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| <h1>Buildroot</h1> |
| </div> |
| |
| <p>Usage and documentation by Thomas Petazzoni. Contributions from |
| Karsten Kruse, Ned Ludd, Martin Herren.</p> |
| |
| <p><small>Last modification : $Id: buildroot-documentation.html,v 1.2 2004/12/28 19:15:20 andersen Exp $</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="#using_toolchain">Using the uClibc toolchain</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#toolchain_standalone">Using the uClibc toolchain |
| outside of Buildroot</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">Ressources</a></li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <h2><a name="about" id="about"></a>About Buildroot</h2> |
| |
| <p>Buildroot is a set of Makefiles and patches that allows 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> |
| |
| <h2><a name="download" id="download"></a>Obtaining Buildroot</h2> |
| |
| <p>Buildroot is available as daily SVN snapshots or directly using |
| SVN.</p> |
| |
| <p>The latest snapshot is always available at <a |
| href="http://buildroot.uclibc.org/downloads/snapshots/buildroot-snapshot.tar.bz2">http://buildroot.uclibc.org/downloads/snapshots/buildroot-snapshot.tar.bz2</a>, |
| and previous snapshots are also available at <a |
| href="http://buildroot.uclibc.org/downloads/snapshots/">http://buildroot.uclibc.org/downloads/snapshots/</a>.</p> |
| |
| <p>To download Buildroot using SVN, you can simply follow |
| the rules described on the "Accessing SVN"-page (<a href= |
| "http://buildroot.uclibc.org/subversion.html">http://buildroot.uclibc.org/subversion.html</a>) |
| of the uClibc buildroot website (<a href= |
| "http://buildroot.uclibc.org">http://buildroot.uclibc.org</a>), and download the |
| <code>buildroot</code> SVN module. For the impatient, here's a quick |
| recipe:</p> |
| |
| <pre> |
| $ svn co svn://uclibc.org/trunk/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 run 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>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.</p> |
| |
| <h2><a name="custom_targetfs" id="custom_targetfs"></a>Customizing the |
| target filesystem</h2> |
| |
| <p>There are two 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>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>build_ARCH/root/</code> just |
| before the actual image is made. So simply rebuilding the image by running |
| make should propogate any new changes to the image.</li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <h2><a name="custom_busybox" id="custom_busybox"></a>Customizing the |
| Busybox configuration</h2> |
| |
| <p>Busybox 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>Go into <code>build_ARCH/busybox/</code> and run <code>make |
| menuconfig</code>. The nice configuration tool appears and you can |
| customize everything.</li> |
| |
| <li>Copy the <code>.config</code> file to |
| <code>package/busybox/busybox.config</code> so that your customized |
| configuration will remains even if you remove the cross-compilation |
| toolchain.</li> |
| |
| <li>Run the compilation of buildroot again.</li> |
| </ol> |
| |
| <p>Otherwise, you can simply change the |
| <code>package/busybox/busybox.config</code> file if you know the options |
| you want to change without using the configuration tool.</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>Go into the directory |
| <code>toolchain_build_ARCH/uClibc/</code> and run <code>make |
| 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> |
| |
| <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 three |
| sections:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <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>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>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 build directory (<code>build_ARCH/</code> by default, |
| where <code>ARCH</code> is your architecture). This is where all |
| user-space tools while be compiled.</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/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>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/</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="using_toolchain" id="using_toolchain"></a>Using the |
| uClibc toolchain</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/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=$PATH:~/buildroot/build_mips/staging_dir/bin/ |
| </pre> |
| |
| <p>Then you can simply do :</p> |
| |
| <pre> |
| mips-linux-gcc -o foo foo.c |
| </pre> |
| |
| <p><b>Important</b> : do not try to move the toolchain to an other |
| directory, it won't work. There are some hard-coded paths in the |
| <i>gcc</i> configuration. If the default toolchain directory |
