Building avalanchego on SmartOS

avalanchego_on_smartos.md

Steps to reproduce

1. Install SmartOS

2. Login as root (over SSH)

3. Create zone (https://wiki.smartos.org/how-to-create-a-zone/):

   imgadm import cfa9c88e-03f8-11eb-9980-879ff7980a9f # 20.3.0 64-bit
   vmadm create <<EOL
   

   {
       "brand": "joyent",
       "image_uuid": "cfa9c88e-03f8-11eb-9980-879ff7980a9f",
       "alias": "avalanchego",
       "hostname": "avalanchego",
       "resolvers": ["8.8.8.8", "8.8.4.4"],
       "max_physical_memory": 2048,
       "maintain_resolvers": true,
       "nics": [
          {
            "nic_tag": "admin",
            "ip": "dhcp"
        }
    ]
   }
   EOL

4. Login to zone: zlogin <uuid>

5. Install build dependencies: pkgin install go115 git gcc9 gcc9-libs

6. Set GOPATH:

   export PATH=$PATH:$(go env GOPATH)/bin
   export GOPATH=$(go env GOPATH)
   

7. Create a disk-based tmp directory, by default SmartOS zones use a RAM-disk tmpfs which has only 256 MB allocated (and we don't want to waste RAM on this):

   mkdir -f tmp
   export TMPDIR=~/tmp
   

8. Clone and build custom fork of coreth (https://github.com/ava-labs/coreth):

   git clone --branch solaris_fixups https://github.com/dokterbob/coreth.git ~/go/src/github.com/ava-labs/coreth
   

9. Follow variant of official installation instructions (https://github.com/ava-labs/avalanchego):

   go get -v -d github.com/ava-labs/avalanchego/...
   cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/ava-labs/avalanchego
   scripts/build_avalanche.sh
   mkdir build/plugins
   scripts/build_coreth.sh ~/go/src/github.com/ava-labs/coreth build/plugins/evm
   

   The latter command seems to arbitrarily fail with /opt/local/go115/pkg/tool/solaris_amd64/link: running gcc failed: wait: no child processes and needs to be repeated until a working binary comes out. This is possibly due to an out of memory or similar condition.

10. Run avalanchego like a true boss:

    ./build/avalanchego