Files
fips/packaging/README.md
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Johnathan Corgan 867f5f81b4 build: produce every Linux artifact in a pinned container and check its floor
The released .deb installs cleanly on Debian 12 and Ubuntu 22.04 and the
daemon then cannot start, with the loader reporting GLIBC_2.39 not found.
Three binaries are affected, fips, fipstop and fips-gateway; fipsctl runs,
which is why it stayed quiet, since an install checked by running fipsctl
gets a clean answer while the daemon is dead. It is not a v0.5.0 regression:
every release artifact from v0.3.0 onward carries the same floor and the same
unversioned dependency.

The cause is the build machine. Rust's standard library references
pidfd_spawnp and pidfd_getpid as weak undefined symbols behind a runtime
check, so a binary should fall back where the C library lacks them. Linking
against a C library that has them records a hard version dependency instead,
and the loader refuses the image on that entry alone. No Rust changed here.

One script now produces the Linux artifacts. It builds in a container pinned
to the oldest distribution still supported for free by its distributor, named
with the floor in packaging/build-floor.env, and runs the floor check on the
package it produced, so every producer is gated rather than one workflow. The
floor guard reads readelf's Version needs section: the obvious objdump
formulation returns 2.2.5 for the shipped fips and would have passed every
affected release.

The script prints the package path as the only thing on its stdout, which is
what lets a caller take it without parsing, and it takes --features. Both
required care. The container's own stdout reaches the caller, so the build
runs with its output on stderr; without that, a caller using a plain command
substitution captures four lines of build chatter along with the path. And a
feature build must keep the +<features> marker that distinguishes it from the
default build of the same commit, or dpkg sees two packages at one version and
a revert silently no-ops. The version is derived on the host, because the
image has no git and the source is mounted read-only, so build-deb.sh now
applies that marker to an explicit version as well as to one it derives.

Both runners now build once through that script and install the artifact.
The five deb-install legs previously built their own package each, so one CI
run performed five complete release builds and four were waste; they now live
in a job of their own that downloads one built package, which also stops the
rest of the integration matrix waiting on it. The parity guard read one
hardcoded job and now sweeps every job's matrix. The release workflow builds
both architectures through the same script, and the systemd tarball takes its
binaries out of that package instead of from a second, unchecked set on the
runner, then is floor-checked after the strip.

Cargo.toml derives the dependency with $auto rather than stating a bare libc6
that nothing can fail. Note the ordering this implies for any pipeline that
builds on a current distribution: until it builds through this script, its
packages will declare libc6 (>= 2.39).

Measured: the container build produces four binaries at 2.34, and one artifact
passes all five distributions, 95 checks, in about two minutes. The floor
check fails the released 0.5.0 package on three binaries and passes this one.
A profiling build produces fips_0.5.1~dev+git<date>.<sha>+profiling-1_amd64.deb.
2026-09-05 23:34:05 +00:00

10 KiB

FIPS Packaging

This directory contains packaging for all supported target platforms. Most build outputs go to deploy/ at the project root; make ipk and make apk write to dist/ instead.

Quick Start

make deb        # Debian/Ubuntu .deb (built in the pinned container)
make tarball    # systemd install tarball
make ipk        # OpenWrt .ipk (opkg, OpenWrt 24.x and earlier)
make apk        # OpenWrt .apk (apk-tools, mandatory on OpenWrt 25+)
make aur        # Arch Linux AUR package (fips-git, local build + namcap)
make pkg        # macOS .pkg installer
make freebsd    # FreeBSD .pkg package (on FreeBSD; use gmake)
make zip        # Windows .zip package
make all        # deb + tarball (default)

The two Debian build paths

make deb builds in a container pinned to the oldest supported distribution, named with the glibc floor in build-floor.env, and checks the package it produced against that floor before handing it back. Its only host prerequisite is docker: the toolchain and the build dependencies live in the image. This is the path the release workflow, the integration suite and the internal builder all take, so a package that passes locally is built the way the shipped one is.

make deb-host is the old path. It builds on the host, at whatever glibc the host has, and it is checked against nothing. Use it for local iteration only. A package built on a current distribution records a version dependency that the loader refuses on Debian 12 and Ubuntu 22.04, which is what shipped in every Linux artifact from v0.3.0 through v0.5.0, so it must not produce anything anyone else installs.

