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Overview

Proone’s build system provides several configuration options to customize the build for different deployment scenarios. These options control debugging, linking behavior, feature sets, and memory usage optimizations.

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Configure Flags

Configuration flags are passed to the ./configure script to control build behavior.

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—enable-debug

Build with debug flags and enable verbose logging. 
./configure --enable-debug
Effect:
  • Sets PRNE_DEBUG=1 in the compiled code
  • Enables debug symbols for GDB debugging
  • Activates verbose logging at runtime
  • Disables compiler optimizations for easier debugging
Default: no (disabled) When to use:
  • Development and testing
  • Debugging crashes or unexpected behavior
  • Analyzing execution flow with verbose logs
Source: ~/workspace/source/configure.ac:15-26

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—enable-static

Build statically linked executables. 
./configure --enable-static
Effect:
  • Links all libraries statically into the executable
  • Creates standalone binaries with no runtime dependencies
  • Increases executable size significantly
  • Eliminates dependency on shared libraries on target systems
Default: no (disabled, uses dynamic linking) When to use:
  • Targeting embedded devices without full library installations
  • Maximum portability across different Linux distributions
  • Production deployments where library versions may vary
  • Cross-compilation for IoT devices
Important: Static builds are essential for the production release workflow as embedded targets often lack the required shared libraries. Source: ~/workspace/source/configure.ac:28-37

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—enable-mttools

Build maintenance tools for CNC operations. 
./configure --enable-mttools
Effect:
  • Enables compilation of maintenance and administration tools
  • Requires additional dependencies (libyaml, mariadb-connector-c)
  • Requires mbedtls compiled with threading support (MBEDTLS_THREADING_C)
  • Builds:
    • proone-hostinfod - Authoritative heartbeat server
    • proone-htbtclient - Instance maintenance client
    • Database-backed CNC infrastructure tools
Default: no (disabled) When to use:
  • Building CNC server infrastructure
  • Setting up authoritative heartbeat hosts
  • Developing or testing heartbeat protocol implementations
Additional Requirements: 
# Install additional dependencies
sudo apt-get install libyaml-dev libmariadb-dev

# mbedtls must be compiled with threading
# Check mbedtls config.h has: #define MBEDTLS_THREADING_C
Source: ~/workspace/source/configure.ac:39-140

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—enable-minmem

Use only the minimum amount of memory required to function. 
./configure --enable-minmem
Effect:
  • Sets PRNE_USE_MIN_MEM=1 in the compiled code
  • Reduces buffer sizes and memory allocations
  • Optimizes for extremely resource-constrained environments
  • May impact performance in favor of lower memory footprint
Default: no (disabled) When to use:
  • Targeting very low-memory embedded devices (< 32MB RAM)
  • Devices already running memory-intensive services
  • Situations where staying under memory limits is critical
Trade-offs:
  • Reduced throughput for network operations
  • Slower binary recombination process
  • May increase susceptibility to ENOMEM failures
Source: ~/workspace/source/configure.ac:50-63

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Environment Variables

These variables can be set before running ./configure to customize the build.

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PRNE_VERBOSE

Set the compile-time verbose logging level (requires --enable-debug). 
PRNE_VERBOSE=3 ./configure --enable-debug
Values:
  • 0 - Minimal logging (errors only)
  • 1 - Warnings and errors
  • 2 - Info, warnings, and errors (default)
  • 3 - Debug, info, warnings, and errors
  • 4+ - Trace-level verbose logging
Default: 2 Note: Only effective when --enable-debug is enabled. Higher values produce more verbose output, useful for detailed execution tracing. Source: ~/workspace/source/configure.ac:65-69

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BIN_ALIGNMENT

Set the binary alignment size for data structures. 
BIN_ALIGNMENT=16 ./configure
Values:
  • Must be a power of 2 (typically 4, 8, 16, or 32)
  • Affects memory alignment of binary archive structures
  • May impact performance on some architectures
Default: 8 bytes When to modify:
  • Targeting architectures with specific alignment requirements
  • Performance tuning for cache line optimization
Source: ~/workspace/source/configure.ac:6, 70-72

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CFLAGS / CXXFLAGS

Custom compiler flags. 
CFLAGS="-O3 -march=native" ./configure
Default: Empty (configure sets appropriate defaults) Common use cases: 
# Maximum optimization for native CPU
CFLAGS="-O3 -march=native" ./configure

# Size optimization for embedded targets
CFLAGS="-Os -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections" ./configure

# Add security hardening
CFLAGS="-fstack-protector-strong -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2" ./configure
Source: ~/workspace/source/configure.ac:3-4

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LDFLAGS / CPPFLAGS

Linker and preprocessor flags. 
# Link against libraries in custom location
LDFLAGS="-L/opt/custom/lib" CPPFLAGS="-I/opt/custom/include" ./configure

# Strip symbols at link time for smaller binaries
LDFLAGS="-Wl,--gc-sections -Wl,--strip-all" ./configure

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Configuration Examples

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Development Build

Full debugging with verbose output: 
PRNE_VERBOSE=3 ./configure \
  --enable-debug \
  --enable-mttools

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Embedded Device Build

Statically linked with minimal memory footprint: 
CFLAGS="-Os" ./configure \
  --enable-static \
  --enable-minmem

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Production Release Build

Optimized, static, no debug: 
CFLAGS="-O2 -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections" \
LDFLAGS="-Wl,--gc-sections" \
./configure --enable-static

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CNC Server Build

Maintenance tools with debugging: 
./configure \
  --enable-debug \
  --enable-mttools

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Cross-Compilation Example

For ARM embedded device: 
./configure \
  --host=arm-linux-gnueabi \
  --enable-static \
  --enable-minmem \
  CFLAGS="-Os -march=armv5te"
See Cross-Compilation for detailed cross-compilation workflows.

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Build Entropy

Proone automatically generates build-time entropy during configuration: 
PRNE_BUILD_ENTROPY - 16 random bytes from /dev/urandom
This entropy is baked into the executable to provide unique build signatures and is used for runtime randomization. Source: ~/workspace/source/configure.ac:73-77

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Library Detection

The configure script automatically detects required libraries. If a library is missing, configuration fails with an error message: 
checking for pthread_create in -lpthread... no
configure: error: pthread not found
Libraries checked:
  1. pthread (pthread_create)
  2. rt (shm_open)
  3. zlib (zlibVersion)
  4. mbedcrypto (mbedtls_cipher_setup)
  5. mbedx509 (mbedtls_x509_crt_parse)
  6. mbedtls (mbedtls_ssl_init)
  7. libssh2 (libssh2_init)
  8. pthsem (pth_init)
With —enable-mttools: 9. libyaml (yaml_parser_initialize) 10. mariadb (mysql_init) 11. mbedtls threading support check Source: ~/workspace/source/configure.ac:79-140

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Generated Files

Configuration generates the following files:
  • config.status - Records the configuration command
  • config.log - Detailed log of configuration tests
  • Makefile - Main build file
  • src/Makefile - Source directory build file
  • src/config_gen.h - Header with configuration macros
Source: ~/workspace/source/configure.ac:147-148

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Viewing Current Configuration

After running configure, review the configuration: 
# View all configured options
./config.status --config

# View generated configuration header
cat src/config_gen.h

# View full configuration details
head -100 config.log

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Next Steps

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