Radare2 with Ghidra

[suhr]

Radare2 allows using Ghidra as a decompiler: https://github.com/radareorg/r2ghidra-dec. But it's impossible to install it via r2pm in NixOS.

It would be nice to have a package that contains r2 together with Ghidra.

@Mic92

[prusnak]

But it's impossible to install it via r2pm in NixOS.

Why? What is the error?

[suhr]

CMake Error: CMake was unable to find a build program corresponding to "Unix Makefiles".  CMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM is not set.  You probably need to select a different build tool.
CMake Error: CMAKE_C_COMPILER not set, after EnableLanguage
CMake Error: CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER not set, after EnableLanguage
-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!

All right, maybe it's possible to install with nix-shell. But it's inconvenient and breakage-prone.

[Mic92]

I have not looked into r2pm and nix yet. As you already found out it might be possible to compile it for now using nix-shell -p cmake.

[suhr]

It partially compiles with nix-shell -p cmake bison flex and then errors with no meaningful error message.

[Mic92]

Creating a proper nixpkgs requires some patching though:

$ r2 -H R2_LIBR_PLUGINS
/nix/store/fgiv9xh85yj26vyq4f8lp51fnbm6a7n0-radare2-4.3.1/lib/radare2/4.3.1
$ r2 -H R2_USER_PLUGINS
/home/joerg/.local/share/radare2/plugins

Ideally radare2 would accept environment variables to load plugins from.

[Mic92]

I tried this one:

$ git clone https://github.com/radareorg/r2ghidra-dec
$ cd r2ghidra-dec
$ git submodule update --init
$ cat > shell.nix <<EOF
with import <nixpkgs> {};
stdenv.mkDerivation {
  name = "env";
  buildInputs = [
    radare2
  ];
  nativeBuildInputs = [
    cmake bison flex
    pkgconfig
  ];
}
EOF
$ nix-shell
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ cmake ..
$ make -j$(nproc)

It still does not compile. I assume the radare2 version in our repos is too old:

/home/joerg/git/r2ghidra-dec/src/R2TypeFactory.cpp: In member function ‘Datatype* R2TypeFactory::queryR2(const string&, std::set<std::__cxx11::basic_string<char> >&)’:
/home/joerg/git/r2ghidra-dec/src/R2TypeFactory.cpp:157:8: error: ‘R_TYPE_TYPEDEF’ was not declared in this scope
  157 |   case R_TYPE_TYPEDEF:
      |        ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/home/joerg/git/r2ghidra-dec/src/R2Scope.cpp: In member function ‘virtual bool R2Scope::isNameUsed(const string&) const’:
/home/joerg/git/r2ghidra-dec/src/R2Scope.cpp:590:6: error: ‘r_anal_get_function_byname’ was not declared in this scope; did you mean ‘r_anal_get_function_at’?
  590 |  if (r_anal_get_function_byname(core->anal, name.c_str()))
      |      ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      |      r_anal_get_function_at
make[2]: *** [CMakeFiles/core_ghidra.dir/build.make:132: CMakeFiles/core_ghidra.dir/src/R2TypeFactory.cpp.o] Error 1
make[2]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
make[2]: *** [CMakeFiles/core_ghidra.dir/build.make:119: CMakeFiles/core_ghidra.dir/src/R2Scope.cpp.o] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/joerg/git/r2ghidra-dec/build'
make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:145: CMakeFiles/core_ghidra.dir/all] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/joerg/git/r2ghidra-dec/build'
make: *** [Makefile:147: all] Error 2
make: Leaving directory '/home/joerg/git/r2ghidra-dec/build'

[Mic92]

It compiles with https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/86458

[nixos-discourse]

This issue has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/radare2-plugins-in-nixpkgs/8485/1

[stale[bot]]

I marked this as stale due to inactivity. → More info

[MaeIsBad]

I wrote a rizin with plugins nix wrapper that also packages rz-ghidra, it may be helpful to anyone trying to package r2ghidra

https://im.badat.dev/bad/rizin-nix-plugins

[milahu]

Ideally radare2 would accept environment variables to load plugins from.

radare2 already accepts R2_LIBR_PLUGINS but that is just one path

feature request for multiple paths in https://github.com/radareorg/radare2/issues/21300

[chayleaf]

This is my attempt at packaging rz-ghidra https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/220885

With this, you can do

cutter.withPlugins (ps: with ps; [ rz-ghidra ])

rizin.withPlugins (ps: with ps; [ rz-ghidra ])

[nilsherzig]

$ cat > shell.nix <<EOF
with import <nixpkgs> {};
stdenv.mkDerivation {
  name = "env";
  buildInputs = [
    radare2
  ];
  nativeBuildInputs = [
    cmake bison flex
    pkgconfig
  ];
}
EOF
$ nix-shell
$ r2pm -ci r2ghidra

worked for me (no other actions needed r2 can find the plugin and start decompiling)