GCC-Docker: Hermetic Toolchain Builder

"Our Compiler is an Island."

Build self-contained, OS-agnostic GCC toolchains using Docker. The resulting compiler works identically on any Linux distribution—because it carries its own world.

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Quick Start

# Build GCC 13.3.0
./build.py 13.3.0

# Use pre-built image
docker run --rm daryltucker/gcc:13.3.0 gcc --version

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Available Docker Images

Docker Hub Registries:

• daryltucker/gcc - Complete GCC toolchains
• daryltucker/binutils - Standalone binutils for custom toolchain builds

Pull from Docker Hub: docker pull daryltucker/gcc:<tag>

Native Toolchains (x86_64)

Tag	GCC	Status
9.5.0	9.5.0	✅ Sovereign
10.2.0	10.2.0	✅ Sovereign
12.4.0	12.4.0	✅ Sovereign
13.3.0	13.3.0	✅ Sovereign
14.2.0	14.2.0	✅ Sovereign
15.2.0	15.2.0	✅ Sovereign

Optimized Profiles

Tag	GCC	Optimization
12.4.0-legion_s7	12.4.0	AMD Zen 3
13.3.0-legion_s7	13.3.0	AMD Zen 3

Cross-Compilers

Tag	GCC	Target
12.4.0-rpi5	12.4.0	aarch64 (Raspberry Pi 5)
7.2.0-powerpc_ps3_ppu_v7	7.2.0	powerpc64 (PS3 PPU)
7.2.0-powerpc_ps3_spu_v7	7.2.0	spu (PS3 SPU)
9.5.0-powerpc_ps3_spu_v9	9.5.0	spu (PS3 SPU)

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Using Pre-Built Images

Multi-Stage Build (Recommended)

FROM daryltucker/gcc:13.3.0 AS builder
COPY . /src
WORKDIR /src
RUN gcc -o myapp main.c

FROM debian:bookworm-slim
COPY --from=builder /src/myapp /usr/local/bin/
COPY --from=builder /opt/toolchains /opt/toolchains
CMD ["myapp"]

Quick Compile

docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/src -w /src daryltucker/gcc:13.3.0 gcc -o myapp main.c

Extract to Host

docker create --name gcc-extract daryltucker/gcc:12.4.0
docker cp gcc-extract:/opt/toolchains ./toolchains
docker rm gcc-extract

Note: Our toolchains use "Sovereign RPATH"—binaries automatically find their runtime libraries without setting LD_LIBRARY_PATH. You must preserve the original /opt/toolchains/... path.

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Building Your Own

Build CLI

# List available versions
./build.py --list-versions

# Build native (x86_64)
./build.py 12.4.0

# Build with hardware optimization
./build.py 12.4.0 --profile legion_s7

# Cross-compile for ARM
./build.py 12.4.0 --profile rpi5

# Control parallelism (preserves cache)
JOBS=16 ./build.py 13.3.0

CLI Options

Option	Description
--profile	Hardware optimization (e.g., rpi5, legion_s7)
--target	Specific triplet (e.g., aarch64-linux-gnu)
--no-cache	Force full rebuild
--list-versions	List all GCC versions
--list-profiles	List all profiles

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The 7-Pass Build

Every toolchain is built in seven passes:

1. Binutils — Assembler and linker
2. Linux Headers — Kernel API for glibc
3. GCC Bootstrap — Minimal C compiler
4. Glibc — C library
5. Zlib — Compression library
6. GCC Final — Full C/C++/Fortran compiler
7. Validation — Tests: C, C++, Fortran, OpenMP, shared libs, LTO

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Sovereign RPATH

Binaries compiled by our toolchains automatically find their runtime libraries (libstdc++, libgcc_s, libgfortran) without setting LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

This is achieved by patching GCC's specs file to inject -rpath flags pointing to the toolchain's library directory. The result: truly portable binaries.

Verification:

docker run --rm daryltucker/gcc:13.3.0 sh -c '
  echo "int main(){}" | gcc -x c - -o /tmp/test
  /tmp/test && echo "Binary runs without LD_LIBRARY_PATH"
'

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Core Philosophy

• Hermetic Isolation — The compiler works identically everywhere
• Self-Reliance — No apt-get install; we build dependencies from source
• Time Capsule — We recreate the exact ecosystem the compiler expects
• Sovereign RPATH — Binaries find their libraries without environment hacks

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Project Structure

gcc-docker/
├── configs/          # Production JSON configurations
├── profiles/         # Hardware optimization profiles
├── scripts/          # Build orchestration
├── templates/        # Jinja2 Dockerfile templates
├── patches/          # Source code patches
├── out/              # Build outputs (gitignored)
└── cache/            # Downloaded tarballs (gitignored)

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Requirements

• Docker
• Python 3
• wget
• GnuPG (gpg)

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License

MIT