About glibc runner (grun)

Glibc-runner is a bash script that provides two main features that can make it easier to use Glibc and Glibc based commands.

Configures the shell to make Glibc binaries work

The shell in Termux is set up so that when running a Glibc-based binary, it will return an error about the absence of the libdl.so library.

~ $ export PATH=$PREFIX/glibc/bin:$PATH
~ $ locale
locale: error while loading shared libraries: libdl.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

This is due to the LD_PRELOAD value being set which points to the Bionic based libtermux-exec.so library.

LD_PRELOAD=/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/libtermux-exec.so

To fix this, you can simply remove the value of LD_PRELOAD and then the Glibc-based binaries that are configured to work in Termux will work.

~ $ unset LD_PRELOAD
~ $ locale
**result of running `locale` command**

Glibc-runner configures a shell and configures access to Glibc-based commands, so you can simply run a special shell or from glibc-runner run a glibc command.

~ $ grun --shell locale --help
**message help from `locale` command**
~ $ grun --shell
~ $ # after this command the shell is configured and you have access to the glibc command

Run or configure non-runnable Glibc-based binaries

In order for a Glibc-based binary to run in Termux, it must have a properly specified dynamic linker directory. Otherwise, they will return the following error:

~ $ ./bun
bash: ./bun: cannot execute: required file not found

Glibc-runner allows you to run such binaries with $PREFIX/glibc/bin/ld.so or set the dynamic linker path and Glibc-based libraries directory path with patchelf.

~ $ grun ./bun --help
**result of running `bun` binary**
~ $ grun --set ./bun
~ $ ./bun --help
**result of running `bun` binary**

Note: the shell in Termux needs to be configure.