make build-bin: on Linux, build with bun's pinned release build (closes #240)

nix's bun loads through a glibc in the nix store, and bun build --compile
copied that loader into bin/quak, so nix-collect-garbage could break the
cron backup. The build moves into script/build-bin. On Linux it downloads
bun 1.3.13's release archive for the machine from GitHub: x86-64
(baseline) or arm64, glibc or musl. It checks the archive's SHA-256
before running it, and compiles with that bun, so the binary loads
through the system loader. macOS still runs bun through nix-shell.

Model: opus-5-5

Makefile

@@ -26,10 +26,8 @@ check:
 build:
 	@script/build
 
-# Bundles the built dist/, so the binary reports the version script/build
+build-bin:
-# stamped.
+	@script/build-bin
-build-bin: build
-	nix-shell -p bun --run "bun build dist/bin/quak.js --compile --outfile bin/quak"
 
 install: build-bin
 	mkdir -p ~/bin

README.md

@@ -154,10 +154,16 @@ requests. The "Library reference" below covers both.
 ## Running the backup from cron
 
 `quak backup` never prompts, so cron can run it. `make install` builds quak as
-one binary and copies it to `~/bin/quak`. Besides what Getting Started needs,
+one binary and copies it to `~/bin/quak`. It uses bun, a JavaScript runtime, to
-`make install` needs `make` and [nix](https://nixos.org/download). It uses bun,
+bundle the built `dist/` into one executable. Besides what Getting Started
-a JavaScript runtime, to bundle the built `dist/` into one executable. It runs
+needs, `make install` needs `make`. On Linux it downloads bun from GitHub with
-bun through `nix-shell -p bun`.
+`curl` and unpacks it with `unzip`. It checks the download against a SHA-256
+hash in the repo. On macOS it runs bun through `nix-shell -p bun`, so it needs
+[nix](https://nixos.org/download).
+
+On Linux systems that use the musl C library, such as Alpine, `make install`
+downloads bun's musl build. On Alpine, both that bun and `~/bin/quak` need the
+`libstdc++` and `libgcc` packages.
 
 Log in once with `~/bin/quak`, as the user the cron job will run as:
 
@@ -1793,6 +1799,8 @@ standard. The others are additions to it.
   `package.json` declares (`main`, `types`, `bin`) were written, and make the
   command line executable.
 - `script/version`: print the version `script/build` stamps (see "Version").
+- `script/build-bin`: run `script/build`, then bundle the built `dist/` into one
+  binary, `bin/quak`, with bun (see "Running the backup from cron").
 - `script/test`: run the test suite, by building the `test` phase of the
   `Dockerfile`. Requires Docker.
 - `script/lint`: run eslint and a prettier check, by building the `lint` phase
@@ -1821,8 +1829,7 @@ The Makefile targets are:
 - `make build`: runs `script/build`.
 - `make docker`: runs `script/docker`.
 - `make hooks`: runs `script/install-precommit`.
-- `make build-bin`: bundles the built `dist/` into one binary, `bin/quak`. It
+- `make build-bin`: runs `script/build-bin`.
-  runs bun through `nix-shell -p bun`.
 - `make install`: runs `make build-bin` and copies the binary to `~/bin/quak`.
 - `make dev`: runs the TypeScript compiler in watch mode.
 - `make clean`: removes `dist/`, `coverage/`, `.vitest-cache/` and the
@@ -1930,9 +1937,11 @@ These apply to people and to coding agents alike.
     - container images by digest;
     - the nvm archive `script/bootstrap` downloads, and the Python packages
       `bin/clip-keyword-vectors` installs, by SHA-256 hash;
+    - bun's glibc and musl builds, which `script/build-bin` downloads on Linux,
+      by SHA-256 hash;
     - Node and yarn, when `script/bootstrap` installs them, by version.
 - Not pinned:
-    - bun, which `make build-bin` takes from `nix-shell -p bun`;
+    - bun on macOS, which `script/build-bin` takes from `nix-shell -p bun`;
     - `make` and `git`, which `script/bootstrap` installs from the system
       package manager when they are missing, as every `Dockerfile` stage does;
     - `bash` and `curl`, which `script/bootstrap` installs the same way when it

