Code to identify, download, compile and install SaxonCHE (open source) on Alpine

[charlesgek]

Hi ! I noticed Saxon had an issue to install on Alpine, so, I made a patch. This is my full code and it's working like a charm.

The code basically update the package, install the build dependencies, identify the system architecture, the latest version of SaxonCHE, download the latest version according to the architecture, unzip it and remove the zip, patch the code to make the compilation compatible on Alpine, compile it, install it and transfer the libraries, delete the build files and remove the build packages.

Feel free to implement it in your script 😊

# Update package for security
apk upgrade --no-cache --available \
# Install system dependencies
&& apk add --no-cache \
# Build dependencies for Saxon PHP Extension - add virtual package for easy removal
    make \
    g++ \
    autoconf \
    php83-dev \
    libxml2-dev \
    && rm -rf /var/cache/apk/* \

# --- SaxonC Installation ---
mkdir /tmp/saxon && cd /tmp/Saxon \
# Combined RUN instruction for downloading, patching, compiling, and installing SaxonC
# Detect and download the latest version of SaxonCHE (Open Source) according to the system architecture
# x86_64 (amd64) && aarm64 only as they are the only provided architectures from Saxonica
&& UNAME_ARCH=$(uname -m); DOWNLOAD_ARCH_COMPONENT=""; \
    case "$UNAME_ARCH" in \
        x86_64) DOWNLOAD_ARCH_COMPONENT="linux-x86_64";; \
        aarch64|arm64) DOWNLOAD_ARCH_COMPONENT="linux-aarch64";; \
        *) echo "Error: Unsupported architecture: '$UNAME_ARCH'. Script needs Linux x86_64 or aarch64/arm64. Exiting." >&2; exit 1;; \
    esac; \
    echo "Detected architecture: ${UNAME_ARCH}"; \
    ALL_OUTPUT=$(curl -s https://www.saxonica.com/products/latest.xml | \
    grep -A 1 -E '<h2>SaxonC 13</h2>|<h2>SaxonC 12</h2>' | \
    awk '/<h2>SaxonC 13<\/h2>/ {f13=1;next} /<h2>SaxonC 12<\/h2>/ {if(!f13){f12=1;next}} {if(f13||f12){match($0, /[0-9]+(\.[0-9]+)*/);if(RSTART>0){v=substr($0, RSTART, RLENGTH); \
    if(f13){print "SaxonC 13: " v}else{print "SaxonC 12: " v}; \
    split(v,p,"."); \
    mv=p[1];dv=p[1]; \
    for(i=2;i<=length(p);i++){dv=dv"-"p[i]}; \
    if(length(p)==2){dv=dv"-0"}else if(length(p)==1){dv=dv"-0-0"}; \
    print mv,dv; exit}}}'); \
    if [ -z "$ALL_OUTPUT" ]; then \
        echo "Error: Could not determine latest SaxonC version." >&2; exit 1; \
    fi; \
    DETECTED_VERSION_DISPLAY_LINE=$(echo "$ALL_OUTPUT" | head -n 1); \
    MACHINE_READABLE_INFO=$(echo "$ALL_OUTPUT" | tail -n 1); \
    MAJOR_VER=$(echo "$MACHINE_READABLE_INFO" | awk '{print $1}'); \
    FORMATTED_VER=$(echo "$MACHINE_READABLE_INFO" | awk '{print $2}'); \
    echo "$DETECTED_VERSION_DISPLAY_LINE"; \
    CONSTRUCTED_URL="https://downloads.saxonica.com/SaxonC/HE/${MAJOR_VER}/SaxonCHE-${DOWNLOAD_ARCH_COMPONENT}-${FORMATTED_VER}.zip"; \
    echo "Downloading from: $CONSTRUCTED_URL"; \
    curl -L -o saxon.zip "$CONSTRUCTED_URL"; \
    unzip saxon.zip; \
    rm saxon.zip; \
    \
    # 1. Move the entire SaxonCHE distribution to /usr/local/SaxonCHE
    #    This ensures its structure is intact for the PHP extension's configure script.
    mv "SaxonCHE-${DOWNLOAD_ARCH_COMPONENT}-${FORMATTED_VER}/SaxonCHE" /usr/local/SaxonCHE; \
    \
    # 2. Move the PHP source to a temporary location for compilation
    mv "SaxonCHE-${DOWNLOAD_ARCH_COMPONENT}-${FORMATTED_VER}/php/src" /tmp/saxon; \
    \
    # 3. Clean up the original extracted directory from the zip (optional, but good for image size)
    rm -rf "SaxonCHE-${DOWNLOAD_ARCH_COMPONENT}-${FORMATTED_VER}"; \
    \
    # 4. Apply patch and compile Saxon PHP extension
    #    The configure script will now find libsaxonc-core-he.so at /usr/local/SaxonCHE/lib/
    cd /tmp/saxon/src && \
    # Patch to compile SaxonC correctly on Alpine
    sed -i 's/Z_TYPE_P(val) != NULL/Z_TYPE_P(val) != IS_NULL/g' php8_XsltExecutable.cpp && \
    phpize && \
    ./configure --with-saxon=/usr/local/SaxonCHE LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/SaxonCHE/lib" && \
    make && \
    make install && \
    # Move the modules to the specific modules folder of PHP
    mv /tmp/saxon/src/modules/* $(php-config --extension-dir)/; \
    \
    # 5. NOW, after the PHP extension is compiled, move the core SaxonC shared libraries
    #    to a default linker path for runtime discovery.
    mv /usr/local/SaxonCHE/lib/*.so* /usr/local/lib/ && \
    \
    # 6. Enable the PHP extension
    echo "extension=saxon.so" > /usr/local/etc/php/conf.d/saxon.ini && \
    \
    # 7. Clean up build dependencies and temporary files
    apk del --no-cache make g++ autoconf php83-dev libxml2-dev && \
    rm -rf /tmp/*

[benbrummer]

This would mean we would need to replace HE with CE in
https://github.com/mlocati/docker-php-extension-installer/blob/master/install-php-extensions#L3986. Could make sense to support both versions.

[charlesgek]

The code can support both versions, but my main reason to pin to CHE is that it's the open source version, in that way, it can be used in all strict open source projects.

I also haven't seen any compatibility or performance difference between the 2 versions.

[mlocati]

sed -i 's/Z_TYPE_P(val) != NULL/Z_TYPE_P(val) != IS_NULL/g' php8_XsltExecutable.cpp

Thanks! I've added support for installing Saxon on Alpine in #1151 (included in install-php-extensions version 2.9.4).
The only limitation is that the minimum PHP version is 8.0.

[benbrummer]

@charlesgek have you been able to compile saxonc on arm64 in the past?
https://github.com/mlocati/docker-php-extension-installer/issues

[charlesgek]

Hello, yes, I did, I forgot it was adaptive to the architecture, but the distro need also to declare it's using arm64, and I didn't test with the new version of Debian

[benbrummer]

Debian works fine. But alpine arm64 is failing, while alpine amd64 fails. I opened an issue at Saxonica.