Public commit record
58/100 · Thin
What the developer wrote
Authored by Rusty Russell
external/lowdown: remove.
Every distribution we have packages this now.
Changelog-Changed: Build: lowdown is now required (we no longer bundle our own).
Signed-off-by: Rusty Russell <rusty@rustcorp.com.au>
✓ Descriptive subject✓ Provides detailed explanatory context
What changed, and why it matters
This commit removes the bundled copy of the lowdown documentation tool from the Core Lightning repository. It is a build-system and dependency change, not a code change that affects how the Lightning node runs or handles funds. Lowdown is now treated as a required external package instead of being built from a bundled submodule.
Recommended action
No security action required. Builders and packagers should ensure lowdown is installed from their distribution before building.
Security signals we found
No strong security signals were identified.
Evidence from the diff
The patch deletes the external/lowdown git submodule, removes lowdown from the bundled external build system, and makes lowdown a hard requirement in configure (failing if not found). CI and documentation are updated to install lowdown from distribution packages. No runtime, cryptographic, or network code is modified.
Changed components
build system (configure)external/MakefileCI workflowsdocumentationInspect captured patch +9 / −44
diff --git a/.github/scripts/setup.sh b/.github/scripts/setup.sh
index 6e3e50cc..bc8cec9d 100755
--- a/.github/scripts/setup.sh
+++ b/.github/scripts/setup.sh
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ sudo apt-get -qq install --no-install-recommends --allow-unauthenticated -yy \
libtool \
libxml2-utils \
locales \
+ lowdown \
net-tools \
postgresql \
python-pkg-resources \
diff --git a/.github/workflows/bsd.yml b/.github/workflows/bsd.yml
index eee34d93..630bed94 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/bsd.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/bsd.yml
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ jobs:
git clone https://github.com/lightning/bolts.git ../bolts
# fatal: unsafe repository ('/Users/runner/work/lightning/lightning' is owned by someone else)
git config --global --add safe.directory `pwd`
- for d in libsodium libwally-core gheap jsmn libbacktrace lowdown; do git config --global --add safe.directory `pwd`/external/$d; done
+ for d in libsodium libwally-core gheap jsmn libbacktrace; do git config --global --add safe.directory `pwd`/external/$d; done
git submodule update --init --recursive
./configure CC="$CC" --disable-valgrind
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yaml b/.github/workflows/ci.yaml
index de198b3c..78fc45ad 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yaml
@@ -196,7 +196,6 @@ jobs:
run: |
bash -x .github/scripts/setup.sh
sudo apt-get update -qq
- sudo apt-get install -y -qq lowdown
# We're going to check BOLT quotes, so get the latest version
git clone https://github.com/lightning/bolts.git ../${BOLTDIR}
diff --git a/.github/workflows/macos.yaml b/.github/workflows/macos.yaml
index 99f8a3dc..560e5674 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/macos.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/macos.yaml
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ jobs:
run: |
export PATH="/usr/local/opt:/Users/runner/.local/bin:/opt/homebrew/bin/python3.10/bin:$PATH"
- brew install gnu-sed autoconf automake libtool protobuf openssl
+ brew install gnu-sed autoconf automake libtool protobuf openssl lowdown
# https://github.com/grpc/grpc/issues/31737#issuecomment-1323796842
export GRPC_PYTHON_BUILD_SYSTEM_OPENSSL=1
diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index 4788bedb..a23dfd76 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -14,7 +14,3 @@
[submodule "external/gheap"]
path = external/gheap
url = https://github.com/valyala/gheap
-[submodule "external/lowdown"]
- path = external/lowdown
- url = https://github.com/kristapsdz/lowdown.git
- ignore = dirty
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 5e480e9b..0195172d 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -518,10 +518,9 @@ else
HAVE_PYTHON3_MAKO=0
fi
-if check_command 'lowdown' lowdown; then
- HAVE_LOWDOWN=1
-else
- HAVE_LOWDOWN=0
+if ! check_command 'lowdown' lowdown; then
+ echo "*** We need lowdown!" >&2
+ exit 1
fi
if echo | check_command sha256sum sha256sum; then
@@ -615,7 +614,6 @@ add_var ASAN "$ASAN"
add_var UBSAN "$UBSAN"
add_var TEST_NETWORK "$TEST_NETWORK"
add_var HAVE_PYTHON3_MAKO "$HAVE_PYTHON3_MAKO"
-add_var HAVE_LOWDOWN "$HAVE_LOWDOWN"
add_var SHA256SUM "$SHA256SUM"
add_var FUZZING "$FUZZING"
add_var RUST "$RUST"
diff --git a/doc/Makefile b/doc/Makefile
index c4c2192a..c3f178f7 100644
--- a/doc/Makefile
+++ b/doc/Makefile
@@ -202,16 +202,7 @@ RBRACKET=)
$(MARKDOWNPAGES_WITH_EXT): doc/%.7.md: doc/schemas/%.json tools/fromschema.py
@tools/fromschema.py --markdownfile=$@ $< > $@.tmp && mv $@.tmp $@
-# If we need to build lowdown, make tools/md2man.sh depend on it.
-# That way it's not used in SHA256STAMP (which only uses direct
-# dependencies), but make will be forced to build it.
