Haskell Stack Static Binary relocation R_X86_64_32 against `__TMC_END__' can not be used when making a shared object

Question

When using the following in my stack.yaml to (attempt) to compile a static binary through Stack:

ghc-options:
    "*": -static -optc-static -optl-static -optl-pthread -fPIC

I get this error:

usr/bin/ld: /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-amazon-linux/4.8.3/crtbeginT.o: relocation R_X86_64_32 against `__TMC_END__' can not be used when making a shared object; recompile with -fPIC
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-amazon-linux/4.8.3/crtbeginT.o: could not read symbols: Bad value
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
`gcc' failed in phase `Linker'. (Exit code: 1)

I'm using stack with docker enabled and a customised Amazon Linux image for building a static binary for use with AWS Lambda.

I have no prior experience with static binary compilation, so I'm a bit stumped on this linker error. Any ideas please?

Here's the gcc args using -v:

/usr/bin/gcc -fno-stack-protector -DTABLES_NEXT_TO_CODE '-Wl,--hash-size=31' -Wl,--reduce-memory-overheads -Wl,--no-as-needed -Wl,-rpath<snipped LOADS> -lHSghc<SNIPPED LOADS> -lpq -lz -lrt -lutil -ldl -lgmp

Answer 1

@Reid Barton is right, regarding the root cause of the problem. The real issue here is that stack is building a shared binary by default. By passing the options -static or ghc-options: -optl-static we are only addressing respectively the ghc layer and ld layer.

stack
 |_ cabal
      |_ ghc
          |_ gcc
              |_ ld (linker)

The correct way to solve the issue is to tell cabal that we want a static binary, as it pilots the build.

The answer on how to do that was provided by sausade on reddit: you just have to add the following to your .cabal file in the executable section:

directive:

`ld-options: -static`

This will hint to cabal that we want a static binary and as so it will not pass -shared to ghc.

So once you have added this directive in your cabal file, you just have to run:

stack install --ghc-options="-fPIC"

and voilà!

P.S: If you don't have static libraries on your system (like with Archlinux) ld will fallback to dynamic linking

---

Previous answer:

That's an old gcc issue that no one care to fix. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gcc-4.4/+bug/640734

For your original problem here are two useful links to show you how to do it:

• https://gist.github.com/erebe/9611b2c8f1d26cc91cc3fb33bbae0eb9
• https://www.fpcomplete.com/blog/2016/10/static-compilation-with-stack

Answer 2

I'm guessing a bit here, but I think this is just a case of breaking things by going behind the build system's back.

It's wrong to write

ghc-options:
    "*": -static

because the choice to build dynamic or static libraries has ramifications for how the rest of the build needs to go. Here it looks like Stack or Cabal told ghc to build a dynamic library and this flag overrode your attempt to set -static. As a result gcc probably ended up with the option combination -shared -static which led to the bug mentioned in Erèbe's answer. (If your flag -static had won over -dynamic, then ghc might have succeeded in building a static library but then Stack/Cabal would probably get confused about what to do next.)

The right way to do this is not to use -static in ghc-options, but instead tell Stack not to build a shared library in the first place. I don't know how you do that in Stack, but the Cabal flag is --disable-shared.