• 0. Assumption
• 1. Preparation
  • 1.1 Add Cydia Sources
  • 1.2 Search and/or install Packages
• 2. Compilation
• 3. Building .deb package
• References & Thanks

Recently, I am trying to build a portable web server on my old iPhone4 (iOS v7.1.2), and need a Vim v7.4 (with Python, Ruby and Lua support) for my remote editing/coding, but the BigBoss (only v7.1) and Radare (only v7.3-1) can’t help. So I have to work it out by myself, let’s see how.

0. Assumption

I am assuming you have a jailbroked iDevice and have basis knowledge about Cydia, if not, pls follow this TaiG jailbreak tutorial and this pic

1. Preparation

Search and install require packages after adding sources into Cydia.

1.1 Add Cydia Sources

• http://repo.insanelyi.com/ (It’s the only source I can get fake-libgcc, kindly let me know if you have another new one.)

1.2 Search and/or install Packages

• BigBoss Recommended Tools
  • (A bunch of useful tools)

• Darwin CC Tools (v286-8, iOS compilation toolchain)

• fake-libgcc (v1.0-2, GCC compilation toolchain. DO NOT upgrade/remove it even Cydia always prompt you to upgrade with libgcc)
  • fake-libgcc
  • GNU C Compiler
  • iphone-gcc Headers

• Lua(v5.3.0-1):

• Ruby(v1.9.2-p0-10):

• Python(v2.7.6-3):

  Since the Python in Cydia’s sources is outdated, so need to install it manually.

  1. SSH to your iDevice with root ID

  2. Download Python DEB to /var/root/dl/

      curl -Ok https://github.com/linusyang/python-for-ios/releases/download/v2.7.6-3/python_2.7.6-3_iphoneos-arm.deb /var/root/dl/```
     

     or

      curl -Ok https://github.com/neotan/ios-tools/raw/master/python_2.7.6-3_iphoneos-arm.deb /var/root/dl/
     

  3. Install it

      dpkg -i /var/root/dl/python_2.7.6-3_iphoneos-arm.deb
     

• iPhoneOS7.1.sdk

  You have 2 opthions to have it:

  1. Extracted from Xcode 5.1.1 dmg:

      /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/SDKs/iPhoneOS7.1.sdk 
     

     to

      /var/root/dl/iPhoneOS7.1.sdk
     

     and from

      /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/SDKs/iPhoneSimulator.sdk/usr/include/crt_externs.h 
     

     to

      /var/root/dl/iPhoneOS7.1.sdk/usr/inlude/crt_externs.h
     

  2. Or simply clone from my repo (crt_externs.h is ready):

      git clone https://github.com/neotan/iPhoneOS7.1.sdk.git /var/root/dl/
     

2. Compilation

Make a place for binaries and other stuffs.

mkdir -p /var/root/dl/vimbuilt/share

Create a config.site with following content for Make, Make will read it while makeing Makefiles.

nano /var/root/dl/local/share/config.site

Content of config.site:

CPPFLAGS='-I/private/var/root/dl/iPhoneOS71SDK/usr/include -I/private/var/root/dl/iPhoneOS71SDK/usr/include -F/private/var/root/dl/iPhoneOS71SDK/System/Library/Frameworks'
LDFLAGS='-L/private/var/root/dl/iPhoneOS71SDK/usr/lib -L/private/var/root/dl/iPhoneOS71SDK/usr/lib -L/private/var/root/dl/iPhoneOS71SDK/usr/lib/system -F/private/var/root/dl/iPhoneOS71SDK/System/Library/Frameworks'
LUA_PREFIX='/'

Now the folder structure:

/var/root/dl/vimbuilt
└── share
    └── config.site  # Configurations to let Make know 

Fetch the latest source code of Vim

git clone https://github.com/vim/vim.git /var/root/dl/vim74src

Go to the source code folder, you will see a configure files is over there.

cd /var/root/dl/vim74src/src

Then run this command to build Makefiles

./configure --with-features=huge --disable-darwin --enable-gui=no --without-x --enable-multibyte --prefix=/var/root/dl/vimbuilt --enable-luainterp --enable-pythoninterp --enable-rubyinterp 

–diable-darwin was required to disable trying to use the Carbon Framework, which isn’t available on iOS.

