+
+ scripts/container -si kernel.org/gcc bash
+
+To build the HTML documentation, which requires the ``kdocs`` image built with
+``make PREFIX=kernel.org/ extra`` as it's not a compiler toolchain::
+
+ scripts/container -i kernel.org/kdocs make htmldocs
diff --git a/Documentation/dev-tools/index.rst b/Documentation/dev-tools/index.rst
index 1477c10e1356..59cbb77b33ff 100644
--- a/Documentation/dev-tools/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/dev-tools/index.rst
@@ -39,3 +39,4 @@ Documentation/process/debugging/index.rst
gpio-sloppy-logic-analyzer
autofdo
propeller
+ container