static-pie release binaries available for testing

In an effort to enhance the portability and self-sufficiency of Bitcoin Core's release binaries, significant strides have been made using the existing Guix infrastructure. The primary objective is to produce -static-pie release binaries which will significantly reduce runtime dependencies such as libc. This development targets binaries for x86_64 and aarch64 Linux platforms specifically for bitcoind and other utilities, whereas bitcoin-qt and bitcoin-gui remain unchanged.

The new binaries aim to support a broader range of system libraries, including much older versions of glibc as well as non-glibc based systems like Alpine that use musl libc. This change is poised to make the binaries more universally operable across different Linux distributions. Currently, these enhancements are being integrated into the binary builds for bitcoind, leveraging the latest toolchain components in Guix, notably GCC 14.3.0 and Binutils 2.46.0, and compiled against glibc 2.44 rather than the previous 2.31. This shift not only updates the core compilation dependencies but also includes patches aimed at enhancing reproducibility.

A pull request detailing all the modifications can be found here, providing a comprehensive view of the changes proposed. As part of the ongoing development, the produced bitcoind binary notably differs in its linking properties, transitioning from dynamically linked to statically-pie linked executables.

Feedback and testing from the community are encouraged to refine these developments further. Interested parties can access test binaries and their corresponding hashes through this link, facilitating direct involvement in testing and providing feedback on the newly structured binaries. This proactive engagement is crucial for identifying potential issues and gathering insights that could lead to improvements in future releases.