You will see

configure: loading site script /var/root/dl/vimbuilt/share/config.site
configure: loading cache auto/config.cache
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... (cached) yes
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
...
checking for GCC 3 or later... yes
checking whether we need -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=1... yes
checking linker --as-needed support... no
configure: creating auto/config.status
config.status: creating auto/config.mk
config.status: creating auto/config.h
config.status: auto/config.h is unchanged
root@iPhone:[~/dl/vim74src/src]

Error info. will be logged to /var/root/dl/vim74src/src/auto/config.log if any.

and run this to start comilation

make && make install

Finally, the binaries, manual and other stuffs will be place to /var/root/dl/vimbuilt

/var/root/dl/vimbuilt
├── bin                   # Vim's binaries
│   ├── ex -> vim
│   ├── rview -> vim
│   ├── rvim -> vim
│   ├── view -> vim
│   ├── vim
│   ├── vimdiff -> vim
│   ├── vimtutor
│   └── xxd
├── deb
│   ├── DEBIAN
│   │   └── control
│   └── usr
│       ├── bin            # Currently, empty
│       └── share          # Currently, empty
└── share
    ├── config.site
    ├── man                # Vim's manual
    └── vim
        └── vim74

In this moment, you may feel free to copy the bin/* to /usr/bin/, share/* to /usr/share/, that will work perfectly. But I will show you how to packing our work into a .deb file for further distribution. Keep going~

3. Building .deb package

Make a place for packing.

mkdir -p /var/root/dl/vimbuilt/deb/DEBIAN
mkdir -p /var/root/dl/vimbuilt/deb/usr

We need to create a control with following content for dpkg command.

nano /var/root/dl/vimbuilt/deb/DEBIAN/control

Content of control:

Package: io.github.neotan
Name: Vim v7.4
Version: 7.4
Section: Vim
Maintainer: Your Name <Your email or website>
Architecture: iphoneos-arm
Description: Vim v7.4 (with Python2.7, Ruby1.1 and Lua5.3 support)
Author: Your Name <Your email or website>
Sponsor: Your Name
Replaces: Vim (<= 7.4)

Replaces: Vim (<= 7.4) means will replace current existing/installed Vim if it’s version lower than our new version.

Now the folder structure:

/var/root/dl/vimbuilt
├── bin              # Auto created by Make, for storaging binaries.
├── deb
│   ├── DEBIAN
│   │   └── control  # For building .deb file with dpkg command later
│   └── usr
└── share
    └── config.site  # Configurations to let Make know 

And the vimbuilt/bin and the vimbuilt/share are the major things, the vimbuilt/deb is the place we start packing, so put them together:

cd /var/root/dl/vimbuilt
cp -R bin deb/usr/
cp -R share deb/usr/

The structure looks like this before building packge:

/var/root/dl/vimbuilt/deb
├── DEBIAN
│   └── control
└── usr
    ├── bin
    │   ├── ex -> vim
    │   ├── rview -> vim
    │   ├── rvim -> vim
    │   ├── view -> vim
    │   ├── vim
    │   ├── vimdiff -> vim
    │   ├── vimtutor
    │   └── xxd
    └── share
        ├── config.site
        ├── man
        │   ├── fr
        │   ├── fr.ISO8859-1
        │   ├── fr.UTF-8
        │   ├── it
        │   ├── it.ISO8859-1
        │   ├── it.UTF-8
        │   ├── ja
        │   ├── man1
        │   ├── pl
        │   ├── pl.ISO8859-2
        │   ├── pl.UTF-8
        │   ├── ru.KOI8-R
        │   └── ru.UTF-8
        └── vim
            └── vim74

Build .deb package.

dpkg -b deb vim74.deb

Ignore these warning.

warning, `deb/DEBIAN/control' contains user-defined field `Name'
warning, `deb/DEBIAN/control' contains user-defined field `Author'
warning, `deb/DEBIAN/control' contains user-defined field `Sponsor'
dpkg-deb: building package `io.github.neotan' in `vim74.deb'.
dpkg-deb: ignoring 3 warnings about the control file(s)

Install new Vim from .deb package:

dpkg -i vim74.deb

Check the Vim version and features

vim --version

Now you will see +Python, +Lua, +Ruby tags

That’s it. Let me know if you built any funny tool. Enjoy compiling! Cheers!

References & Thanks

Thanks for following contributors of every threads! I can’t make above blog without them!

• ios - How to download Xcode 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 and get the DMG file? - Stack Overflow
• How To: Set up GCC on iOS 4 — n8.io
• bash - how to add include and lib paths to configure/make cycle - Stack Overflow
• Github - linusyang/python-for-ios