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- <div class="main">
- <div class="titre">
- <h1>Buildroot</h1>
- </div>
- <p><a href="http://buildroot.net/">Buildroot</a>
- usage and documentation by Thomas Petazzoni. Contributions from
- Karsten Kruse, Ned Ludd, Martin Herren and others. </p>
- <p><small>$LastChangedDate$</small></p>
- <ul>
- <li><a href="#about">About Buildroot</a></li>
- <li><a href="#download">Obtaining Buildroot</a></li>
- <li><a href="#using">Using Buildroot</a></li>
- <li><a href="#custom_targetfs">Customizing the target filesystem</a></li>
- <li><a href="#custom_busybox">Customizing the Busybox
- configuration</a></li>
- <li><a href="#custom_uclibc">Customizing the uClibc
- configuration</a></li>
- <li><a href="#buildroot_innards">How Buildroot works</a></li>
- <li><a href="#multi_project">Building several projects in the
- same buildroot source tree</a></li>
- <li><a href="#using_toolchain">Using the uClibc toolchain
- outside Buildroot</a></li>
- <li><a href="#external_toolchain">Use an external toolchain</a></li>
- <li><a href="#downloaded_packages">Location of downloaded packages</a>
- </li>
- <li><a href="#add_software">Extending Buildroot with more
- Software</a></li>
- <li><a href="#links">Resources</a></li>
- </ul>
- <h2><a name="about" id="about"></a>About Buildroot</h2>
- <p>Buildroot is a set of Makefiles and patches that allow to easily
- generate both a cross-compilation toolchain and a root filesystem for your
- target. The cross-compilation toolchain uses uClibc (<a href=
- "http://www.uclibc.org/">http://www.uclibc.org/</a>), a tiny C standard
- library. </p>
- <p>Buildroot is useful mainly for people working with embedded systems.
- Embedded systems often use processors that are not the regular x86
- processors everyone is used to have on his PC. It can be PowerPC
- processors, MIPS processors, ARM processors, etc. </p>
- <p>A compilation toolchain is the set of tools that allows to
- compile code for your system. It consists of a compiler (in our
- case, <code>gcc</code>), binary utils like assembler and linker
- (in our case, <code>binutils</code>) and a C standard library (for
- example <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/libc.html">GNU
- Libc</a>, <a href="http://www.uclibc.org/">uClibc</a> or <a
- href="http://www.fefe.de/dietlibc/">dietlibc</a>). The system
- installed on your development station certainly already has a
- compilation toolchain that you can use to compile application that
- runs on your system. If you're using a PC, your compilation
- toolchain runs on an x86 processor and generates code for a x86
- processor. Under most Linux systems, the compilation toolchain
- uses the GNU libc as C standard library. This compilation
- toolchain is called the "host compilation toolchain", and more
- generally, the machine on which it is running, and on which you're
- working is called the "host system". The compilation toolchain
- is provided by your distribution, and Buildroot has nothing to do
- with it. </p>
- <p>As said above, the compilation toolchain that comes with your system
- runs and generates code for the processor of your host system. As your
- embedded system has a different processor, you need a cross-compilation
- toolchain: it's a compilation toolchain that runs on your host system but
- that generates code for your target system (and target processor). For
- example, if your host system uses x86 and your target system uses ARM, the
- regular compilation toolchain of your host runs on x86 and generates code
- for x86, while the cross-compilation toolchain runs on x86 and generates
- code for ARM. </p>
- <p>Even if your embedded system uses a x86 processor, you might interested
- in Buildroot, for two reasons:</p>
- <ul>
- <li>The compilation toolchain of your host certainly uses the GNU Libc
- which is a complete but huge C standard library. Instead of using GNU
- Libc on your target system, you can use uClibc which is a tiny C standard
- library. If you want to use this C library, then you need a compilation
- toolchain to generate binaries linked with it. Buildroot can do it for
- you. </li>
- <li>Buildroot automates the building of a root filesystem with all needed
- tools like busybox. It makes it much easier than doing it by hand. </li>
- </ul>
- <p>You might wonder why such a tool is needed when you can compile
- <code>gcc</code>, <code>binutils</code>, uClibc and all the tools by hand.
- Of course, doing so is possible. But dealing with all configure options,
- with all problems of every <code>gcc</code> or <code>binutils</code>
- version it very time-consuming and uninteresting. Buildroot automates this
- process through the use of Makefiles, and has a collection of patches for
- each <code>gcc</code> and <code>binutils</code> version to make them work
- on most architectures. </p>
- <p>Moreover, Buildroot provides an infrastructure for reproducing
- the build process of your embedded root filesystem. Being able to
- reproduce the build process will be useful when a component needs
- to be patched or updated, or when another person is supposed to
- take over the project.</p>
- <h2><a name="download" id="download"></a>Obtaining Buildroot</h2>
- <p>Buildroot releases are made approximately every 3
- months. Direct Git access and daily snapshots are also
- available if you want more bleeding edge.</p>
- <p>Releases are available at <a
- href="http://buildroot.net/downloads/">http://buildroot.net/downloads/</a>.</p>
- <p>The latest snapshot is always available at <a
- href="http://buildroot.net/downloads/snapshots/buildroot-snapshot.tar.bz2">http://buildroot.net/downloads/snapshots/buildroot-snapshot.tar.bz2</a>,
- and previous snapshots are also available at <a
- href="http://buildroot.net/downloads/snapshots/">http://buildroot.net/downloads/snapshots/</a>. </p>
- <p>To download Buildroot using Git, you can simply follow
- the rules described on the "Accessing Git"-page (<a href=
- "http://buildroot.net/git.html">http://buildroot.net/git.html</a>)
- of the Buildroot website (<a href=
- "http://buildroot.net">http://buildroot.net</a>), and download
- <code>buildroot</code> from Git. For the impatient, here's a quick
- recipe:</p>
- <pre>
- $ git clone git://git.buildroot.net/buildroot
- </pre>
- <h2><a name="using" id="using"></a>Using Buildroot</h2>
- <p>Buildroot has a nice configuration tool similar to the one you can find
- in the Linux Kernel (<a href=
- "http://www.kernel.org/">http://www.kernel.org/</a>) or in Busybox
- (<a href="http://www.busybox.org/">http://www.busybox.org/</a>). Note that
- you can build everything as a normal user. There is no need to be root to
- configure and use Buildroot. The first step is to run the configuration
- assistant:</p>
- <pre>
- $ make menuconfig
- </pre>
- <p>For each entry of the configuration tool, you can find associated help
- that describes the purpose of the entry. </p>
- <p>One of the key configuration items is the <code>PROJECT</code> which
- determines where some board specific packages are built and where the
- results are stored. </p>
- <p>Once everything is configured, the configuration tool has generated a
- <code>.config</code> file that contains the description of your
- configuration. It will be used by the Makefiles to do what's needed. </p>
- <p>Let's go:</p>
- <pre>
- $ make
- </pre>
- <p>This command will download, configure and compile all the selected
- tools, and finally generate a target filesystem. The target filesystem will
- be named <code>root_fs_ARCH.EXT</code> where <code>ARCH</code> is your
- architecture and <code>EXT</code> depends on the type of target filesystem
- selected in the <code>Target options</code> section of the configuration
- tool.
