chore(build) Add support for building with RHEL 9+ / Fedora 38+ / tested on Fedora 44

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -6,6 +6,62 @@ The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](http://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/).
 to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org). When adding a new entry, please use the entries below
 as a guide.
 
+## [Unreleased]
+
+- **Podman / Fedora 44 / RHEL 9+ support for `make test`**
+
+  Docker CE is no longer installable or functional on Fedora 38+ and RHEL 9+ from the official
+  Docker repository. Podman (with `podman-docker` and `podman-compose`) is the supported
+  replacement on those platforms. This release makes the entire test infrastructure
+  runtime-agnostic so that `make test` works with either Docker or Podman transparently.
+
+  Changes by area:
+
+  - **`testutil/runtime.go`** (new): central runtime detection; auto-detects whether Docker or
+    Podman is in use (including `podman-docker` shims), sets `DOCKER_HOST` to the Podman socket
+    so the Docker SDK can communicate with it, and exposes `ContainerRuntime()` and
+    `ContainerComposeCmdPrefix()` helpers used everywhere else
+  - **`t/t.go` and `testutil/bulk.go`**: all hardcoded `docker compose --compatibility`
+    invocations replaced with `ContainerComposeCmdPrefix()`; all `docker logs`, `docker cp`, and
+    `docker exec` calls replaced with `ContainerRuntime()`
+  - **`contrib/Dockerfile`**: pre-creates all `/data/zero*`, `/data/alpha*`, `/data/dg1`, and
+    `/data/dg0.1` directories; Podman's `crun` OCI runtime does not auto-create a container's
+    `working_dir` at startup (unlike Docker's `runc`), which left containers stuck in "Created"
+    state
+  - **`t/Makefile`**: new `install-deps-docker-linux-dnf` target installs
+    `podman podman-docker podman-compose` and enables the Podman socket instead of attempting the
+    broken Docker CE install path on Fedora/RHEL
+  - **`t/scripts/check-deps-docker.sh`**: rewritten to detect and validate Podman on
+    `dnf`-based systems instead of requiring Docker CE
+  - **`t/scripts/check-docker-available-memory.sh`**: reads `/proc/meminfo` directly on Linux
+    (works for both Docker and Podman) rather than calling `docker info`
+  - **`Makefile`** (root): new `$(DOCKER)` variable falls back to `podman` when `docker` is
+    absent, used for image build targets
+
+- **Fixed**
+  - fix(build): detect jemalloc under `/usr/lib64` so a dnf-installed `jemalloc-devel` is found on
+    Fedora/RHEL multilib systems
+  - fix(build): compile the bundled jemalloc 5.3.1 with `--disable-cxx` to avoid the
+    `std::__throw_bad_alloc` build failure on GCC 13+ (e.g. Fedora 44 / GCC 15); dgraph only links
+    jemalloc's C API, so the C++ layer is not needed
+  - fix(build): chain the jemalloc build recipe with `&&` (was `;`) so a failed compile no longer
+    falls through to `make install`, and clear any stale `/tmp/jemalloc-temp` before rebuilding
+  - fix(test): add the Docker CE repo via a downloaded `.repo` file instead of
+    `dnf config-manager --add-repo`, which was removed in DNF5 (Fedora 41+) and broke
+    `make setup` on Fedora
+
+- **Added**
+  - test: add `contrib/smoke-test.sh` to bring up a local zero+alpha and verify
+    schema/mutation/query against a freshly built binary
+
+- **Changed**
+  - build: `linux-dependency` now auto-detects the package manager (apt/dnf/pacman) and installs the
+    C/C++ toolchain + protobuf-compiler, so build prerequisites work on Fedora/RHEL and Arch in
+    addition to Debian/Ubuntu
+
+- **Docs**
+  - docs(contributing): document building Dgraph on Fedora/RHEL
+
 ## [v25.3.4] - 2026-05-11
 
 [v25.3.4]: https://github.com/dgraph-io/dgraph/compare/v25.3.3...v25.3.4

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -126,6 +126,28 @@ Licensed variously under the Apache Public License 2.0 and Dgraph Community Lice
 See the [README](t/README.md) in the [_t_](t) folder for instructions on building Dgraph on
 non-Linux machines.
