sharun

Run dynamically linked ELF binaries everywhere (musl and glibc are supported).

• Its works with userland-execve by mapping the interpreter (such as ld-linux-x86-64.so.2) into memory, creating a stack for it (containing the auxiliary vector, arguments, and environment variables), and then jumping to the entry point with the new stack.
• lib4bin pulls out the binary file and all the libraries on which it depends, strip it and forms the bin, shared/{bin,lib,lib32} directories (see screenshots) and generate a file shared/{lib,lib32}/lib.path with a list of all directories that contain libraries for pass it to interpreter --library-path. The paths in this file are specified on a new line with a + at the beginning and relative to the directory in which it is located.

Supported architectures:

• aarch64
• x86_64

To get started:

• Download the latest revision

git clone https://github.com/VHSgunzo/sharun.git && cd sharun

• Compile a binary

rustup default nightly
rustup target add $(uname -m)-unknown-linux-musl
rustup component add rust-src --toolchain nightly
cargo build --release
cp ./target/$(uname -m)-unknown-linux-musl/release/sharun .
./sharun --help
./sharun lib4bin --help

• Or take an already precompiled binary file from the releases

Usage sharun:

[ Usage ]: sharun [OPTIONS] [EXEC ARGS]...
    Use lib4bin for create 'bin' and 'shared' dirs

[ Arguments ]:
    [EXEC ARGS]...              Command line arguments for execution

[ Options ]:
     l,  lib4bin [ARGS]         Launch the built-in lib4bin
    -g,  --gen-lib-path         Generate library path file
    -v,  --version              Print version
    -h,  --help                 Print help

[ Environments ]:
    SHARUN_WORKING_DIR=/path    Specifies the path to the working directory
    SHARUN_LDNAME=ld.so         Specifies the name of the interpreter
    SHARUN_DIR                  Sharun directory

Usage lib4bin:

[ Usage ]: lib4bin [OPTIONS] /path/executable -- [STRACE CMD ARGS]

[ Options ]:
  -a, --any-executable     Pack any executable (env: ANY_EXECUTABLE=1)
  -d, --dst-dir '/path'    Destination directory (env: DST_DIR=/path)
  -e, --strace-mode        Use strace for get libs (env: STRACE_MODE=1, STRACE_TIME=5)
  -g, --gen-lib-path       Generate a lib.path file (env: GEN_LIB_PATH=1)
  -h, --help               Show this message
  -i, --patch-interpreter  Patch INTERPRETER to a relative path (env: PATCH_INTERPRETER=1)
  -l, --libs-only          Pack only libraries (env: LIBS_ONLY=1)
  -n, --not-one-dir        Separate directories for each executable (env: ONE_DIR=0)
  -p, --hard-links         Pack sharun and create hard links (env: HARD_LINKS=1)
  -q, --quiet-mode         Show only errors (env: QUIET_MODE=1)
  -r, --patch-rpath        Patch RPATH to a relative path (env: PATCH_RPATH=1)
  -s, --strip              Strip binaries and libraries (env: STRIP=1)
  -v, --verbose            Verbose mode (env: VERBOSE=1)
  -w, --with-sharun        Pack sharun from PATH or env or download 
  (env: WITH_SHARUN=1, SHARUN=/path|URL, SHARUN_URL=URL, UPX_SHARUN=1)

Examples:

# run lib4bin with the paths to the binary files that you want to make portable
./sharun lib4bin --with-sharun --dst-dir test /bin/bash

# or for correct /proc/self/exe you can use --hard-links flag
./sharun lib4bin --hard-links --dst-dir test /bin/bash
# this will create hard links from 'test/sharun' in the 'test/bin' directory

# now you can move 'test' dir to other linux system and run binaries from the 'bin' dir
./test/bin/bash --version

# or specify them as an argument to 'sharun'
./test/sharun bash --version

• You can create a hard link from sharun to AppRun and write the name of the executable file from the bin directory to the .app file for compatibility with AppImage AppDir. If the .app file does not exist, the *.desktop file will be used.

• Additional env var can be specified in the .env file (see dotenv). Env var can also be deleted using unset ENV_VAR in the end of the .env file.

• Also you can package the sharun directory with your applications into a single executable file using wrappe

Screenshots:

Environment variables that are set if sharun finds a directory or file:

• PATH -- ${SHARUN_DIR}/bin

• PYTHONHOME and PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE -- ${SHARUN_DIR}/shared/$LIB/python*

• PERLLIB -- ${SHARUN_DIR}/shared/$LIB/perl*

• GCONV_PATH -- ${SHARUN_DIR}/shared/$LIB/gconv

• GIO_MODULE_DIR -- ${SHARUN_DIR}/shared/$LIB/gio/modules

• GTK_PATH, GTK_EXE_PREFIX and GTK_DATA_PREFIX -- ${SHARUN_DIR}/shared/$LIB/gtk-*

• QT_PLUGIN_PATH -- ${SHARUN_DIR}/shared/$LIB/qt*/plugins

• BABL_PATH -- ${SHARUN_DIR}/shared/$LIB/babl-*

• GEGL_PATH -- ${SHARUN_DIR}/shared/$LIB/gegl-*

• GIMP2_PLUGINDIR -- ${SHARUN_DIR}/shared/$LIB/gimp/2.0

• TCL_LIBRARY -- ${SHARUN_DIR}/shared/$LIB/tcl*

• TK_LIBRARY -- ${SHARUN_DIR}/shared/$LIB/tk*

• GST_PLUGIN_PATH, GST_PLUGIN_SYSTEM_PATH, GST_PLUGIN_SYSTEM_PATH_1_0, and GST_PLUGIN_SCANNER -- ${SHARUN_DIR}/shared/$LIB/gstreamer-*

• GDK_PIXBUF_MODULEDIR and GDK_PIXBUF_MODULE_FILE -- ${SHARUN_DIR}/shared/$LIB/gdk-pixbuf-*

• XDG_DATA_DIRS -- ${SHARUN_DIR}/share

• VK_DRIVER_FILES -- ${SHARUN_DIR}/share/vulkan/icd.d

• __EGL_VENDOR_LIBRARY_DIRS -- ${SHARUN_DIR}/share/glvnd/egl_vendor.d

• XKB_CONFIG_ROOT -- ${SHARUN_DIR}/share/X11/xkb

• GSETTINGS_SCHEMA_DIR -- ${SHARUN_DIR}/share/glib-2.0/schemas

• GIMP2_DATADIR -- ${SHARUN_DIR}/share/gimp/2.0

• FONTCONFIG_FILE -- ${SHARUN_DIR}/etc/fonts/fonts.conf

• GIMP2_SYSCONFDIR -- ${SHARUN_DIR}/etc/gimp/2.0

Projects that use sharun:

• pelfCreator
• AppBundleHUB
• android-tools-AppImage
• pavucontrol-qt-AppImage
• rofi-AppImage
• mpv-AppImage
• OBS-Studio-AppImage
• GIMP-AppImage

References

• userland-execve
• https://brioche.dev/blog/portable-dynamically-linked-packages-on-linux