"Bootstrap Error" rust-analyzer requires glibc >= 2.28 in latest build.

[jhgg]

rust-analyzer no longer will run on Ubuntu 18.04( which bundles glibc 2.27), and other distros which have a glibc older than 2.27.

this issue manifests as a "Bootstrap Error" notably, the extension output will log something along the lines of:

ERROR [2/28/2022, 8:46:56 AM]: Bootstrap error [Error: Failed to execute /home/newuser/.vscode/extensions/matklad.rust-analyzer-0.2.956/server/rust-analyzer --version

when running the binary, we get the following error:

/home/jake/.vscode-server-insiders/extensions/matklad.rust-analyzer-0.3.953/server/rust-analyzer: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.29' not found (required by /home/jake/.vscode-server-insiders/extensions/matklad.rust-analyzer-0.3.953/server/rust-analyzer)
/home/jake/.vscode-server-insiders/extensions/matklad.rust-analyzer-0.3.953/server/rust-analyzer: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.28' not found (required by /home/jake/.vscode-server-insiders/extensions/matklad.rust-analyzer-0.3.953/server/rust-analyzer)

current workarounds are mentioned in this comment: #11558 (comment)

[jhgg]

Compiling from source works, wonder if something changed on the GH actions runner that made it require a newer glibc. 🤔

[bjorn3]

You can use the rust-analyzer from rustup if you need to run it on a system with an older glibc version. The change breaking 18.04 support was probably #10672 which updated the builder from ubuntu 18.04 to 20.04.

[lnicola]

It was actually working on 20.04 at the time (I checked and marked it as "potentially breaking" in the changelog, as opposed to "breaking"). Maybe we (or the compiler, in 1.59) recently started using some symbol from 2.28 or 2.29.

[jhgg]

This is somewhat problematic for us, because our remote development environment for our company is ubuntu 18.04 at current, which means the rust-analyzer extension will suddenly break in a weird way (the error message isn't that clear about lacking glibc, I had to actually go and execute the bundled r-a binary directly.)

I wonder how many people will run into this issue when this change hits the main release.

To ensure maximum compatibility with the rust-analyzer binary distributed in the vscode extension, should we instead bundle the musl binary?

[bjorn3]

Musl's memory allocator is slower. It may also affect memory usage (positive or negative).

[bjorn3]

In addition using musl would make it impossible to load proc macros compiled for glibc. (which is the default)

[jhgg]

Hmm, is there any viable path forward to restore 18.04 support? Ubuntu 18.04 is supported until April 2023, which means it will be in wide use until then (and probably for a while after...)

[bjorn3]

Using the rust-analyzer-preview component from rustup is the easiest way. This one is built to support the exact same glibc versions as rustc.

[jhgg]

Is that one regularly updated with each week's r-a release? From a user-friendliness perspective, the vscode extension "just updates" and keeps up to date with the latest version, having to pull from rustup means no more auto updates :/

[bjorn3]

Yes, it get updated every week: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pulls?q=is%3Apr+%3Aup%3A+rust-analyzer+is%3Amerged+-label%3Arollup I agree that it is less user friendly.

[jhgg]

Would it be possible to just replicate what rustc is doing to compile rust-analyzer here? That way we can maintain same support as the rustup component?

[bjorn3]

Rustc uses a docker image with an older linux distro to build everything. I believe @matklad is worried that it will harm maintenance to do so for rust-analyzer too due to complicating the CI. Currently the exact same steps are used for all platforms for which binaries are released. Using docker on linux would require duplicating this.

[lnicola]

We could try to roll back our CI to 18.04, but in general we don't have the same infrastructure as rust-lang/rust and we can't offer the same variety of builds. That's why it's available in rustup.

[taikulawo]

We could try to roll back our CI to 18.04, but in general we don't have the same infrastructure as rust-lang/rust and we can't offer the same variety of builds. That's why it's available in rustup.

How I can use RA from rustup? what should I do