 
+#### Building Dgraph on Fedora / RHEL
+
+On Fedora, RHEL, and other `dnf`-based distributions, install the build prerequisites with:
+
+```bash
+make linux-dependency   # auto-detects apt / dnf / pacman; installs gcc, make, protobuf-compiler, etc.
+make install
+```
+
+Dgraph statically links jemalloc. Fedora's `jemalloc-devel` package ships only the shared library
+(not the static `libjemalloc.a` that Dgraph links against), so `make` compiles jemalloc 5.3.1 from
+source the first time and installs it to `/usr/local/lib` (this step needs `sudo`). The build
+configures jemalloc with `--disable-cxx`, which avoids a `std::__throw_bad_alloc` compile error on
+GCC 13+ (e.g. Fedora 44 / GCC 15); Dgraph uses only jemalloc's C API, so the C++ layer is not
+needed. Once the static library exists, subsequent builds detect it and skip the rebuild.
+
+After building, you can verify the binary with a quick single-node smoke test:
+
+```bash
+contrib/smoke-test.sh    # brings up a local zero+alpha, runs schema/mutation/query, tears down
+```
+
 ### Build Docker Image
 
 ```sh

Makefile

@@ -13,6 +13,9 @@ export GOPATH  ?= $(shell go env GOPATH)
 GOHOSTOS       := $(shell go env GOHOSTOS)
 GOHOSTARCH     := $(shell go env GOHOSTARCH)
 
+# Container runtime: prefer docker, fall back to podman (Fedora/RHEL default).
+DOCKER ?= $(shell command -v docker 2>/dev/null || command -v podman 2>/dev/null || echo docker)
+
 # Guard against empty GOPATH, which would resolve paths to root (e.g. /bin)
 ifeq ($(GOPATH),)
     $(error GOPATH is not set. Please set it explicitly, e.g. export GOPATH=$$HOME/go)
@@ -190,7 +193,7 @@ else
 endif
 	@mkdir -p linux
 	@mv ./dgraph/dgraph ./linux/dgraph
-	@docker build -f contrib/Dockerfile -t dgraph/dgraph:local .
+	@$(DOCKER) build -f contrib/Dockerfile -t dgraph/dgraph:local .
 	@rm -r linux
 
 .PHONY: image-local
@@ -207,7 +210,7 @@ clean: ## Clean build artifacts
 docker-image: dgraph ## Build Docker image (dgraph/dgraph:$VERSION)
 	@mkdir -p linux
 	@cp ./dgraph/dgraph ./linux/dgraph
-	docker build -f contrib/Dockerfile -t dgraph/dgraph:$(DGRAPH_VERSION) .
+	$(DOCKER) build -f contrib/Dockerfile -t dgraph/dgraph:$(DGRAPH_VERSION) .
 
 .PHONY: docker-image-standalone
 docker-image-standalone: dgraph docker-image
@@ -219,19 +222,23 @@ docker-image-standalone: dgraph docker-image
 coverage-docker-image: dgraph-coverage
 	@mkdir -p linux
 	@cp ./dgraph/dgraph ./linux/dgraph
-	docker build -f contrib/Dockerfile -t dgraph/dgraph:$(DGRAPH_VERSION) .
+	$(DOCKER) build -f contrib/Dockerfile -t dgraph/dgraph:$(DGRAPH_VERSION) .
 
-# build and run dependencies for ubuntu linux
+# build and run dependencies for linux (auto-detects apt / dnf / pacman)
+# The bundled jemalloc is compiled from source (see dgraph/Makefile), so a C/C++
+# toolchain plus curl/bzip2/tar are required even though libjemalloc itself is built locally.