- The file is stored in the "binaries/<code>$(PROJECT)</code>/" directory</p>
- <h3><a name="local_board_support" id="local_board_support"></a>
- Creating your own board support</h3>
- <p>Once a package has been unpacked, it is possible to manually update
- configuration files. Buildroot can automatically save the configuration
- of buildroot, linux, busybox, uclibc and u-boot in "local/$(PROJECT) by
- using the command:
- </p>
- <pre>
- $ make saveconfig
- </pre>
- <p>Once a buildroot configuration has been created by saveconfig,
- the default "$(TOPDIR)/.config" file can be overridden by</p>
- <pre>
- $ make BOARD=<project>
- </pre>
- <p>Buildroot will then use "local/<project>/<project>.config"
- instead of ".config". </p>
- <p>If you want to modify your board, you can copy the project configuration
- file to ".config" by using the command:</p>
- <pre>
- $ make BOARD=<project> getconfig
- </pre>
- <p>You can share your custom board support directory between several buildroot trees
- by setting the environment variable <code>BUILDROOT_LOCAL</code> to this directory,
- </p>
- <h3><a name="offline_builds" id="offline_builds"></a>
- Offline builds</h3>
- <p>If you intend to do an offline-build and just want to download all
- sources that you previously selected in "make menuconfig" then
- issue:</p>
- <pre>
- $ make source
- </pre>
- <p>You can now disconnect or copy the content of your <code>dl</code>
- directory to the build-host. </p>
- <h3><a name="building_out_of_tree" id="building_out_of_tree"></a>
- Building out-of-tree</h3>
- <p>Buildroot supports building out of tree with a syntax similar
- to the Linux kernel. To use it, add O=<directory> to the
- make command line, E.G.:</p>
- <pre>
- $ make O=/tmp/build
- </pre>
- <p>And all the output files will be located under
- <code>/tmp/build</code>.</p>
- <h3><a name="environment_variables" id="environment_variables"></a>
- Environment variables</h3>
- <p>Buildroot optionally honors some environment variables that are passed
- to <code>make</code> :</p>
- <ul>
- <li>HOSTCXX</li>
- <li>HOSTCC</li>
- <li>UCLIBC_CONFIG_FILE=<path/to/.config></li>
- <li>BUSYBOX_CONFIG_FILE=<path/to/.config></li>
- <li>BUILDROOT_COPYTO</li>
- <li>BUILDROOT_DL_DIR</li>
- <li>BUILDROOT_LOCAL</li>
- </ul>
- <p>An example that uses config files located in the toplevel directory and
- in your $HOME:</p>
- <pre>
- $ make UCLIBC_CONFIG_FILE=uClibc.config BUSYBOX_CONFIG_FILE=$HOME/bb.config
- </pre>
- <p>If you want to use a compiler other than the default <code>gcc</code>
- or <code>g++</code> for building helper-binaries on your host, then do</p>
- <pre>
- $ make HOSTCXX=g++-4.3-HEAD HOSTCC=gcc-4.3-HEAD
- </pre>
- <p>If you want the result of your build to be copied to another directory
- like /tftpboot for downloading to a board using tftp, then you
- can use BUILDROOT_COPYTO to specify your location</p>
- <p>Typically, this is set in your ~/.bashrc file
- <pre>
- $ export BUILDROOT_COPYTO=/tftpboot
- </pre>
- <h3><a name="helper_completion" id="helper_completion"></a>
- Using auto-completion</h3>
- <p>If you are lazy enough that you don't want to type the entire <i>make
- menuconfig</i> command line, you can enable auto-completion in your shell.
- Here is how you can do that using <i>bash</i>:</p>
- <pre>
- $ complete -W menuconfig make
- </pre>
- <p>Then just enter the beginning of the line, and ask <i>bash</i> to
- complete it for you by pressing the <i>TAB</i> key:</p>
- <pre>
- $ make me<TAB>
- </pre>
- <p>will result in <i>bash</i> to append <i>nuconfig</i> for you!</p>
- <p>Alternatively, some distributions (of which Debian and Mandriva are but
- an example) have more powerful make completion. Depending on you
- distribution, you may have to install a package to enable completion. Under
- Mandriva, this is <i>bash-completion</i>, while Debian ships it as part of
- the <i>bash</i> package.</p>
- <p>Other shells, such as <i>zsh</i>, also have completion facilities. See
- the documentation for your shell.</p>
- <h2><a name="custom_targetfs" id="custom_targetfs"></a>Customizing the
- target filesystem</h2>
- <p>There are a few ways to customize the resulting target filesystem:</p>
- <ul>
- <li>Customize the target filesystem directly, and rebuild the image. The
- target filesystem is available under <code>project_build_ARCH/root/</code>
- where <code>ARCH</code> is the chosen target architecture.
- You can simply make your changes here, and run make afterwards, which will
- rebuild the target filesystem image. This method allows to do everything
- on the target filesystem, but if you decide to completely rebuild your
- toolchain and tools, these changes will be lost. </li>
- <li>Customize the target filesystem skeleton, available under
- <code>target/generic/target_skeleton/</code>. You can customize
- configuration files or other stuff here. However, the full file hierarchy
- is not yet present, because it's created during the compilation process.
- So you can't do everything on this target filesystem skeleton, but
- changes to it remain even if you completely rebuild the cross-compilation
- toolchain and the tools. <br />
- You can also customize the <code>target/generic/device_table.txt</code>
- file which is used by the tools that generate the target filesystem image
- to properly set permissions and create device nodes. The
- <code>target/generic/skel.tar.gz</code> file contains the main
- directories of a root filesystem and there is no obvious reason for which
- it should be changed. These main directories are in an tarball inside of
- inside the skeleton because it contains symlinks that would be broken
- otherwise. <br />
- These customizations are deployed into
- <code>project_build_ARCH/root/</code> just before the actual image
- is made. So simply rebuilding the image by running
- make should propagate any new changes to the image. </li>
- <li>When configuring the build system, using <code>make menuconfig</code>,
- you can specify the contents of the /etc/hostname and /etc/issue
- (the welcome banner) in the <code>PROJECT</code> section</li>
- </ul>
- <h2><a name="custom_busybox" id="custom_busybox"></a>Customizing the
- Busybox configuration</h2>
- <p><a href="http://www.busybox.net/">Busybox</a> is very configurable, and
- you may want to customize it. You can
- follow these simple steps to do it. It's not an optimal way, but it's
- simple and it works. </p>
- <ol>
- <li>Make a first compilation of buildroot with busybox without trying to
- customize it. </li>
- <li>Invoke <code>make busybox-menuconfig</code>.
- The nice configuration tool appears and you can
- customize everything. </li>
- <li>Run the compilation of buildroot again. </li>
- </ol>
- <p>Otherwise, you can simply change the
- <code>package/busybox/busybox-<version>.config</code> file if you
- know the options you want to change without using the configuration tool.
- </p>
- <p>If you want to use an existing config file for busybox, then see
- section <a href="#environment_variables">environment variables</a>. </p>
- <h2><a name="custom_uclibc" id="custom_uclibc"></a>Customizing the uClibc
- configuration</h2>
- <p>Just like <a href="#custom_busybox">BusyBox</a>, <a
- href="http://www.uclibc.org/">uClibc</a> offers a lot of
- configuration options. They allow to select various
- functionalities, depending on your needs and limitations. </p>
- <p>The easiest way to modify the configuration of uClibc is to
- follow these steps :</p>
- <ol>
- <li>Make a first compilation of buildroot without trying to
- customize uClibc. </li>
- <li>Invoke <code>make uclibc-menuconfig</code>.
- The nice configuration assistant, similar to
- the one used in the Linux Kernel or in Buildroot appears. Make
- your configuration as appropriate. </li>
- <li>Copy the <code>.config</code> file to
- <code>toolchain/uClibc/uClibc.config</code> or
- <code>toolchain/uClibc/uClibc.config-locale</code>. The former
- is used if you haven't selected locale support in Buildroot
- configuration, and the latter is used if you have selected
- locale support. </li>
- <li>Run the compilation of Buildroot again</li>
- </ol>
- <p>Otherwise, you can simply change
- <code>toolchain/uClibc/uClibc.config</code> or
- <code>toolchain/uClibc/uClibc.config-locale</code> without running
- the configuration assistant. </p>
- <p>If you want to use an existing config file for uclibc, then see
- section <a href="#environment_variables">environment variables</a>. </p>
- <h2><a name="buildroot_innards" id="buildroot_innards"></a>How Buildroot
- works</h2>
- <p>As said above, Buildroot is basically a set of Makefiles that download,
- configure and compiles software with the correct options. It also includes
- some patches for various software, mainly the ones involved in the
- cross-compilation tool chain (<code>gcc</code>, <code>binutils</code> and
- uClibc). </p>
- <p>There is basically one Makefile per software, and they are named with
- the <code>.mk</code> extension. Makefiles are split into four
- sections:</p>
- <ul>
- <li><b>project</b> (in the <code>project/</code> directory) contains
- the Makefiles and associated files for all software related to the
- building several root file systems in the same buildroot tree. </li>
- <li><b>toolchain</b> (in the <code>toolchain/</code> directory) contains
- the Makefiles and associated files for all software related to the
- cross-compilation toolchain : <code>binutils</code>, <code>ccache</code>,
- <code>gcc</code>, <code>gdb</code>, <code>kernel-headers</code> and
- <code>uClibc</code>. </li>
- <li><b>package</b> (in the <code>package/</code> directory) contains the
- Makefiles and associated files for all user-space tools that Buildroot
- can compile and add to the target root filesystem. There is one
- sub-directory per tool. </li>
- <li><b>target</b> (in the <code>target</code> directory) contains the
- Makefiles and associated files for software related to the generation of
- the target root filesystem image. Four types of filesystems are supported
- : ext2, jffs2, cramfs and squashfs. For each of them, there's a
- sub-directory with the required files. There is also a
- <code>default/</code> directory that contains the target filesystem
- skeleton. </li>
- </ul>
- <p>Each directory contains at least 2 files :</p>
- <ul>
- <li><code>something.mk</code> is the Makefile that downloads, configures,
- compiles and installs the software <code>something</code>. </li>
- <li><code>Config.in</code> is a part of the configuration tool
- description file. It describes the option related to the current
- software. </li>
- </ul>
- <p>The main Makefile do the job through the following steps (once the
- configuration is done) :</p>
- <ol>
- <li>Create the download directory (<code>dl/</code> by default). This is
- where the tarballs will be downloaded. It is interesting to know that the
- tarballs are in this directory because it may be useful to save them
- somewhere to avoid further downloads. </li>
- <li>Create the shared build directory (<code>build_ARCH/</code> by
- default, where <code>ARCH</code> is your architecture). This is where all
- non configurable user-space tools will be compiled.When building two or
- more targets using the same architecture, the first build will go through
- the full download, configure, make process, but the second and later
- builds will only copy the result from the first build to its project
- specific target directory significantly speeding up the build process</li>
- <li>Create the project specific build directory
- (<code>project_build_ARCH/$(PROJECT)</code> by default, where
- <code>ARCH</code> is your architecture). This is where all configurable
- user-space tools will be compiled. The project specific build directory
- is neccessary, if two different targets needs to use a specific package,
- but the packages have different configuration for both targets. Some
- examples of packages built in this directory are busybox and linux.
- </li>
- <li>Create the project specific result directory
- (<code>binaries/$(PROJECT)</code> by default, where <code>ARCH</code>
- is your architecture). This is where the root filesystem images are
- stored, It is also used to store the linux kernel image and any
- utilities, boot-loaders etc. needed for a target.
- </li>
- <li>Create the toolchain build directory
- (<code>toolchain_build_ARCH/</code> by default, where <code>ARCH</code>
- is your architecture). This is where the cross compilation toolchain will
- be compiled. </li>
- <li>Setup the staging directory (<code>build_ARCH/staging_dir/</code> by
- default). This is where the cross-compilation toolchain will be
- installed. If you want to use the same cross-compilation toolchain for
- other purposes, such as compiling third-party applications, you can add
- <code>build_ARCH/staging_dir/usr/bin</code> to your PATH, and then use
- <code>arch-linux-gcc</code> to compile your application. In order to
- setup this staging directory, it first removes it, and then it creates
- various subdirectories and symlinks inside it. </li>
- <li>Create the target directory (<code>project_build_ARCH/root/</code> by
- default) and the target filesystem skeleton. This directory will contain
- the final root filesystem. To setup it up, it first deletes it, then it
- uncompress the <code>target/generic/skel.tar.gz</code> file to create the
- main subdirectories and symlinks, copies the skeleton available in
- <code>target/generic/target_skeleton</code> and then removes useless
- <code>.svn/CVS</code> directories. </li>
- <li>Add the <code>TARGETS</code> dependency. This should generally check
- if the configuration option for this package is enabled, and if so then
- "subscribe" this package to be compiled by adding it to the
- TARGETS global variable. </li>
- </ol>
- <h2><a name="multi_project" id="multi_project"></a>Building several
- projects in the same buildroot source tree</h2>
- <p><i>Note: the contents of this section are obsolete since this
- feature has been implemented.</i></p>
- <h3>Background</h3>
- <p>Buildroot has always supported building several projects in the same
- tree if each project was for a different architecture. </p>
- <p>The root file system has been created in the
- <code>"build_<ARCH>/root"</code>
- directory which is unique for each architecture.
- Toolchains have been built in
- <code>"toolchain_build_<ARCH>"</code>. </p>
- <p> It the user wanted to build several root file systems for the same
- architecture, a prefix or suffix could be added in the configuration file
- so the root file system would be built in
- <code>"<PREFIX>_build_<ARCH>_<SUFFIX>/root"</code>
- By supplying <u>unique</u> combinations of
- <code>"<PREFIX>"</code> and
- <code>"<SUFFIX>"</code>
- each project would get a <u>unique</u> root file system tree. </p>
- <p>The disadvantage of this approach is that a new toolchain was
- built for each project, adding considerable time to the build
- process, even if it was two projects for the same chip. </p>
- <p>This drawback has been somewhat lessened with
- <code>gcc-4.x.y</code> which allows buildroot to use an external
- toolchain. Certain packages requires special
- features in the toolchain, and if an external toolchain is selected,
- this may lack the neccessary features to complete the build of the root
- file system.</p>
- <p>A bigger problem was that the
- <code>"build_<ARCH>"</code> tree
- was also duplicated, so each </code>package</code> would also
- be rebuilt once per project, resulting in even longer build times.</p>
- <h3>Project to share toolchain and package builds</h3>
- <p>Work has started on a project which will allow the user to build
- multiple root file systems for the same architecture in the same tree.
- The toolchain and the package build directory will be shared, but each
- project will have a dedicated directory tree for project specific
- builds. </p>
- <p>With this approach, most, if not all packages will be compiled
- when the first project is built.
- The process is almost identical to the original process.
- Packages are downloaded and extracted to the shared
- <code>"build_<ARCH>/<package>"</code>
- directory. They are configured and compiled. </p>
- <p>Package libraries and headers are installed in the shared $(STAGING_DIR),
- and then the project specific root file system "$(TARGET_DIR)"
- is populated. </p>
- <p>At the end of the build, the root file system will be used
- to generate the resulting root file system binaries. </p>
- <p>Once the first project has been built, building other projects will
- typically involve populating the new project's root file system directory
- from the existing binaries generated in the shared
- <code>"build_<ARCH>/<>"</code> directory. </p>
- <p>Only packages, not used by the first project, will have to go
- through the normal extract-configure-compile flow. </p>
- <h3>Implementation</h3>
- <p>The core of the solution is the introduction
- of two new directories: </p>
- <ul>
- <li><code>project_build_<ARCH></code></li>
- <li><code>binaries;</code></li>
- </ul>
- <p>Each of the directories contain one subdirectory per project.
- The name of the subdirectory is configured by the user in the
- normal buildroot configuration, using the value of: </p>
- <p><code>Project Options ---> Project name</code></p>
- <p>The configuration defines the $(PROJECT) variable.</p>
- <p>The default project name is <code>"uclibc"</code>.</p>
- <p><code>"package/Makefile.in"</code> defines:
- <pre>
- <code>PROJECT_BUILD_DIR:=project_build_$(ARCH)/$(PROJECT)</code>
- <code>BINARIES_DIR:=binaries/$(PROJECT)</code>
- </pre>
- </p>
- <p>It also defines the location for the target root file system:
- <pre>
- <code>TARGET_DIR:=$(PROJECT_BUILD_DIR)/$(PROJECT)/root</code>
- </pre>
- </p>
- <p>I.E: If the user has choosen
- <code>"myproject"</code>
- as the $(PROJECT) name:
- <ul>
- <li><code>"project_build_<ARCH>/myproject"</code></li>
- <li><code>"binaries/myproject"</code></li>
- </ul>
- <p>will be created. </p>
- <p>Currently, the <u>root file system</u>, <u>busybox</u> and an Atmel
- customized version of
- <u><code>U-Boot</code></u>, as well as some Atmel specific
- bootloaders like <u>at91-bootstrap</u> and <u>dataflashboot.bin</u>
- are built in
- <code>"$(PROJECT_BUILD_DIR)"</code>
- <p>The resulting binaries for all architectures are stored in the
- <code>"$(BINARIES_DIR)"</code> directory. <p>
- <h3>Summary</h3>
- <p>The project will share directories which can be share without
- conflicts, but will use unique build directories, where the user
- can configure the build. </p>
- <h2><a name="Linux" id="Linux"></a>Linux</h2>
- <p>The user can select from three different Linux strategies:
- <ul>
- <li>Legacy: Only use version supported by the kernel headers</li>
- <li>Advanced: Allow any 2.6.X.Y combination.
- (Minimum 2.6.19)</li>
- <li>Power-User Strategy: Allow
- <code>"-git"</code>, or
- <code>"-mm"</code>, or user downloadable kernels</li>
- </ul>
- <p>The current kernel patches can be applied to the
- linux source tree even if the version differs from the
- kernel header version. </p>
- <p>Since the user can select any kernel-patch
- he/she will be able to select a non-working combination.
- If the patch fails, the user will have to generate a new
- proprietary kernel-patch or decide to not apply the kernel
- patches</p>
- <p>There is also support for <u>board specific</u> and
- <u>architecture specific</u> patches. </p>
- <p>There will also be a way for the user to supply absolute
- or relative paths to patches, possibly outside the main tree.
- This can be used to apply custom kernel-header-patches, if
- the versions available in buildroot cannot be applied to the
- specific linux version used</p>
- <p>Maybe, there will also be a possibility to supply an
- <code>"URL"</code> to a patch available on Internet. </p>
- <p>
- If there is no linux config file available,
- buildroot starts the linux configuration system, which
- defaults to "make menuconfig".
- </p>
- <h3>Todo</h3>
- <ol>
- <li>Configurable packages</li>
- <p>Many packages can, on top of the simple
- "enable/disable build",
- be further configured using Kconfig.
- Currently these packages will be compiled using the
- configuration specified in the
- <code>".config"</code> file of the <u>first</u>
- project demanding the build of the package.</p>
- <p>If <u>another</u> project uses the same packages, but with
- a different configuration,these packages will <u>not</u> be rebuilt,
- and the root file system for the new project will be populated
- with files from the build of the <u>first</u> project</p>
- <p>If multiple project are built, and a specific package
- needs two different configuration, then the user must
- delete the package from the
- <code>"build_<ARCH>"</code> directory
- before rebuilding the new project.<p>
- <p>A long term solution is to edit the package makefile and move
- the build of the configurable packages from
- <code>"build_<ARCH>"</code> to
- <code>"project_build_<ARCH>/<project name>"</code>
- and send a patch to the buildroot mailing list.
- <li>Naming conventions</li>
- <p>Names of resulting binaries should reflect the
- "project name"
- <li>Generating File System binaries</li>
- <p>
- Packages which needs to be installed with the "root"
- as owner, will generate a
- <code>".fakeroot.<package>"</code> file
- which will be used for the final build of the root file system binary. </p>
- <p>This was previously located in the
- <code>"$(STAGING_DIR)"</code> directory, but was
- recently moved to the
- <code>"$(PROJECT_BUILD_DIR)"</code> directory. </p>
- <p>Currently only three packages:
- <code>"at"</code>,
- <code>"ltp-testsuite"</code> and
- <code>"nfs-utils"</code>
- requests fakeroot. <p>
- <p>The makefile fragments for each file system type like
- <code>"ext2"</code>,
- <code>"jffs2"</code> or
- <code>"squashfs"</code>
- will, when the file system binary is generated,
- collect all present
- <code>".fakeroot.<package>"</code> files
- to a single <code>"_fakeroot.<file system>"</code>
- file and call fakeroot.</p>
- <code>".fakeroot.<package>"</code>
- files are deleted as the last action of the Buildroot Makefile. </p>
- <p>It needs to be evaluated if any further action for the
- file system binary build is needed. </p>
- </ol>
- <h2><a name="using_toolchain" id="using_toolchain"></a>Using the
- uClibc toolchain outside Buildroot</h2>
- <p>You may want to compile your own programs or other software
- that are not packaged in Buildroot. In order to do this, you can
- use the toolchain that was generated by Buildroot. </p>
- <p>The toolchain generated by Buildroot by default is located in
- <code>build_ARCH/staging_dir/</code>. The simplest way to use it
- is to add <code>build_ARCH/staging_dir/usr/bin/</code> to your PATH
- environnement variable, and then to use
- <code>arch-linux-gcc</code>, <code>arch-linux-objdump</code>,
- <code>arch-linux-ld</code>, etc. </p>
- <p>For example, you may add the following to your
- <code>.bashrc</code> (considering you're building for the MIPS
- architecture and that Buildroot is located in
- <code>~/buildroot/</code>) :</p>
- <pre>
- export PATH="$PATH:~/buildroot/build_mips/staging_dir/usr/bin/"
- </pre>
- <p>Then you can simply do :</p>
- <pre>
- mips-linux-gcc -o foo foo.c
- </pre>
- <p><b>Important</b> : do not try to move a gcc-3.x toolchain to an other
- directory, it won't work. There are some hardcoded paths in the
- <i>gcc</i> configuration. If you are using a current gcc-4.x, it
- is possible to relocate the toolchain, but then
- <code>--sysroot</code> must be passed every time the compiler is
- called to tell where the libraries and header files are, which
- might be cumbersome.</p>
- <p>It is also possible to generate the Buildroot toolchain in
- another directory than <code>build_ARCH/staging_dir</code> using
- the <code>Build options -> Toolchain and header file
- location</code> option. This could be useful if the toolchain
- must be shared with other users.</p>
- <h2><a name="downloaded_packages"
- id="downloaded_packages"></a>Location of downloaded packages</h2>
- <p>It might be useful to know that the various tarballs that are
- downloaded by the <i>Makefiles</i> are all stored in the
- <code>DL_DIR</code> which by default is the <code>dl</code>
- directory. It's useful for example if you want to keep a complete
- version of Buildroot which is know to be working with the
- associated tarballs. This will allow you to regenerate the
- toolchain and the target filesystem with exactly the same
- versions. </p>
- <p>If you maintain several buildroot trees, it might be better to have
- a shared download location. This can be accessed by creating a symbolic link
- from the <code>dl</code> directory to the shared download location. </p>
- <p>I.E:</p>
- <pre>
- ln -s <shared download location> dl
- </pre>
- <p>Another way of accessing a shared download location is to
- create the <code>BUILDROOT_DL_DIR</code> environment variable.
- If this is set, then the value of DL_DIR in the project is
- overridden. The following line should be added to
- <code>"~/.bashrc"</code>. <p>
- <pre>
- export BUILDROOT_DL_DIR <shared download location>
- </pre>
- <h2><a name="external_toolchain" id="external_toolchain"></a>Using
- an external toolchain</h2>
- <p>It might be useful not to use the toolchain generated by
- Buildroot, for example if you already have a toolchain that is known
- to work for your specific CPU, or if the toolchain generation feature
- of Buildroot is not sufficiently flexible for you (for example if you
- need to generate a system with <i>glibc</i> instead of
- <i>uClibc</i>). Buildroot supports using an <i>external
- toolchain</i>.</p>
- <p>To enable the use of an external toolchain, go in the
- <code>Toolchain</code> menu, and :</p>
- <ul>
- <li>Select the <code>External binary toolchain</code> toolchain
- type</li>
- <li>Adjust the <code>External toolchain path</code>
- appropriately. It should be set to a path where a bin/ directory
- contains your cross-compiling tools</li>
- <li>Adjust the <code>External toolchain prefix</code>, so that the
- prefix, suffixed with <code>-gcc</code> or <code>-ld</code> will
- correspond to your cross-compiling tools</li>
- </ul>
- <p>If you are using an external toolchain based on <i>uClibc</i>, the
- <code>Core C library from the external toolchain</code> and
- <code>Libraries to copy from the external toolchain</code> options
- should already have correct values. However, if your external
- toolchain is based on <i>glibc</i>, you'll have to change these values
- according to your cross-compiling toolchain.</p>
- <p>To generate external toolchains, we recommend using <a
- href="http://ymorin.is-a-geek.org/dokuwiki/projects/crosstool">Crosstool-NG</a>.
- It allows to generate toolchains based on <i>uClibc</i>, <i>glibc</i>
- and <i>eglibc</i> for a wide range of architectures, and has good
- community support.</p>
- <h2><a name="add_software" id="add_software"></a>Extending Buildroot with
- more software</h2>
- <p>This section will only consider the case in which you want to
- add user-space software. </p>
- <h3>Package directory</h3>
- <p>First of all, create a directory under the <code>package</code>
- directory for your software, for example <code>foo</code>. </p>
- <h3><code>Config.in</code> file</h3>
- <p>Then, create a file named <code>Config.in</code>. This file
- will contain the portion of options description related to our
- <code>foo</code> software that will be used and displayed in the
- configuration tool. It should basically contain :</p>
- <pre>
- config BR2_PACKAGE_FOO
- bool "foo"
- help
- This is a comment that explains what foo is.
- http://foosoftware.org/foo/
- </pre>
- <p>Of course, you can add other options to configure particular
- things in your software. </p>
- <p>Finally you have to add your new <code>foo/Config.in</code> to
- <code>package/Config.in</code>. The files included there are
- <em>sorted alphabetically</em> per category and are <em>NOT</em>
- supposed to contain anything but the <em>bare</em> name of the package.</p>
- <pre>
- if !BR2_PACKAGE_BUSYBOX_HIDE_OTHERS
- source "package/procps/Config.in"
- endif
- </pre>
- <p><strong>Note:</strong><br>
- Generally all packages should live <em>directly</em> in the
- <code>package</code> directory to make it easier to find them.
- </p>
- <h3>The real <i>Makefile</i></h3>
- <p>Finally, here's the hardest part. Create a file named
- <code>foo.mk</code>. It will contain the <i>Makefile</i> rules that
- are in charge of downloading, configuring, compiling and installing
- the software.</p>
- <p>Two types of <i>Makefiles</i> can be written :</p>
- <ul>
- <li>Makefiles for autotools-based (autoconf, automake, etc.)
- softwares, are very easy to write thanks to the infrastructure
- available in <code>package/Makefile.autotools.in</code>.</li>
- <li>Makefiles for other types of packages are a little bit more
- complex to write.</li>
- </ul>
- <p>First, let's see how to write a <i>Makefile</i> for an
- autotools-based package, with an example :</p>
- <pre>
- <a name="ex1line1" id="ex1line1">1</a> #############################################################
- <a name="ex1line2" id="ex1line2">2</a> #
- <a name="ex1line3" id="ex1line3">3</a> # foo
- <a name="ex1line4" id="ex1line4">4</a> #
- <a name="ex1line5" id="ex1line5">5</a> #############################################################
- <a name="ex1line6" id="ex1line6">6</a> FOO_VERSION:=1.0
- <a name="ex1line7" id="ex1line7">7</a> FOO_SOURCE:=foo-$(FOO_VERSION).tar.gz
- <a name="ex1line8" id="ex1line8">8</a> FOO_SITE:=http://www.foosoftware.org/downloads
- <a name="ex1line9" id="ex1line9">9</a> FOO_INSTALL_STAGING = YES
- <a name="ex1line10" id="ex1line10">10</a> FOO_INSTALL_TARGET = YES
- <a name="ex1line11" id="ex1line11">11</a> FOO_CONF_OPT = --enable-shared
- <a name="ex1line12" id="ex1line12">12</a> FOO_DEPENDENCIES = libglib2 host-pkgconfig
- <a name="ex1line13" id="ex1line13">13</a> $(eval $(call AUTOTARGETS,package,foo))
- </pre>
- <p>On <a href="#ex1line6">line 6</a>, we declare the version of
- the package. On line <a href="#ex1line7">7</a> and <a
- href="#ex1line8">8</a>, we declare the name of the tarball and the
- location of the tarball on the Web. Buildroot will automatically
- download the tarball from this location.</p>
- <p>On <a href="#ex1line9">line 9</a>, we tell Buildroot to install
- the application to the staging directory. The staging directory,
- located in <code>build_ARCH/staging_dir/</code> is the directory
- where all the packages are installed, including their
- documentation, etc. By default, packages are installed in this
- location using the <code>make install</code> command.</p>
- <p>On <a href="#ex1line10">line 10</a>, we tell Buildroot to also
- install the application to the target directory. This directory