-ifeq ($(HAVE_LOWDOWN),0)
-LOWDOWN := $(TARGET_DIR)/lowdown-build/bin/lowdown
-tools/md2man.sh: $(LOWDOWN)
- touch $@
-else
LOWDOWN := lowdown
-endif
# For versions in documentation, we don't change with every git version, to
# save build time. We build them on new tags or keep them on pre-next-release version.
diff --git a/doc/getting-started/getting-started/installation.md b/doc/getting-started/getting-started/installation.md
index 045bfbc0..45974315 100644
--- a/doc/getting-started/getting-started/installation.md
+++ b/doc/getting-started/getting-started/installation.md
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ Get dependencies:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y \
jq autoconf automake build-essential git libtool libsqlite3-dev libffi-dev \
- python3 python3-pip net-tools zlib1g-dev libsodium-dev gettext
+ python3 python3-pip net-tools zlib1g-dev libsodium-dev gettext lowdown
pip3 install --upgrade pip
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
```
@@ -121,8 +121,6 @@ sudo apt-get install -y valgrind libpq-dev shellcheck cppcheck \
libsecp256k1-dev lowdown
```
-If you can't install `lowdown`, a version will be built in-tree.
-
If you want to build the Rust plugins (cln-grpc, clnrest, cln-bip353 and wss-proxy):
```shell
@@ -239,7 +237,7 @@ lightningd --network=testnet
OS version: FreeBSD 11.1-RELEASE or above
```shell
-pkg install git python py39-pip gmake libtool gmp sqlite3 postgresql13-client gettext autotools
+pkg install git python py39-pip gmake libtool gmp sqlite3 postgresql13-client gettext autotools lowdown
https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning.git
pip install --upgrade pip
pip3 install mako
@@ -331,7 +329,7 @@ make
Assuming you have Xcode and Homebrew installed. Install dependencies:
```shell
-brew install autoconf automake libtool python3 gnu-sed gettext libsodium protobuf
+brew install autoconf automake libtool python3 gnu-sed gettext libsodium protobuf lowdown
export PATH="/usr/local/opt:$PATH"
```
diff --git a/external/Makefile b/external/Makefile
index 7ca25120..311c94bc 100644
--- a/external/Makefile
+++ b/external/Makefile
@@ -5,10 +5,6 @@ SUBMODULES = \
external/jsmn \
external/libbacktrace
-ifeq ($(HAVE_LOWDOWN),0)
-SUBMODULES += external/lowdown
-endif
-
TOP := ../..
ifdef BUILD
CROSSCOMPILE_OPTS := --host="$(MAKE_HOST)" --build="$(BUILD)"
@@ -32,10 +28,6 @@ LIBBACKTRACE_HEADERS := external/libbacktrace/backtrace.h
EXTERNAL_HEADERS := $(LIBSODIUM_HEADERS) $(LIBWALLY_HEADERS) $(LIBSECP_HEADERS) $(JSMN_HEADERS) $(GHEAP_HEADERS) $(LIBBACKTRACE_HEADERS)
EXTERNAL_LIBS := ${TARGET_DIR}/libwallycore.a ${TARGET_DIR}/libsecp256k1.a ${TARGET_DIR}/libjsmn.a ${TARGET_DIR}/libbacktrace.a
-ifeq ($(HAVE_LOWDOWN),0)
-EXTERNAL_HEADERS += external/lowdown/lowdown.h
-endif
-
EXTERNAL_INCLUDE_FLAGS := \
-I external/libwally-core/include/ \
-I external/libwally-core/src/secp256k1/include/ \
@@ -117,10 +109,6 @@ $(TARGET_DIR)/libbacktrace.a: external/libbacktrace/backtrace.h
cd $(TARGET_DIR)/libbacktrace-build && $(TOP)/libbacktrace/configure CC="$(CC)" --enable-static=yes $(CROSSCOMPILE_OPTS) --enable-shared=no --prefix=/ --libdir=/ && $(MAKE)
$(MAKE) -C $(TARGET_DIR)/libbacktrace-build DESTDIR=$$(pwd)/$(TARGET_DIR) install-exec
-$(TARGET_DIR)/lowdown-build/bin/lowdown: external/lowdown/lowdown.h
- cd external/lowdown && CC="$(CC)" CFLAGS="$(FUZZFLAGS)" ./configure LDFLAGS="$(FUZZFLAGS)" PREFIX=`pwd`/$(TOP)/$(TARGET_DIR)/lowdown-build/
- $(MAKE) -C external/lowdown install
-
distclean: external-distclean
clean: external-clean
@@ -130,6 +118,5 @@ external-clean:
external-distclean:
make -C external/libsodium distclean || true
- if [ -f external/lowdown/Makefile.configure ]; then $(MAKE) -C external/lowdown distclean; fi
$(RM) -rf ${TARGET_DIR}/libbacktrace-build ${TARGET_DIR}/libsodium-build ${TARGET_DIR}/libwally-core-build ${TARGET_DIR}/jsmn-build
$(RM) -r `git status --ignored --porcelain external/libwally-core | grep '^!! ' | cut -c3-`
diff --git a/tools/build-release.sh b/tools/build-release.sh
index 1280d799..7a96a22a 100755
--- a/tools/build-release.sh
+++ b/tools/build-release.sh
@@ -141,11 +141,6 @@ echo "Current Timestamp: $DATE"
mkdir -p "$RELEASEDIR"
if [ "$WITHOUT_ZIP" = "false" ]; then
- # submodcheck needs to know if we have lowdown
- touch config.vars
- ./configure --reconfigure
- # If you don't have lowdown, your zip file will include it: we assume everyone has it now!
- grep -q "HAVE_LOWDOWN=1" config.vars || (echo "Please install lowdown" >&2; exit 1)
# If it's a completely clean directory, we need submodules!
make submodcheck
Risk score
Our methodology →Why this scored 15/100
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