 .PHONY: linux-dependency
 linux-dependency:
-	sudo apt-get update
-	sudo apt-get -y upgrade
-	sudo apt-get -y install ca-certificates
-	sudo apt-get -y install curl
-	sudo apt-get -y	install gnupg
-	sudo apt-get -y install lsb-release
-	sudo apt-get -y install build-essential
-	sudo apt-get -y install protobuf-compiler
+	@if command -v apt-get >/dev/null 2>&1; then \
+		sudo apt-get update && \
+		sudo apt-get install -y ca-certificates curl gnupg lsb-release build-essential protobuf-compiler bzip2; \
+	elif command -v dnf >/dev/null 2>&1; then \
+		sudo dnf install -y ca-certificates curl gnupg gcc gcc-c++ make bzip2 tar protobuf-compiler; \
+	elif command -v pacman >/dev/null 2>&1; then \
+		sudo pacman -S --noconfirm --needed ca-certificates curl gnupg base-devel protobuf; \
+	else \
+		echo "ERROR: No supported package manager found (tried: apt, dnf, pacman)"; exit 1; \
+	fi
 
 .PHONY: help
 help: ## Show available targets and variables

contrib/Dockerfile

@@ -41,7 +41,13 @@ RUN set -eu; \
 
 ADD linux /usr/local/bin
 
-RUN mkdir /dgraph
+RUN mkdir /dgraph && \
+    mkdir -p \
+        /data/zero1 /data/zero2 /data/zero3 /data/zero4 \
+        /data/zero5 /data/zero6 /data/zero7 /data/zero8 \
+        /data/alpha1 /data/alpha2 /data/alpha3 /data/alpha4 \
+        /data/alpha5 /data/alpha6 /data/alpha7 /data/alpha8 \
+        /data/dg1 /data/dg0.1
 WORKDIR /dgraph
 
 ENV GODEBUG=madvdontneed=1

contrib/smoke-test.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+#
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: © 2017-2025 Istari Digital, Inc.
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+#
+# Smoke test for a locally-built dgraph binary. Brings up a single-node cluster
+# (one zero + one alpha), exercises schema / mutation / query over the HTTP API,
+# verifies the result, then tears everything down.
+#
+# Usage:
+#   contrib/smoke-test.sh
+#
+# Environment overrides:
+#   BIN    path to the dgraph binary    (default: ./dgraph/dgraph, else `dgraph` on PATH)
+#   ROOT   working dir for cluster data (default: a fresh mktemp dir, removed on exit)
+
+set -u
+
+# Resolve the dgraph binary: prefer a local build, fall back to PATH.
+if [ -z "${BIN:-}" ]; then
+  if [ -x "./dgraph/dgraph" ]; then
+    BIN="./dgraph/dgraph"
+  elif command -v dgraph >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    BIN="dgraph"
+  else
+    echo "error: could not find dgraph binary (build it with 'make dgraph' or set BIN=...)" >&2
+    exit 1
+  fi
+fi
+
+# Resolve a path-form BIN to an absolute path (we cd into per-node data dirs below);
+# leave a bare command name (found on PATH) untouched.
+case "$BIN" in
+  */*) BIN="$(cd "$(dirname "$BIN")" && pwd)/$(basename "$BIN")" ;;
+esac
+
+ROOT="${ROOT:-$(mktemp -d)}"
+PASS=0; FAIL=0
+ZERO_PID=""; ALPHA_PID=""
+
+say() { printf '\n=== %s ===\n' "$*"; }
+ok()  { echo "PASS: $*"; PASS=$((PASS + 1)); }
+bad() { echo "FAIL: $*"; FAIL=$((FAIL + 1)); }
+
+cleanup() {
+  say "Tearing down"
+  [ -n "$ALPHA_PID" ] && kill "$ALPHA_PID" 2>/dev/null
+  [ -n "$ZERO_PID" ]  && kill "$ZERO_PID"  2>/dev/null
+  wait 2>/dev/null
+  rm -rf "$ROOT"
+}
+trap cleanup EXIT
+
+mkdir -p "$ROOT/zero" "$ROOT/alpha"
+
+say "dgraph version"
+"$BIN" version 2>&1 | sed -n '1,12p'
+
+say "Starting zero"
+( cd "$ROOT/zero" && exec "$BIN" zero --my localhost:5080 ) >"$ROOT/zero.log" 2>&1 &
+ZERO_PID=$!
+
+say "Starting alpha"
+( cd "$ROOT/alpha" && exec "$BIN" alpha --my localhost:7080 --zero localhost:5080 ) \
+  >"$ROOT/alpha.log" 2>&1 &
+ALPHA_PID=$!
