build error: incompatible pointer type

[julienmartinlevrai]

Description
When building from source, the command make -j4 nimbus_beacon_node fails with a compilation error in dependency nim-stint:

error: passing argument 4 of ‘_subborrow_u64’ from incompatible pointer type

To Reproduce
Just follow the normal steps to build from source:

$ git clone https://github.com/status-im/nimbus-eth2
$ cd nimbus-eth2/
$ make -j4 nimbus_beacon_node

Tested with v24.5.1, v24.5.0 and v24.4.0, all yield the same results.
Using up-to-date Arch Linux on a 2021 Intel NUC.

Results

$ make -j4 nimbus_beacon_node
Git submodules not found. Running 'git -c lfs.fetchexclude=/public-keys/all.txt,/custom_config_data/genesis.ssz submodule update --init --recursive'.
[omitting the rest of this git operation]

Building: install/usr/lib/libbacktrace.a
Building: Nim compiler
Building: install/usr/lib/libbacktracenim.a
Building: build/generate_makefile
Build completed successfully: build/generate_makefile
Building: build/nimbus_beacon_node
/root/bin/test/nimbus-eth2/vendor/nim-libp2p/libp2p/transports/tcptransport.nim(50, 57) template/generic instantiation of `async` from here
/root/bin/test/nimbus-eth2/vendor/nim-libp2p/libp2p/transports/tcptransport.nim(103, 10) template/generic instantiation of `setResult` from here
/root/bin/test/nimbus-eth2/vendor/nim-libp2p/libp2p/transports/tcptransport.nim(65, 20) template/generic instantiation of `async` from here
/root/bin/test/nimbus-eth2/vendor/nim-libp2p/libp2p/transports/tcptransport.nim(89, 25) template/generic instantiation of `error` from here
/root/bin/test/nimbus-eth2/vendor/nim-chronos/chronos/internal/raisesfutures.nim(241, 12) Warning: No exceptions possible with this operation, `error` always returns nil [User]
/root/bin/test/nimbus-eth2/vendor/nim-libp2p/libp2p/transports/tcptransport.nim(163, 36) template/generic instantiation of `async` from here
/root/bin/test/nimbus-eth2/vendor/nim-libp2p/libp2p/transports/tcptransport.nim(169, 17) template/generic instantiation of `checkFutures` from here
/root/bin/test/nimbus-eth2/vendor/nim-libp2p/libp2p/errors.nim(30, 24) template/generic instantiation of `readError` from here
/root/bin/test/nimbus-eth2/vendor/nim-chronos/chronos/internal/raisesfutures.nim(247, 12) Warning: No exceptions possible with this operation, `readError` always raises [User]
/root/bin/test/nimbus-eth2/beacon_chain/nimbus_beacon_node.nim(1935, 3) Warning: use exitprocs.addExitProc; addQuitProc is deprecated [Deprecated]
/root/bin/test/nimbus-eth2/beacon_chain/nimbus_beacon_node.nim(2152, 7) Warning: Please use MetricsHttpServerRef API; startMetricsHttpServer is deprecated [Deprecated]
/root/bin/test/nimbus-eth2/vendor/nim-stint/stint/private/primitives/addcarry_subborrow.nim: In function ‘_ZN18addcarry_subborrow4subBE3varI5uInt8E3varI6uInt64E6uInt646uInt645uInt8’:
/root/bin/test/nimbus-eth2/vendor/nim-stint/stint/private/primitives/addcarry_subborrow.nim:171:38: error: passing argument 4 of ‘_subborrow_u64’ from incompatible pointer type [-Wincompatible-pointer-types]
  171 |       bOut = subborrow_u64(bIn, a, b, diff)
      |                                      ^~~~
      |                                      |
      |                                      NU64 * {aka long unsigned int *}
In file included from /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/14.1.1/include/x86gprintrin.h:39,
                 from /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/14.1.1/include/x86intrin.h:27,
                 from /root/bin/test/nimbus-eth2/nimcache/release/nimbus_beacon_node/@m..@svendor@snimbus-build-system@svendor@sNim@[email protected]:19:
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/14.1.1/include/adxintrin.h:59:61: note: expected ‘long long unsigned int *’ but argument is of type ‘NU64 *’ {aka ‘long unsigned int *’}
   59 |                 unsigned long long __Y, unsigned long long *__P)
      |                                         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~
make[1]: *** [nimcache/release/nimbus_beacon_node/nimbus_beacon_node.makefile:998: /root/bin/test/nimbus-eth2/nimcache/release/nimbus_beacon_node/@m..@svendor@snimbus-build-system@svendor@sNim@[email protected]] Error 1
make[1]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
make: *** [Makefile:447: nimbus_beacon_node] Error 2

Full, unmodified output: https://pastebin.com/SsqbBnn5

Additional context
v24.4.0 compiled well on my machine a few weeks ago when it was released. When I tried to compile v24.5.1 a few days ago, this compilation error happened, and after trying multiple things, I realized it was now happening on v24.4.0 as well. This might suggest the issue is on my side. However, this is a dedicated hardware for running a full node and not much else.

[tersec]

Yes, it's a gcc 14 incompatibility. status-im/nim-stint#153 resolves the nim-stint issue in isolation, but it's not the only part of this. We're working on resolving this.

[tersec]

The remaining issue here is the KZG library. The fix for that did not make it into the upcoming release (v24.6), so overall this still won't work, but the problem won't be nim-stint anymore.

Keeping issue open because it'll still be an incompatible pointer type error though.

[julienmartinlevrai]

Indeed, the error persists on v24.6.0.

[tersec]

Basically two remaining steps:

• update to a version of Nim containing fixes #9940; genericAssign does not take care of the importC variables in refc [backport] nim-lang/Nim#23761 and
• update KZG bindings (which, the reworked gcc 14-compatible versions depend on this Nim fix) with the newer code from https://github.com/status-im/nim-kzg4844 to incorporate that part of the fix

It's plausible but not guaranteed that these will happen in time for v24.7.0. In theory everything necessary now exists, it's integrating and having enough time to test it.

[tersec]

#6403 fixes this, but refraining from closing this issue until we test it some more.

[julienmartinlevrai]

Unfortunately, the issue seems to persist on my side:

/root/bin/nimbus-eth2/vendor/nim-kzg4844/kzg4844/csources/bindings/nim/kzg.nim: In function ‘_ZN3kzg12verifyProofsE3refIN3kzg22KzgCtxcolonObjectType_EE9openArrayI5arrayI12range01310715uInt8EE9openArrayI5arrayI8range0475uInt8EE9openArrayI5arrayI8range0475uInt8EE’:
/root/bin/nimbus-eth2/vendor/nim-kzg4844/kzg4844/csources/bindings/nim/kzg.nim:201:46: error: passing argument 2 of ‘verify_blob_kzg_proof_batch’ from incompatible pointer type [-Wincompatible-pointer-types]
  201 |   let res = verify_blob_kzg_proof_batch(
      |                                              ^              
      |                                              |
      |                                              NU8 * {aka unsigned char *}

Full output: https://pastebin.com/RvstWPke

Please let me know if I should open a new issue or if you need anything else from me.

[tersec]

v24.6.0 doesn't support this, but v24.7.0 (imminent) will. The fix was applied, not released.

If you want to try this, check out the testing branch, run make update, and try again.