Bazel binary for aarch64 architecture

[ossdev07]

Description of the problem / feature request:

Bazel binary is not present for the aarch64 architecture.

Feature requests: what underlying problem are you trying to solve with this feature?

To provide multi-architecture support in bazel

What operating system are you running Bazel on?

Linux

Any other information, logs, or outputs that you want to share?

I have tried to build bazel on my local aarch64 machine, by following the instruction mentioned at https://docs.bazel.build/versions/master/install-compile-source.html#bootstrap-bazel

To build the bazel from source code I have used bazel-0.27.1-dist.zip. I was successfully able to build and generate the binary

root@ps-docker-images-do-not-delete:/vol2/aarch64/qwert# env EXTRA_BAZEL_ARGS="--host_javabase=@local_jdk//:jdk" bash ./compile.sh .
🍃  Building Bazel from scratch..find: ‘src/tools/xcode-common/java/com/google/devtools/build/xcode/common’: No such file or directory
find: ‘src/tools/xcode-common/java/com/google/devtools/build/xcode/util’: No such file or directory
....
🍃  Building Bazel with Bazel.
.WARNING: --batch mode is deprecated. Please instead explicitly shut down your Bazel server using the command "bazel shutdown".
DEBUG: /tmp/bazel_jm8BGrdX/out/external/build_bazel_rules_nodejs/internal/common/check_bazel_version.bzl:49:5:
Current Bazel is not a release version, cannot check for compatibility.
DEBUG: /tmp/bazel_jm8BGrdX/out/external/build_bazel_rules_nodejs/internal/common/check_bazel_version.bzl:51:5: Make sure that you are running at least Bazel 0.17.1.
INFO: Analyzed target //src:bazel_nojdk (214 packages loaded, 10406 targets configured).
INFO: Found 1 target...
INFO: From Compiling src/main/tools/daemonize.c:
src/main/tools/daemonize.c: In function 'WritePidFile':
src/main/tools/daemonize.c:95:3: warning: ignoring return value of 'write', declared with attribute warn_unused_result [-Wunused-result]
   write(pid_done_fd, &dummy, sizeof(dummy));
   ^
INFO: From Generating Java (Immutable) proto_library //src/main/protobuf:execution_statistics_proto:
[libprotobuf WARNING external/com_google_protobuf/src/google/protobuf/compiler/java/java_file.cc:228] The optimize_for = LITE_RUNTIME option is no longer supported by protobuf Java code generator and may generate broken code. It will be ignored by protoc in the future and protoc will always generate full runtime code for Java. To use Java Lite runtime, users should use the Java Lite plugin instead. See:
  https://github.com/google/protobuf/blob/master/java/lite.md
INFO: From JavacBootstrap src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/shell/libshell-skylark.jar [for host]:
warning: Implicitly compiled files were not subject to annotation processing.
  Use -proc:none to disable annotation processing or -implicit to specify a policy for implicit compilation.
1 warning
INFO: From Compiling src/main/cpp/blaze_util_posix.cc:
src/main/cpp/blaze_util_posix.cc: In function 'uint64_t blaze::AcquireLock(const string&, bool, bool, blaze::BlazeLock*)':
src/main/cpp/blaze_util_posix.cc:650:30: warning: ignoring return value of 'int ftruncate(int, __off_t)', declared with attribute warn_unused_result [-Wunused-result]
   (void) ftruncate(lockfd, 0);
                              ^
INFO: From JavacBootstrap src/java_tools/singlejar/java/com/google/devtools/build/singlejar/libbootstrap.jar [for host]:
warning: Implicitly compiled files were not subject to annotation processing.
  Use -proc:none to disable annotation processing or -implicit to specify a policy for implicit compilation.
1 warning
INFO: From JavacBootstrap src/java_tools/buildjar/java/com/google/devtools/build/buildjar/libskylark-deps.jar [for host]:
Note: Some input files use or override a deprecated API.
Note: Recompile with -Xlint:deprecation for details.
INFO: From JavacBootstrap src/java_tools/buildjar/java/com/google/devtools/build/buildjar/libbootstrap_VanillaJavaBuilder.jar [for host]:
warning: Implicitly compiled files were not subject to annotation processing.
  Use -proc:none to disable annotation processing or -implicit to specify a policy for implicit compilation.
Note: src/java_tools/buildjar/java/com/google/devtools/build/buildjar/VanillaJavaBuilder.java uses or overrides a deprecated API.
Note: Recompile with -Xlint:deprecation for details.
1 warning
Target //src:bazel_nojdk up-to-date:
  bazel-bin/src/bazel_nojdk
INFO: Elapsed time: 346.215s, Critical Path: 271.47s
INFO: 1747 processes: 1511 local, 236 worker.
INFO: Build completed successfully, 1791 total actions
WARNING: --batch mode is deprecated. Please instead explicitly shut down your Bazel server using the command "bazel shutdown".
DEBUG: /tmp/bazel_jm8BGrdX/out/external/build_bazel_rules_nodejs/internal/common/check_bazel_version.bzl:49:5:
Current Bazel is not a release version, cannot check for compatibility.
DEBUG: /tmp/bazel_jm8BGrdX/out/external/build_bazel_rules_nodejs/internal/common/check_bazel_version.bzl:51:5: Make sure that you are running at least Bazel 0.17.1.

Build successful! Binary is here: /vol2/aarch64/qwert/output/bazel

I am curious to know if you will be interested in providing the binary for aarch64 architecture.

[aiuto]

I'm glad to see you got it to build for aarch64. Doing a distribution for that architecture is probably not going to be a priority right now. We would need test infrastructure and it would multiply the number of packages to publish.

If this were to be done as part of an overall Debian packaging project (rather than a standalone binary with the Bazel releases), would that be of interest?

[vielmetti]

I'm interested in helping provide test infrastructure to make this happen, as part of the Works on Arm project. There has been work going on for about a year now to support this, cf https://github.com/WorksOnArm/cluster/issues/102 with the help of @ArielleA .

One of the motivating factors for this is arm64 support for Tensorflow, which depends on Bazel.

[philwo]

@ossdev07 Thanks for trying Bazel on ARM!

@aiuto I don't see how it would "multiply" our packages if we provided additional Linux binaries built on ARM64? That's just one binary and the installer, right? The lack of machines is an issue, though...

@vielmetti Thanks again for sponsoring that machine 😊 I've been working on it and am currently integrating it into our Buildkite CI so that we can run postsubmit tests on it and keep an eye on the platform so that we don't accidentally break it.

I also fixed the remaining issues with bootstrapping, so that beginning from Bazel 0.28.0 you can bootstrap it via ./compile.sh from the -dist.zip without any flags or patches on ARM64.

In order to build official binaries though, we'd need more ARM64 machines, so that we can run presubmit tests without slowing developers down and one additional machine that we can use as a "trusted" machine that has limited login access and is only used to build release binaries on.

I'll ask some of the TensorFlow people about their plans for the platform and will get back to this.

[powderluv]

you may still hit this issue: #7135 but workaround suggested there seems to work

[powderluv]

Here is a 0.29 binary built with ubuntu 18 aarch64 and JDK8
https://github.com/powderluv/bazel-bin/blob/master/bazel-aarch64-29

[ogahozy]

Here is a 0.29 binary built with ubuntu 18 aarch64 and JDK8
https://github.com/powderluv/bazel-bin/blob/master/bazel-aarch64-29

How can I use this on tab s5e runing ubuntu under termux