+
+say "Waiting for alpha /health"
+healthy=0
+for _ in $(seq 1 60); do
+  if curl -sf localhost:8080/health >/dev/null 2>&1; then healthy=1; break; fi
+  sleep 2
+done
+if [ "$healthy" = 1 ]; then
+  ok "alpha healthy"
+else
+  bad "alpha did not become healthy"
+  echo "--- alpha.log (tail) ---"; tail -30 "$ROOT/alpha.log"
+  echo "--- zero.log (tail) ---";  tail -30 "$ROOT/zero.log"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+say "Set schema"
+curl -sf -X POST localhost:8080/alter -d 'name: string @index(exact) .' >/dev/null \
+  && ok "alter" || bad "alter"
+
+say "Mutation"
+# N-Quads must be newline-terminated, so embed real newlines via $'...'.
+MUT=$(curl -s -X POST 'localhost:8080/mutate?commitNow=true' \
+  -H 'Content-Type: application/rdf' \
+  -d $'{\n  set {\n    _:alice <name> "Alice" .\n    _:bob <name> "Bob" .\n  }\n}')
+echo "$MUT"
+echo "$MUT" | grep -q '"code":"Success"' && ok "mutate" || bad "mutate"
+
+say "Query"
+RES=$(curl -s -X POST localhost:8080/query \
+  -H 'Content-Type: application/dql' \
+  -d '{ q(func: eq(name, "Alice")) { name } }')
+echo "$RES"
+echo "$RES" | grep -q '"name":"Alice"' && ok "query returned Alice" || bad "query did not return Alice"
+
+say "Result: PASS=$PASS FAIL=$FAIL"
+[ "$FAIL" = 0 ]

dgraph/Makefile

@@ -52,9 +52,10 @@ endif
 
 # jemalloc stuff
 # Check common package-manager install paths: /usr/local/lib (make
-# install from source), /usr/lib (apt-get libjemalloc-dev), and
-# /usr/lib/libjemalloc_pic.a (apk add jemalloc-dev on Alpine/Wolfi).
-HAS_JEMALLOC = $(shell test -f /usr/local/lib/libjemalloc.a -o -f /usr/lib/libjemalloc.a -o -f /usr/lib/libjemalloc_pic.a && echo "jemalloc")
+# install from source), /usr/lib (apt-get libjemalloc-dev),
+# /usr/lib/libjemalloc_pic.a (apk add jemalloc-dev on Alpine/Wolfi), and
+# /usr/lib64 (dnf jemalloc-devel on Fedora/RHEL multilib systems).
+HAS_JEMALLOC = $(shell test -f /usr/local/lib/libjemalloc.a -o -f /usr/local/lib64/libjemalloc.a -o -f /usr/lib/libjemalloc.a -o -f /usr/lib64/libjemalloc.a -o -f /usr/lib/libjemalloc_pic.a -o -f /usr/lib64/libjemalloc_pic.a && echo "jemalloc")
 JEMALLOC_URL = "https://github.com/jemalloc/jemalloc/releases/download/5.3.1/jemalloc-5.3.1.tar.bz2"
 
 # go install variables
@@ -101,13 +102,13 @@ install: jemalloc
 
 jemalloc:
 	@if [ -z "$(HAS_JEMALLOC)" ] ; then \
-		mkdir -p /tmp/jemalloc-temp && cd /tmp/jemalloc-temp ; \
-		echo "Downloading jemalloc" ; \
-		curl -f -s -L ${JEMALLOC_URL} -o jemalloc.tar.bz2 ; \
-		tar xjf ./jemalloc.tar.bz2 ; \
-		cd jemalloc-5.3.1 ; \
-		./configure --with-jemalloc-prefix='je_' --with-malloc-conf='background_thread:true,metadata_thp:auto'; \
-		make ; \
+		rm -rf /tmp/jemalloc-temp && mkdir -p /tmp/jemalloc-temp && cd /tmp/jemalloc-temp && \
+		echo "Downloading jemalloc" && \
+		curl -f -s -L ${JEMALLOC_URL} -o jemalloc.tar.bz2 && \
+		tar xjf ./jemalloc.tar.bz2 && \
+		cd jemalloc-5.3.1 && \
+		./configure --with-jemalloc-prefix='je_' --with-malloc-conf='background_thread:true,metadata_thp:auto' --disable-cxx && \
+		make && \
 		if [ "$(USER_ID)" = "0" ]; then \
 			make install ; \
 		else \

dgraph/cmd/root.go

@@ -64,6 +64,17 @@ cluster.
 func Execute() {
 	initCmds()
 
+	// podman-compose 1.5.0 expands an unset ${COVERAGE_OUTPUT} as a literal
+	// empty-string token, which shlex passes to us as os.Args[1]=="". Strip
+	// any empty-string arguments before cobra sees them; they are never valid.