script/build-bin

@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# script/build-bin: run script/build, then bundle the built dist/ into one
+# executable, bin/quak, which reports the version script/build stamped. Our own
+# extension to scripts-to-rule-them-all.
+#
+# bun compiles the binary from a copy of its own executable. On Linux, nix's
+# bun loads through a C library in the nix store, and so does a binary compiled
+# from it. nix-collect-garbage can delete that library, and the binary then no
+# longer starts. On Linux this script therefore compiles with bun's own release
+# build, which loads through the system's C library. It downloads that build
+# and checks it against the hash below before running it.
+set -eu
+
+ROOT="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")/.." && pwd -P)"
+
+# bun 1.3.13, 2026-11-11, and the SHA-256 of each release archive below. The
+# x86-64 archives are the baseline builds, which also run on CPUs without AVX2.
+# The musl archives are for Linux systems that use the musl C library, such as
+# Alpine.
+BUN_VERSION="1.3.13"
+BUN_LINUX_X64_BASELINE_SHA256="9d8a24292a7068090205daac0a5a223f5f69736f5287e37bf88d3b4031edc750"
+BUN_LINUX_X64_MUSL_BASELINE_SHA256="88ca7c7ad235b498f549eea2f770f434e9f0f5e9ba95168a2d3a1f235184c394"
+BUN_LINUX_AARCH64_SHA256="70bae41b3908b0a120e1e58c5c8af30e74afae3b8d11b0d3fdd8e787ddfb4b22"
+BUN_LINUX_AARCH64_MUSL_SHA256="5385e978107ce4934298d8d6afe9bfbb898683f6cc23e6753a0da60bc60c5b81"
+
+# compile_with_downloaded_bun <archive-name> <sha256>
+compile_with_downloaded_bun() {
+    tmp="$(mktemp -d)"
+    trap 'rm -rf "$tmp"' EXIT
+    curl -fsSL -o "$tmp/$1.zip" \
+        "https://github.com/oven-sh/bun/releases/download/bun-v$BUN_VERSION/$1.zip"
+    echo "$2  $tmp/$1.zip" | sha256sum -c -
+    unzip -q "$tmp/$1.zip" -d "$tmp"
+    "$tmp/$1/bun" build dist/bin/quak.js --compile --outfile bin/quak
+}
+
+main() {
+    cd "$ROOT"
+    "$ROOT/script/build"
+    platform="$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)"
+    # musl's ldd begins its version output with "musl libc"; glibc's does not.
+    if ldd --version 2>&1 | grep -q '^musl libc'; then
+        platform="$platform-musl"
+    fi
+    case "$platform" in
+        Linux-x86_64)
+            compile_with_downloaded_bun bun-linux-x64-baseline \
+                "$BUN_LINUX_X64_BASELINE_SHA256"
+            ;;
+        Linux-x86_64-musl)
+            compile_with_downloaded_bun bun-linux-x64-musl-baseline \
+                "$BUN_LINUX_X64_MUSL_BASELINE_SHA256"
+            ;;
+        Linux-aarch64)
+            compile_with_downloaded_bun bun-linux-aarch64 \
+                "$BUN_LINUX_AARCH64_SHA256"
+            ;;
+        Linux-aarch64-musl)
+            compile_with_downloaded_bun bun-linux-aarch64-musl \
+                "$BUN_LINUX_AARCH64_MUSL_SHA256"
+            ;;
+        Linux-*)
+            echo "build-bin: bun has no release build for Linux on $(uname -m)" >&2
+            exit 1
+            ;;
+        *)
+            nix-shell -p bun --run \
+                "bun build dist/bin/quak.js --compile --outfile bin/quak"
+            ;;
+    esac
+}
+
+main "$@"