- contains what will become the root filesystem running on the
- target. Usually, we try not to install the documentation, and to
- install stripped versions of the binary. By default, packages are
- installed in this location using the <code>make
- install-strip</code> command.</p>
- <p>On <a href="#ex1line11">line 11</a>, we tell Buildroot to pass
- a custom configure option, that will be passed to the
- <code>./configure</code> script before configuring and building
- the package.</p>
- <p>On <a href="#ex1line12">line 12</a>, we declare our
- dependencies, so that they are built before the build process of
- our package starts.</p>
- <p>Finally, on line <a href="#ex1line13">line 13</a>, we invoke
- the <code>package/Makefile.autotools.in</code> magic to get things
- working.</p>
- <p>For more details about the available variables and options, see
- the comment at the top of
- <code>package/Makefile.autotools.in</code> and the examples in all
- the available packages.</p>
- <p>The second solution, suitable for every type of package, looks
- like this :</p>
- <pre>
- <a name="ex2line1" id="ex2line1">1</a> #############################################################
- <a name="ex2line2" id="ex2line2">2</a> #
- <a name="ex2line3" id="ex2line3">3</a> # foo
- <a name="ex2line4" id="ex2line4">4</a> #
- <a name="ex2line5" id="ex2line5">5</a> #############################################################
- <a name="ex2line6" id="ex2line6">6</a> FOO_VERSION:=1.0
- <a name="ex2line7" id="ex2line7">7</a> FOO_SOURCE:=foo-$(FOO_VERSION).tar.gz
- <a name="ex2line8" id="ex2line8">8</a> FOO_SITE:=http://www.foosoftware.org/downloads
- <a name="ex2line9" id="ex2line9">9</a> FOO_DIR:=$(BUILD_DIR)/foo-$(FOO_VERSION)
- <a name="ex2line10" id="ex2line10">10</a> FOO_BINARY:=foo
- <a name="ex2line11" id="ex2line11">11</a> FOO_TARGET_BINARY:=usr/bin/foo
- <a name="ex2line12" id="ex2line12">12</a>
- <a name="ex2line13" id="ex2line13">13</a> $(DL_DIR)/$(FOO_SOURCE):
- <a name="ex2line14" id="ex2line14">14</a> $(call DOWNLOAD,$(FOO_SITE),$(FOO_SOURCE))
- <a name="ex2line15" id="ex2line15">15</a>
- <a name="ex2line16" id="ex2line16">16</a> $(FOO_DIR)/.source: $(DL_DIR)/$(FOO_SOURCE)
- <a name="ex2line17" id="ex2line17">17</a> $(ZCAT) $(DL_DIR)/$(FOO_SOURCE) | tar -C $(BUILD_DIR) $(TAR_OPTIONS) -
- <a name="ex2line18" id="ex2line18">18</a> touch $@
- <a name="ex2line19" id="ex2line19">19</a>
- <a name="ex2line20" id="ex2line20">20</a> $(FOO_DIR)/.configured: $(FOO_DIR)/.source
- <a name="ex2line21" id="ex2line21">21</a> (cd $(FOO_DIR); rm -rf config.cache; \
- <a name="ex2line22" id="ex2line22">22</a> $(TARGET_CONFIGURE_OPTS) \
- <a name="ex2line23" id="ex2line23">23</a> $(TARGET_CONFIGURE_ARGS) \
- <a name="ex2line24" id="ex2line24">24</a> ./configure \
- <a name="ex2line25" id="ex2line25">25</a> --target=$(GNU_TARGET_NAME) \
- <a name="ex2line26" id="ex2line26">26</a> --host=$(GNU_TARGET_NAME) \
- <a name="ex2line27" id="ex2line27">27</a> --build=$(GNU_HOST_NAME) \
- <a name="ex2line28" id="ex2line28">28</a> --prefix=/usr \
- <a name="ex2line29" id="ex2line29">29</a> --sysconfdir=/etc \
- <a name="ex2line30" id="ex2line30">30</a> )
- <a name="ex2line31" id="ex2line31">31</a> touch $@
- <a name="ex2line32" id="ex2line32">32</a>
- <a name="ex2line33" id="ex2line33">33</a> $(FOO_DIR)/$(FOO_BINARY): $(FOO_DIR)/.configured
- <a name="ex2line34" id="ex2line34">34</a> $(MAKE) CC=$(TARGET_CC) -C $(FOO_DIR)
- <a name="ex2line35" id="ex2line35">35</a>
- <a name="ex2line36" id="ex2line36">36</a> $(TARGET_DIR)/$(FOO_TARGET_BINARY): $(FOO_DIR)/$(FOO_BINARY)
- <a name="ex2line37" id="ex2line37">37</a> $(MAKE) DESTDIR=$(TARGET_DIR) -C $(FOO_DIR) install-strip
- <a name="ex2line38" id="ex2line38">38</a> rm -Rf $(TARGET_DIR)/usr/man
- <a name="ex2line39" id="ex2line39">39</a>
- <a name="ex2line40" id="ex2line40">40</a> foo: uclibc ncurses $(TARGET_DIR)/$(FOO_TARGET_BINARY)
- <a name="ex2line41" id="ex2line41">41</a>
- <a name="ex2line42" id="ex2line42">42</a> foo-source: $(DL_DIR)/$(FOO_SOURCE)
- <a name="ex2line43" id="ex2line43">43</a>
- <a name="ex2line44" id="ex2line44">44</a> foo-clean:
- <a name="ex2line45" id="ex2line45">45</a> $(MAKE) prefix=$(TARGET_DIR)/usr -C $(FOO_DIR) uninstall
- <a name="ex2line46" id="ex2line46">46</a> -$(MAKE) -C $(FOO_DIR) clean
- <a name="ex2line47" id="ex2line47">47</a>
- <a name="ex2line48" id="ex2line48">48</a> foo-dirclean:
- <a name="ex2line49" id="ex2line49">49</a> rm -rf $(FOO_DIR)
- <a name="ex2line50" id="ex2line50">50</a>
- <a name="ex2line51" id="ex2line51">51</a> #############################################################
- <a name="ex2line52" id="ex2line52">52</a> #
- <a name="ex2line53" id="ex2line53">53</a> # Toplevel Makefile options
- <a name="ex2line54" id="ex2line54">54</a> #
- <a name="ex2line55" id="ex2line55">55</a> #############################################################
- <a name="ex2line56" id="ex2line56">56</a> ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_FOO),y)
- <a name="ex2line57" id="ex2line57">57</a> TARGETS+=foo
- <a name="ex2line58" id="ex2line58">58</a> endif
- </pre>
- <p>First of all, this <i>Makefile</i> example works for a single
- binary software. For other software such as libraries or more
- complex stuff with multiple binaries, it should be adapted. Look at
- the other <code>*.mk</code> files in the <code>package</code>
- directory. </p>
- <p>At lines <a href="#ex2line6">6-11</a>, a couple of useful variables are
- defined :</p>
- <ul>
- <li><code>FOO_VERSION</code> : The version of <i>foo</i> that
- should be downloaded. </li>
- <li><code>FOO_SOURCE</code> : The name of the tarball of
- <i>foo</i> on the download website of FTP site. As you can see
- <code>FOO_VERSION</code> is used. </li>
- <li><code>FOO_SITE</code> : The HTTP or FTP site from which
- <i>foo</i> archive is downloaded. It must include the complete