+	filtered := os.Args[:1]
+	for _, a := range os.Args[1:] {
+		if a != "" {
+			filtered = append(filtered, a)
+		}
+	}
+	os.Args = filtered
+
 	// Convinces glog that Parse() has been called to avoid noisy logs.
 	// https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/17162#issuecomment-225596212
 	x.Check(flag.CommandLine.Parse([]string{}))

dgraph/docker-compose.yml

@@ -238,7 +238,7 @@ services:
       "secret-file=/dgraph-acl/hmac-secret; access-ttl=20s;"
 
   minio:
-    image: minio/minio:latest
+    image: docker.io/minio/minio:latest
     env_file:
       - ./minio.env
     working_dir: /data/minio

graphql/e2e/directives/docker-compose.yml

@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ services:
       --graphql "lambda-url=http://lambda:8686/graphql-worker; debug=true;" --trace "ratio=1.0;"
 
   lambda:
-    image: dgraph/dgraph-lambda:latest
+    image: docker.io/dgraph/dgraph-lambda:latest
     labels:
       cluster: test
     ports:

graphql/e2e/normal/docker-compose.yml

@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ services:
       --graphql "lambda-url=http://lambda:8686/graphql-worker; debug=true;" --trace "ratio=1.0;"
 
   lambda:
-    image: dgraph/dgraph-lambda:latest
+    image: docker.io/dgraph/dgraph-lambda:latest
     labels:
       cluster: test
     ports:

ocagent/docker-compose.yml

@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ services:
       --my=zero1:5180 --replicas=3 --logtostderr -v=2 --bindall --trace
       "jaeger=http://ocagent:14268;"
   ocagent:
-    image: omnition/opencensus-agent:1.0.15
+    image: docker.io/omnition/opencensus-agent:1.0.15
     container_name: ocagent
     labels:
       cluster: test
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ services:
         read_only: true
     command: --config /conf/ocagent-config.yaml
   datadog:
-    image: datadog/agent:latest
+    image: docker.io/datadog/agent:latest
     container_name: datadog
     working_dir: /working/datadog
     volumes:

systest/backup/encryption/docker-compose.yml

@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ services:
       server-cert=/dgraph-tls/node.crt; server-key=/dgraph-tls/node.key; internal-port=true;
       client-cert=/dgraph-tls/client.zero1.crt; client-key=/dgraph-tls/client.zero1.key;"
   minio:
-    image: minio/minio:latest
+    image: docker.io/minio/minio:latest
     env_file:
       - ../../backup.env
     ports:

systest/backup/minio-large/docker-compose.yml

@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ services:
       server-cert=/dgraph-tls/node.crt; server-key=/dgraph-tls/node.key; internal-port=true;
       client-cert=/dgraph-tls/client.alpha3.crt; client-key=/dgraph-tls/client.alpha3.key;"
   minio:
-    image: minio/minio:${MINIO_IMAGE_ARCH:-RELEASE.2020-11-13T20-10-18Z}
+    image: docker.io/minio/minio:${MINIO_IMAGE_ARCH:-RELEASE.2020-11-13T20-10-18Z}
     env_file:
       - ../../backup.env
     ports:

systest/backup/minio/docker-compose.yml

@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ services:
       server-cert=/dgraph-tls/node.crt; server-key=/dgraph-tls/node.key; internal-port=true;
       client-cert=/dgraph-tls/client.zero1.crt; client-key=/dgraph-tls/client.zero1.key;"
   minio:
-    image: minio/minio:${MINIO_IMAGE_ARCH:-RELEASE.2020-11-13T20-10-18Z}
+    image: docker.io/minio/minio:${MINIO_IMAGE_ARCH:-RELEASE.2020-11-13T20-10-18Z}
     env_file:
       - ../../backup.env
     ports: