Installation¶

Debian packages¶

Disco ships four packages. disco-common installs the NSS module and is a dependency of both disco-daemon and disco-cli.

Install the full suite:

sudo apt install ./disco_*.deb

Or install components individually:

sudo apt install ./disco-daemon_*.deb ./disco-cli_*.deb ./disco-common_*.deb

After installation, enable and start the daemon:

sudo systemctl enable --now disco-daemon

From source¶

Requires Go 1.24+ and GCC.

git clone https://github.com/offline-lab/disco
cd disco
make
sudo make install

make install installs binaries to /usr/local/bin/, the NSS module to /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/, and man pages to /usr/local/share/man/man1/.

To build only specific components:

make disco          # CLI binary only
make disco-daemon   # Daemon binary only
make libnss         # NSS shared library only (Linux, requires GCC)

Cross-compile¶

The Go binaries cross-compile without CGO. The NSS module is C and must be compiled natively or with a cross-compiler targeting the same architecture.

Cross-compile the binaries for ARM64:

CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux GOARCH=arm64 go build \
  -ldflags="-s -w" \
  -o build/bin/disco-daemon cmd/daemon/main.go

CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux GOARCH=arm64 go build \
  -ldflags="-s -w" \
  -o build/bin/disco cmd/disco/main.go

Build the NSS module for ARM64 using a cross-compiler:

aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc -fPIC -shared \
  -o build/lib/libnss_disco.so.2 \
  -Wl,-soname,libnss_disco.so.2 \
  libnss/nss_disco.c

NSS module¶

The NSS module requires manual installation on the target system. See NSS Module for the full procedure, including nsswitch.conf configuration.

systemd service¶

The daemon ships a systemd unit. If you installed from source using make install, the unit file is not installed automatically. Create /etc/systemd/system/disco-daemon.service:

[Unit]
Description=Disco name service daemon
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=notify
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/disco-daemon -config /etc/disco/config.yaml
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5
RuntimeDirectory=disco
RuntimeDirectoryMode=0755
User=disco
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Type=notify lets systemd track when the daemon is ready. The daemon sends READY=1 via sd_notify once the socket and any enabled servers (DNS, time sync) are accepting connections.

RuntimeDirectory=disco creates /run/disco/ before the process starts. If you change daemon.socket_path in config, make sure the directory exists and the disco user can write to it.

Enable and start:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now disco-daemon

Embedded systems (Buildroot)¶

Create package/disco/disco.mk:

DISCO_VERSION = $(call qstrip,$(BR2_PACKAGE_DISCO_VERSION))
DISCO_SITE = $(call github,offline-lab,disco,$(DISCO_VERSION))
DISCO_LICENSE = MIT
DISCO_DEPENDENCIES = host-go host-gcc

define DISCO_BUILD_CMDS
    cd $(@D) && \
    CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux GOARCH=$(BR2_ARCH) \
    $(HOST_GO_ENV) go build -o build/bin/disco-daemon cmd/daemon/main.go && \
    CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux GOARCH=$(BR2_ARCH) \
    $(HOST_GO_ENV) go build -o build/bin/disco cmd/disco/main.go && \
    $(TARGET_CC) -fPIC -shared -o build/lib/libnss_disco.so.2 \
        -Wl,-soname,libnss_disco.so.2 libnss/nss_disco.c
endef

define DISCO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS
    $(INSTALL) -D -m 755 $(@D)/build/bin/disco-daemon $(TARGET_DIR)/usr/bin/disco-daemon
    $(INSTALL) -D -m 755 $(@D)/build/bin/disco $(TARGET_DIR)/usr/bin/disco
    $(INSTALL) -D -m 644 $(@D)/build/lib/libnss_disco.so.2 $(TARGET_DIR)/lib/libnss_disco.so.2
    ln -sf libnss_disco.so.2 $(TARGET_DIR)/lib/libnss_disco.so
endef

$(eval $(generic-package))

Uninstall¶

sudo systemctl stop disco-daemon
sudo systemctl disable disco-daemon
sudo rm /etc/systemd/system/disco-daemon.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

sudo rm /usr/local/bin/disco /usr/local/bin/disco-daemon /usr/local/bin/disco-gps-broadcaster
sudo rm /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnss_disco.so.2 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnss_disco.so
sudo ldconfig

# Restore nsswitch.conf: remove "disco" from the hosts line
sudo sed -i 's/ disco//' /etc/nsswitch.conf