[R-sig-Debian] Error building and installing with GCC ASAN in a Docker container

[Brent G Ewing]

Hi,

I want to build a Docker container with R and various R packages built and
installed with the gcc address sanitizer enabled. I am working on a Debian
Bookworm system running on an x86_64 architecture.

I start with the Docker file at

https://github.com/rocker-org/r-devel-san/blob/master/Dockerfile

I added -fsanitize=address to compiler and linker variables in the
Dockerfile. I also import into the image a Makevars file with the contents

CC=gcc -std=gnu99 -fsanitize=address -fno-omit-frame-pointer
CXX=g++ -fsanitize=address -fno-omit-frame-pointer
FC=gfortran -fsanitize=address
LDFLAGS=-fsanitize=address

Finally, the Docker file installs additional Debian object libraries and R
packages that I want to test.

When the package build gets to testing whether the package can be
installed, an error message appears saying

==ASan runtime does not come first in initial library list; you should
either link runtime to your application or manually preload it with
LD_PRELOAD.

For example,

ESC[0mESC[91m** building package indices
ESC[0mESC[91m** installing vignettes
ESC[0mESC[91m** testing if installed package can be loaded from temporary
location
ESC[0m==684==ASan runtime does not come first in initial library list; you
should either link runtime to your application or manually preload it with
LD_PRELOAD.
ESC[91mERROR: loading failed
ESC[0mESC[91m* removing ‘/usr/local/lib/R/site-library/utf8’
ESC[0mESC[91m* installing *source* package ‘isoband’ ...
ESC[0mESC[91m** package ‘isoband’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
ESC[0mESC[91m** using staged installation
ESC[0mESC[91m** libs

I've tried preloading various libasan.so files that I find on the system
but the loader says that it cannot load them.

My questions are

1. is it possible to build and install R and packages (in a container) with
the gcc address sanitizer enabled?
2. if it is, how do I do it?
3. is this ld_preload message relevant? If so, to which file does it refer?
Is there an ASAN runtime library file that I need to specify, and if so,
what is the path to it?

I appreciate your consideration and assistance.

Thank you.
Brent

P.S. The build-related commands in the Docker file (including my address
sanitizer additions) are

RUN cd /tmp/R-devel \
        && R_PAPERSIZE=letter \
           R_BATCHSAVE="--no-save --no-restore" \
           R_BROWSER=xdg-open \
           PAGER=/usr/bin/pager \
           PERL=/usr/bin/perl \
           R_UNZIPCMD=/usr/bin/unzip \
           R_ZIPCMD=/usr/bin/zip \
           R_PRINTCMD=/usr/bin/lpr \
           LIBnn=lib \
           AWK=/usr/bin/awk \
           CC="gcc -std=gnu99 -fsanitize=address -fsanitize=undefined
-fno-omit-frame-pointer" \
       CFLAGS="-fno-omit-frame-pointer -g -O2 -Wall -pedantic
-mtune=native" \
           FFLAGS="-g -O2 -mtune=native" \
           FCFLAGS="-g -O2 -mtune=native" \
           CXX="g++ -fsanitize=address -fsanitize=undefined,bounds-strict
-fno-omit-frame-pointer" \
           CXXFLAGS="-fsanitize=address -g -O2 -Wall -pedantic
-mtune=native" \
           CXX11FLAGS="-fsanitize=address -g -O2 -Wall -pedantic
-mtune=native" \
           CXX14FLAGS="-fsanitize=address -g -O2 -Wall -pedantic
-mtune=native" \
           CXX17FLAGS="-fsanitize=address -g -O2 -Wall -pedantic
-mtune=native" \
       LDFLAGS="-fsanitize=address" \
           MAIN_LDFLAGS="-fsanitize=address -fsanitize=undefined -pthread" \
           F77="gfortran -fsanitize=undefined" \
           FC="gfortran -fsanitize=undefined" \
           FCFLAGS="-g -O2 -mtune=native" \
           FFLAGS="-g -O2 -mtune=native" \
           ./configure --enable-R-shlib \
               --without-blas \
               --without-lapack \
               --with-readline \
               --without-recommended-packages \
               --program-suffix=dev \
               --disable-openmp \
        && make \
        && make install \
        && make clean

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