libicui18n.so.74 not found error

[mosajjal]

On Arch (AUR) installation, I get the following after upgrading to 0.55.4

bd: error while loading shared libraries: libicui18n.so.74: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

[jwest-everdriven]

Same issue on Fedora, within WSL. I had ~.so,76 installed so I explicitly installed 74 to get back up and running again.

sudo dnf install libicu74

[tubededentifrice]

Same issue on Ubuntu 25.10 (has libicu76). A symlink workaround works:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libicui18n.so.76 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libicui18n.so.74
sudo ldconfig

Ideally the binary should be built against 76 version, or statically link ICU.

[tha-hammer]

Same issue on Debian
Distributor ID: Debian
Description: Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)
Release: 13
Codename: trixie

bd: error while loading shared libraries: libicui18n.so.74: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

---

Verbosity to help other trixie-ans by signalling to the goog overlords (as I paradoxically work to overthrow their evil empire and see heads mounted on pikes)

(proverbially speaking, of course)

[szybnev]

Same issue on Ubuntu 25.10 (Questing), kernel 6.17.0-14-generic, x86_64.

The system ships ICU 76 (libicu76 76.1-4ubuntu2), the prebuilt binary wants ICU 74.

bd: error while loading shared libraries: libicui18n.so.74: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Tried all install methods — curl | bash, npm install -g @beads/bd, direct release download. Same result.

Building from source with CGO_ENABLED=0 produces a binary that passes bd version but fails on any real command because Dolt needs CGO:

Error: Dolt backend configured but database not found

Since v0.55.4 removed the no-db JSONL-only mode, there's no fallback at all. The CGO_ENABLED=0 binary is a dead end.

Workaround

Create symlinks from ICU 76 to 74 in a local dir and wrap the binary:

mkdir -p ~/.local/lib
ln -sf /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libicui18n.so.76 ~/.local/lib/libicui18n.so.74
ln -sf /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libicuuc.so.76 ~/.local/lib/libicuuc.so.74
ln -sf /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libicudata.so.76 ~/.local/lib/libicudata.so.74

Then either export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HOME/.local/lib or create a wrapper script:

# ~/.local/bin/bd (wrapper)
#!/bin/sh
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$HOME/.local/lib${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH}"
exec "$HOME/.local/bin/bd.bin" "$@"

ABI compatibility between ICU 74 and 76 isn't guaranteed, but in practice it works — bd init, bd list, bd create all function correctly with this hack.

Environment

• OS: Ubuntu 25.10 (Questing), kernel 6.17.0-14-generic
• Arch: x86_64
• ICU: 76.1-4ubuntu2 (libicui18n.so.76)
• beads: v0.55.4
• Go: 1.25.7
• Node: v24.12.0

Possible fixes

1. Statically link ICU into the release binary so it doesn't depend on the host version
2. Build release binaries on a newer base that ships ICU 76+
3. Extend the pure-Go regex path (currently Windows-only) to Linux

[steveyegge]

Closing: the ICU dependency came from dolthub/go-icu-regex via the dolthub/driver. Both have been dropped from beads (1ade634a). Binary size went from 168MB to 41MB. Current builds have no ICU runtime dependency.