Build Prerequisites

The prerequisites below apply to the host-build targets. make deb needs docker and nothing else.

These targets build FIPS from source, so the host needs a build environment in addition to a Rust toolchain (the version pinned in rust-toolchain.toml is auto-installed by rustup).

On Linux, libclang is required: the LAN gateway's nftables bindings are generated by bindgen at build time, which needs libclang.so on the build host. Without it the build fails inside the rustables crate with an "Unable to find libclang" error.

sudo apt install libclang-dev    # Debian / Ubuntu

This is a build-time prerequisite only — it is not a runtime dependency, so hosts installing a pre-built .deb do not need it.

BLE is not optional, and it is not universal either. build.rs sets ble_available for glibc Linux or Android, which is the set of platforms with a concrete backend: the transport is absent from musl Linux, macOS, FreeBSD and Windows builds entirely. On glibc Linux libdbus-1-dev and pkg-config are hard build prerequisites: there is no probe that skips BLE when they are missing. The BlueZ daemon is a runtime dependency and is not needed to build.

Directory Structure

packaging/
  aur/            Arch Linux AUR packaging (PKGBUILD, supporting files)
  common/         Shared assets (default config, hosts file)
  debian/         Debian/Ubuntu .deb packaging via cargo-deb
  freebsd/        FreeBSD .pkg packaging via pkg-create(8)
  macos/          macOS .pkg installer via pkgbuild
  nixos/          NixOS flake module (services.fips.*)
  systemd/        Generic Linux systemd tarball packaging
  openwrt-ipk/    OpenWrt .ipk packaging via cargo-zigbuild (opkg)
  openwrt-apk/    OpenWrt .apk packaging via cargo-zigbuild + apk mkpkg
  windows/        Windows .zip package with service scripts

Formats

Debian/Ubuntu (.deb)

Built with cargo-deb. Installs fips, fipsctl, fipstop, and fips-gateway to /usr/bin/, ships the fips, fips-dns, fips-firewall, and fips-gateway systemd units, and enables the fips and fips-dns services.

The default configuration ships as an example at /usr/share/fips/fips.yaml.example and is not a dpkg conf-file. (It is deliberately not under /usr/share/doc, which minimal and container installs path-exclude, since the postinst reads it at install time.) On install, postinst seeds /etc/fips/fips.yaml (mode 600) from the example only if it does not already exist, so a configuration that was rendered by configuration management or edited by an operator is never prompted for or clobbered on upgrade. To reset to defaults, remove /etc/fips/fips.yaml and reinstall, or copy the example back manually.

# Build
make deb

# Install
sudo dpkg -i deploy/fips_<version>_<arch>.deb

# Remove (preserves config and keys)
sudo dpkg -r fips

# Purge (removes config and identity keys)
sudo dpkg -P fips

systemd Tarball

A self-contained tarball with binaries and an install.sh script for any systemd-based Linux distribution.

# Build
make tarball

# Install (on target host)
tar -xzf deploy/fips-<version>-linux-<arch>.tar.gz
sudo ./fips-<version>-linux-<arch>/install.sh

See systemd/README.install.md for full installation and configuration instructions.

OpenWrt (.ipk, opkg — OpenWrt 24.x and earlier)

Cross-compiled with cargo-zigbuild and assembled as a standard .ipk archive. Supports aarch64, mipsel, mips, arm, and x86_64 targets.

# Build (default: aarch64)
make ipk

# Build for a specific architecture
bash packaging/openwrt-ipk/build-ipk.sh --arch mipsel

See openwrt-ipk/README.md for router-specific installation instructions.

OpenWrt (.apk, apk-tools — mandatory on OpenWrt 25+)

OpenWrt 25 makes apk-tools the mandatory package manager (it is opt-in on 24.10). Same SDK-free approach (cargo-zigbuild), but the .apk container is assembled by apk mkpkg rather than hand-rolled, so the build additionally needs an apk-tools v3 apk binary built from source. The installed-filesystem payload is shared with the .ipk package.

