Error : libexecinfo-dev package not found

[AyushSeth1]

The latest version awslambdaric 2.08 is still attempting to use a package libexecinfo-dev which no longer exists on Alpine Linux. Alpine Linux team and upstream opensource teams have eliminated libexecinfo-dev from the system. Any software still attempting to use the library must be updated.

awslambdaric documentation still says that it depends on libexecinfo-dev -- from this it is clear that awslambdaric team does not test their software on Alpine Linux.

Our Builds are failing because of the above issue in awslambdaric.
Pls give us a fix for this.

[AyushSeth1]

[godcrampy]

Confirmed this exists even on 3.1.1. This is coming from the aws-lambda-cpp/backtrace.h. Doesn't seem to be required for invoke path.

Adding this as a bug. Fix would be either disabling backtrace (-Dno_backtrace) or remove backward.cpp entirely for alpine builds.

[jantmanAtCox]

Is there any update on a fix for this? awslambdaric says that it officially supports Alpine Linux, but it requires libexecinfo-dev which was dropped in Alpine 3.17 almost three years ago, and the last version of Alpine that included this package went EOL in May 2024. In addition, this Alpine bug says that the package didn't even work in the first place.

This is becoming a problem because the last non-RC build of the official Python Docker image using Alpine 3.16 was 3.11.3-alpine3.16 which is getting quite old now and is already in security-only update mode, and will be EOL in two years.

[patricktree]

The following solved the issue for us @hokify:

# WORKAROUND: Create dummy backtrace implementation for aws-lambda-ric compilation (AI-generated solution)
# 
# aws-lambda-ric@3.3.0 requires backtrace functionality during compilation, but Alpine Linux
# doesn't include libexecinfo. This creates minimal dummy implementations to satisfy cmake.
RUN mkdir -p /usr/include && \
    echo '#ifndef _EXECINFO_H_' > /usr/include/execinfo.h && \
    echo '#define _EXECINFO_H_' >> /usr/include/execinfo.h && \
    echo 'int backtrace(void **buffer, int size) { return 0; }' >> /usr/include/execinfo.h && \
    echo 'char **backtrace_symbols(void *const *buffer, int size) { return NULL; }' >> /usr/include/execinfo.h && \
    echo '#endif' >> /usr/include/execinfo.h && \
    echo 'int backtrace(void **buffer, int size) { return 0; }' > /tmp/libexecinfo.c && \
    echo 'char **backtrace_symbols(void *const *buffer, int size) { return ((void *)0); }' >> /tmp/libexecinfo.c && \
    gcc -shared -o /usr/lib/libexecinfo.so /tmp/libexecinfo.c

# install dependencies (with backtrace library configuration)
RUN Backtrace_LIBRARY=/usr/lib/libexecinfo.so Backtrace_INCLUDE_DIR=/usr/include CI=true pnpm install --prod --frozen-lockfile

[jantmanAtCox]

@pkerschbaum This is the repository for the Python version of awslambdaric. Unless I'm wrong, it appears that the above code snippet includes installation via pnpm, which would lead me to believe that it's relevant to https://github.com/aws/aws-lambda-nodejs-runtime-interface-client instead of this repository?

[patricktree]

@jantmanAtCox ups you are right! Still, the underlying cause does appear to be the same across both cases, so it might be worth exploring the dummy backtrace implementation approach I posted above for Python as well.

[ilons]

As mentioned before, a workaround is to install libexecinfo-dev from a previous release of alpine linux:

docker run --rm -it --entrypoint ash python:3.13.11-alpine3.23
# Install requirements and awslambdaric:
apk add --no-cache autoconf automake build-base cmake curl libcurl libtool make
apk add --update --no-cache --repository=https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.16/main/ libexecinfo-dev
pip install awslambdaric
# Then to test:
echo -e "def handler(*a, **kw):\n    return {}" > lambda.py
wget https://github.com/aws/aws-lambda-runtime-interface-emulator/releases/latest/download/aws-lambda-rie -O /usr/local/bin/aws-lambda-rie
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/aws-lambda-rie
/usr/local/bin/aws-lambda-rie /usr/local/bin/python -m awslambdaric lambda.handler &
curl -XPOST "http://localhost:8080/2015-03-31/functions/function/invocations" -d '{}'

However, this is hacky and not sustainable, and the requirement on it in this package really should be removed instead, as the claim is that alpine linux is supported 👎