- path to the directory where <code>FOO_SOURCE</code> can be
- found. </li>
- <li><code>FOO_DIR</code> : The directory into which the software
- will be configured and compiled. Basically, it's a subdirectory
- of <code>BUILD_DIR</code> which is created upon decompression of
- the tarball. </li>
- <li><code>FOO_BINARY</code> : Software binary name. As said
- previously, this is an example for a single binary software. </li>
- <li><code>FOO_TARGET_BINARY</code> : The full path of the binary
- inside the target filesystem. </li>
- </ul>
- <p>Lines <a href="#ex2line13">13-14</a> defines a target that downloads the
- tarball from the remote site to the download directory
- (<code>DL_DIR</code>). </p>
- <p>Lines <a href="#ex2line16">16-18</a> defines a target and associated rules
- that uncompress the downloaded tarball. As you can see, this target
- depends on the tarball file, so that the previous target (line
- <a href="#ex2line13">13-14</a>) is called before executing the rules of the
- current target. Uncompressing is followed by <i>touching</i> a hidden file
- to mark the software has having been uncompressed. This trick is
- used everywhere in Buildroot <i>Makefile</i> to split steps
- (download, uncompress, configure, compile, install) while still
- having correct dependencies. </p>
- <p>Lines <a href="#ex2line20">20-31</a> defines a target and associated rules
- that configures the software. It depends on the previous target (the
- hidden <code>.source</code> file) so that we are sure the software has
- been uncompressed. In order to configure it, it basically runs the
- well-known <code>./configure</code> script. As we may be doing
- cross-compilation, <code>target</code>, <code>host</code> and
- <code>build</code> arguments are given. The prefix is also set to
- <code>/usr</code>, not because the software will be installed in
- <code>/usr</code> on your host system, but in the target
- filesystem. Finally it creates a <code>.configured</code> file to
- mark the software as configured. </p>
- <p>Lines <a href="#ex2line33">33-34</a> defines a target and a rule that
- compiles the software. This target will create the binary file in the
- compilation directory, and depends on the software being already
- configured (hence the reference to the <code>.configured</code>
- file). It basically runs <code>make</code> inside the source
- directory. </p>
- <p>Lines <a href="#ex2line36">36-38</a> defines a target and associated rules
- that install the software inside the target filesystem. It depends on the
- binary file in the source directory, to make sure the software has
- been compiled. It uses the <code>install-strip</code> target of the
- software <code>Makefile</code> by passing a <code>DESTDIR</code>
- argument, so that the <code>Makefile</code> doesn't try to install
- the software inside host <code>/usr</code> but inside target
- <code>/usr</code>. After the installation, the
- <code>/usr/man</code> directory inside the target filesystem is
- removed to save space. </p>
- <p>Line <a href="#ex2line40">40</a> defines the main target of the software,
- the one that will be eventually be used by the top level
- <code>Makefile</code> to download, compile, and then install
- this package. This target should first of all depends on all
- needed dependecies of the software (in our example,
- <i>uclibc</i> and <i>ncurses</i>), and also depend on the
- final binary. This last dependency will call all previous
- dependencies in the correct order. </p>
- <p>Line <a href="#ex2line42">42</a> defines a simple target that only
- downloads the code source. This is not used during normal operation of
- Buildroot, but is needed if you intend to download all required sources at
- once for later offline build. Note that if you add a new package providing
- a <code>foo-source</code> target is <i>mandatory</i> to support
- users that wish to do offline-builds. Furthermore it eases checking
- if all package-sources are downloadable. </p>
- <p>Lines <a href="#ex2line44">44-46</a> define a simple target to clean the
- software build by calling the <i>Makefiles</i> with the appropriate option.
- The <code>-clean</code> target should run <code>make clean</code>
- on $(BUILD_DIR)/package-version and MUST uninstall all files of the
- package from $(STAGING_DIR) and from $(TARGET_DIR). </p>
- <p>Lines <a href="#ex2line48">48-49</a> define a simple target to completely
- remove the directory in which the software was uncompressed, configured and
- compiled. The <code>-dirclean</code> target MUST completely rm $(BUILD_DIR)/
- package-version. </p>
- <p>Lines <a href="#ex2line51">51-58</a> adds the target <code>foo</code> to
- the list of targets to be compiled by Buildroot by first checking if
- the configuration option for this package has been enabled
- using the configuration tool, and if so then "subscribes"
- this package to be compiled by adding it to the TARGETS
- global variable. The name added to the TARGETS global
- variable is the name of this package's target, as defined on
- line <a href="#ex2line40">40</a>, which is used by Buildroot to download,
- compile, and then install this package. </p>
- <h3>Conclusion</h3>
- <p>As you can see, adding a software to buildroot is simply a
- matter of writing a <i>Makefile</i> using an already existing
- example and to modify it according to the compilation process of
- the software. </p>
- <p>If you package software that might be useful for other persons,
- don't forget to send a patch to Buildroot developers !</p>
- <h2><a name="links" id="links"></a>Resources</h2>
- <p>To learn more about Buildroot you can visit these
- websites:</p>
- <ul>
- <li><a href="http://www.uclibc.org/">http://www.uclibc.org/</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://www.busybox.net/">http://www.busybox.net/</a></li>
- </ul>
- </div>
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