Build environment

Structure

Files and directories available inside build environment:

• ./output - directory where built packages will be placed. Does not exist by default.

• ./disabled-packages - directory with packages excluded from main build tree due to various reasons.

• ./ndk-patches - directory with patches for Android NDK sysroot.

• ./packages - directory where all packages (scripts and patches) are located.

• ./sample - sample structure for creating new package.

• ./scripts - internal parts of build system and some utility scripts.

• ./build-all.sh - script for building all available packages.

• ./build-package.sh - script for building one or more packages.

• ./clean.sh - script for cleaning build environment.

Setting up

Docker container

Using official Docker image is a recommended way for building Termux packages which ensures that you have same environment as Termux maintainers and therefore builds are reproducible.

If you have Docker installed and running, then launching build environment should be as simple as running

./scripts/run-docker.sh

Wait until latest image will be downloaded and then container's shell prompt should appear. The termux-packages folder will be mounted as /home/builder/termux-packages.

You may execute commands inside container without launching interactive shell by supplying them as arguments to ./scripts/run-docker.sh. Example:

./scripts/run-docker.sh ./build-package.sh libandroid-support

Sometimes Docker image should be updated. Following command will update image and delete outdated container:

./scripts/update-docker.sh

Building own Docker image

Dockerfile is located in ./scripts/ directory and configured to build Ubuntu-based image.

To build the Docker image, execute following commands:

cd ./scripts
docker build -t termux/package-builder .

If you are getting error like -bash: /tmp/setup-ubuntu.sh: Permission denied, make sure that all *.sh files have permission 755 and umask is 0022.

Docker on Windows

For Windows users there is a PowerShell script available:

.\scripts\run-docker.ps1

Tips

1. Multiple containers.

   You can have multiple containers running in parallel. Just set different container name as environment variable:

   CONTAINER_NAME=termux_builder_2 ./scripts/run-docker.sh
   

2. Using unofficial Docker image.

   You can use a custom Docker image as environment variable TERMUX_BUILDER_IMAGE_NAME, but it also recommended to set a custom name for the container (like above):

   export TERMUX_BUILDER_IMAGE_NAME=username/termux-custom-builder
   export CONTAINER_NAME=custom-builder1
   ./scripts/run-docker.sh
   

VirtualBox VM

There is a Vagrantfile for setting up a VirtualBox Ubuntu installation.

• Run vagrant plugin install vagrant-disksize to install disksize plugin for Vagrant.

• Run cd scripts && vagrant up to setup and launch the virtual machine.

• Run vagrant ssh to ssh into the virtual machine.

Host OS

We have scripts that automate installation of packages used in build process. For now only Ubuntu and Arch Linux distributions are supported. Note that all scripts execute commands under sudo.

For Ubuntu:

./scripts/setup-ubuntu.sh

For Arch Linux:

./scripts/setup-archlinux.sh

Additionally you will need to install Android SDK and NDK. By default, it is expected that both SDK and NDK are installed into $HOME/lib, so it is recommended to use following script to properly setup them:

./scripts/setup-android-sdk.sh

Termux

Our build system can be used to build packages on device. Though with some limitations as our build scripts expect that utilities used at run time available outside of Termux prefix (sysroot).

Warning: devices on which termux-exec is not working are unsupported !

If you wish to use your Termux installation, execute the following command inside the root directory of cloned termux-package repository:

./scripts/setup-termux.sh

Note that files generated in build process are installed to $PREFIX and are not tracked by package manager. It also highly recommended to backup both $HOME and $PREFIX before building any package.

Changing default behaviour

Following environment variables affect behaviour of Termux build system:

• TERMUX_TOPDIR - Specifies the base directory for Termux build environment. Standalone toolchain, downloaded sources, package build directories will be created here. Default is $HOME/.termux-build.

• TERMUX_MAKE_PROCESSES - Specifies amount of jobs that should be spawned by utility make. Default is output of command nproc.

• TERMUX_PKG_API_LEVEL - Specifies Android API level against which packages will be compiled. Default is 24 for branch "master" and 21 for branch "android-5".

• TERMUX_PKG_MAINTAINER - Specifies a value that should be written to package's maintainer field. Default is @termux.

• TERMUX_PACKAGES_DIRECTORIES - Specifies a root directory of package tree. Default is packages.

These variables are overridden with arguments of ./build-package.sh:

• TERMUX_ARCH - Specifies CPU architecture for which packages should be cross-compiled. Default is aarch64. Cannot be changed when building on device.

• TERMUX_CONTINUE_BUILD - If set, build will skip source extraction and configure step and go straight to termux_step_make

• TERMUX_DEBUG_BUILD - Perform debug build. Debug information won't be stripped from binaries and compiler optimizations will be turned off.

• TERMUX_INSTALL_DEPS - If set to true, then dependencies will be installed from the APT repository rather than built.

• TERMUX_NO_CLEAN - Special option for use with TERMUX_INSTALL_DEPS. If set to true, then Termux system root will not be wiped before extracting dependencies. When building on device, this variable should be always true.

• TERMUX_QUIET_BUILD - If set, additional arguments will be passed to utility make to reduce output in compilation process.

• TERMUX_SKIP_DEPCHECK - If set, then no dependency checks will be done.

• TERMUX_DEBDIR - Path to directory where built *.deb files will be placed.

Custom default values for environment variables can be set through file ./scripts/properties.sh.

Important note about Termux prefix

In Termux, prefix is equivalent of the root file system on Linux distributions.

If you decided to change $TERMUX_PREFIX, you are on your own. It is not possible to mix packages from different prefixes as changing one assumes that compiled packages will never be used in a Termux environment.

Those who decided to change $TERMUX_PREFIX should change $TERMUX_ANDROID_HOME as well to avoid path problems.