| doesn't suit your needs, please refer to the <a |
| href="#toolchain_standalone">Using the uClibc toolchain outside of |
| buildroot</a> section.</p> |
| |
| <h2><a name="toolchain_standalone" id="toolchain_standalone"></a>Using the |
| uClibc toolchain outside of buildroot</h2> |
| |
| <p>By default, the cross-compilation toolchain is generated inside |
| <code>build_ARCH/staging_dir/</code>. But sometimes, it may be useful to |
| install it somewhere else, so that it can be used to compile other programs |
| or by other users. Moving the <code>build_ARCH/staging_dir/</code> |
| directory elsewhere is <b>not possible</b>, because they are some hardcoded |
| paths in the toolchain configuration.</p> |
| |
| <p>If you want to use the generated toolchain for other purposes, |
| you can configure Buildroot to generate it elsewhere using the |
| option of the configuration tool : <code>Build options -> |
| Toolchain and header file location</code>, which defaults to |
| <code>$(BUILD_DIR)/staging_dir/</code>.</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> |
| |
| <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" |
| default n |
| help |
| This is a comment that explains what foo is. |
| </pre> |
| |
| <p>Of course, you can add other options to configure particular |
| things in your software.</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. Below is an example that we will comment |
| afterwards.</p> |
| |
| <pre> |
| 1 ############################################################# |
| 2 # |
| 3 # foo |
| 4 # |
| 5 ############################################################# |
| 6 FOO_VERSION:=1.0 |
| 7 FOO_SOURCE:=less-$(FOO_VERSION).tar.gz |
| 8 FOO_SITE:=http://www.foosoftware.org/downloads |
| 9 FOO_DIR:=$(BUILD_DIR)/less-$(FOO_VERSION) |
| 10 FOO_BINARY:=foo |
| 11 FOO_TARGET_BINARY:=usr/bin/foo |
| 12 |
| 13 $(DL_DIR)/$(FOO_SOURCE): |
| 14 $(WGET) -P $(DL_DIR) $(FOO_SITE)/$(FOO_SOURCE) |
| 15 |
| 16 $(FOO_DIR)/.source: $(DL_DIR)/$(FOO_SOURCE) |
| 17 zcat $(DL_DIR)/$(FOO_SOURCE) | tar -C $(BUILD_DIR) $(TAR_OPTIONS) - |
| 18 touch $(FOO_DIR)/.source |
| 19 |
| 20 $(FOO_DIR)/.configured: $(FOO_DIR)/.source |
| 21 (cd $(FOO_DIR); \ |
| 22 $(TARGET_CONFIGURE_OPTS) \ |
| 23 CFLAGS="$(TARGET_CFLAGS)" \ |
| 24 ./configure \ |
| 25 --target=$(GNU_TARGET_NAME) \ |
| 26 --host=$(GNU_TARGET_NAME) \ |
| 27 --build=$(GNU_HOST_NAME) \ |
| 28 --prefix=/usr \ |
| 29 --sysconfdir=/etc \ |
| 30 ); |
| 31 touch $(FOO_DIR)/.configured; |
| 32 |
| 33 $(FOO_DIR)/$(FOO_BINARY): $(FOO_DIR)/.configured |
| 34 $(MAKE) CC=$(TARGET_CC) -C $(FOO_DIR) |
| 35 |
| 36 $(TARGET_DIR)/$(FOO_TARGET_BINARY): $(FOO_DIR)/$(FOO_BINARY) |
| 37 $(MAKE) prefix=$(TARGET_DIR)/usr -C $(FOO_DIR) install |
| 38 rm -Rf $(TARGET_DIR)/usr/man |
| 39 |
| 40 foo: uclibc ncurses $(TARGET_DIR)/$(FOO_TARGET_BINARY) |
| 41 |
| 42 foo-source: $(DL_DIR)/$(FOO_SOURCE) |
| 43 |
| 44 foo-clean: |
| 45 $(MAKE) prefix=$(TARGET_DIR)/usr -C $(FOO_DIR) uninstall |
| 46 -$(MAKE) -C $(FOO_DIR) clean |
| 47 |
| 48 foo-dirclean: |
| 49 rm -rf $(FOO_DIR) |
| 50 |
| 51 ############################################################# |
| 52 # |
| 53 # Toplevel Makefile options |
| 54 # |
| 55 ############################################################# |
| 56 ifeq ($(strip $(BR2_PACKAGE_FOO)),y) |
| 57 TARGETS+=foo |
| 58 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 6-11, 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 13-14 defines a target that downloads the tarball from |
| the remote site to the download directory |
| (<code>DL_DIR</code>).</p> |
| |
| <p>Lines 16-18 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 |
| 13-14) 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 20-31 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 33-34 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 36-38 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</code> target of the |
| software <code>Makefile</code> by passing a <code>prefix</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 40 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 42 defines a simple target that only downloads the code |
| source. This is not used during normal operation of Buildroot, but |
| might be useful.</p> |
| |
| <p>Lignes 44-46 define a simple target to clean the software build |
| by calling the <i>Makefiles</i> with the appropriate option.</p> |
| |
| <p>Lines 48-49 define a simple target to completely remove the |
| directory in which the software was uncompressed, configured and |
| compiled.</p> |
| |
| <p>Lines 51-58 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 40, 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>Ressources</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> |
| </body> |
| </html> |