Bootstrappable Builds: How and Why

Timothy Sample presented on bootstrappable builds at FOSSY 2026, explaining how they create software with completely understood origins by starting with a tiny program that builds progressively larger programs until a full Linux system is constructed. Using GNU Guix as an example, he described how the system tracks dependencies through a "derivation graph" that represents all inputs needed to build each program, unlike traditional systems like Debian that rely on binary blobs as a stopping point. Bootstrappable builds aim to eliminate the mystery of where compiler binaries ultimately originate by making the entire chain of compilation transparent and traceable.