# Build (default: aarch64; also x86_64)
make apk

# Build for a specific architecture
bash packaging/openwrt-apk/build-apk.sh --arch x86_64

Packages are unsigned; install with apk add --allow-untrusted. See openwrt-apk/README.md for building apk-tools and router-specific installation.

macOS (.pkg)

Built with pkgbuild (included with Xcode command-line tools). Installs binaries to /usr/local/bin/, config to /usr/local/etc/fips/, sets up the /etc/resolver/fips DNS resolver for .fips domains, and loads a launchd daemon. The TUN device is named utun<N> (kernel-assigned) rather than fips0.

# Build
make pkg

# Install
sudo installer -pkg deploy/fips-<version>-macos-<arch>.pkg -target /

# Remove
sudo packaging/macos/uninstall.sh

FreeBSD (.pkg)

Built natively on a FreeBSD host with pkg create. Ships fips, fipsctl, and fipstop (fips-gateway is excluded — its NAT backend is nftables, Linux-only), rc.d services, and .fips DNS integration for local_unbound, unbound, or dnsmasq. Config installs sample-style under /usr/local/etc/fips/ (edits survive upgrades).

# Build (on FreeBSD; this Makefile needs GNU make — pkg install gmake)
gmake freebsd
# or directly, no gmake needed:
./packaging/freebsd/build-pkg.sh

# Install
pkg add ./deploy/fips-<version>-freebsd-<arch>.pkg
sysrc fips_enable=YES fips_dns_enable=YES
service fips start
service fips_dns start

See freebsd/README.md for host resolver setup and field-tested caveats.

Windows (.zip)

A ZIP archive containing binaries, default config, and PowerShell service helper scripts. Requires the wintun driver for TUN support.

# Build
make zip

# Or directly
powershell -File packaging/windows/build-zip.ps1

# Extract and install as service (requires Administrator)
Expand-Archive deploy\fips-<version>-windows-x86_64.zip -DestinationPath fips
cd fips
powershell -File install-service.ps1

# Uninstall (preserves config)
powershell -File uninstall-service.ps1

# Uninstall and remove config
powershell -File uninstall-service.ps1 -RemoveAll

Arch Linux (AUR)

Two AUR packages are maintained: fips (release, builds from tagged tarball) and fips-git (development, builds from latest git master).

# Build and validate locally (git variant)
make aur

# Install from AUR
yay -S fips-git    # development build from master
yay -S fips        # release build from latest tag

See aur/README.md for AUR publication instructions and maintainer guide.

Nix / NixOS (flake)

A flake at the project root builds all four binaries (fips, fipsctl, fips-gateway, fipstop) from source. It pins the exact toolchain from rust-toolchain.toml via fenix and wires up the build-time native dependencies (libclang for bindgen, plus dbus and pkg-config for BLE), so it needs no system setup beyond Nix with flakes enabled.

nix build .#fips          # build the package (all four binaries)
nix run .#fips -- --help  # run a binary directly
nix run .#fipsctl -- show status
nix develop               # dev shell with the pinned toolchain + cargo-edit
nix flake check           # build + validate the flake

The flake also exposes:

  • overlays.default — adds pkgs.fips to nixpkgs
  • nixosModules.default — a NixOS module (packaging/nixos/) that provides services.fips.enable and runs the daemon as a systemd service

As a package only (no service management):

environment.systemPackages = [ fips.packages.${system}.default ];

As a managed NixOS service (recommended — starts on boot, journalctl logs):

# flake.nix
{
  inputs.fips = {
    url = "github:jmcorgan/fips";
    inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
  };

  outputs = { self, nixpkgs, fips, ... }@inputs: {
    nixosConfigurations.myhost = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      system = "x86_64-linux";
      specialArgs = { inherit inputs; };
      modules = [
        ./configuration.nix
        fips.nixosModules.default
        { services.fips.enable = true; }
      ];
    };
  };
}

See packaging/nixos/README.md for the full option reference (services.fips.enable, .package, .configFile, .openFirewall).

Shared Assets

common/ contains assets used across packaging formats:

  • fips.yaml — default configuration (ephemeral identity, UDP/TCP/TUN/DNS)
  • hosts — static hostname-to-npub mappings for .fips DNS resolution