2 // vim: set syntax=asciidoc:
4 Infrastructure for packages with specific build systems
5 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7 By 'packages with specific build systems' we mean all the packages
8 whose build system is not one of the standard ones, such as
9 'autotools' or 'CMake'. This typically includes packages whose build
10 system is based on hand-written Makefiles or shell scripts.
12 [[generic-package-tutorial]]
14 +generic-package+ Tutorial
15 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
17 ------------------------------
18 01: #############################################################
22 05: #############################################################
24 07: LIBFOO_VERSION = 1.0
25 08: LIBFOO_SOURCE = libfoo-$(LIBFOO_VERSION).tar.gz
26 09: LIBFOO_SITE = http://www.foosoftware.org/download
27 10: LIBFOO_LICENSE = GPLv3+
28 11: LIBFOO_LICENSE_FILES = COPYING
29 12: LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING = YES
30 13: LIBFOO_CONFIG_SCRIPTS = libfoo-config
31 14: LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES = host-libaaa libbbb
33 16: define LIBFOO_BUILD_CMDS
34 17: $(MAKE) CC="$(TARGET_CC)" LD="$(TARGET_LD)" -C $(@D) all
37 20: define LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS
38 21: $(INSTALL) -D -m 0755 $(@D)/libfoo.a $(STAGING_DIR)/usr/lib/libfoo.a
39 22: $(INSTALL) -D -m 0644 $(@D)/foo.h $(STAGING_DIR)/usr/include/foo.h
40 23: $(INSTALL) -D -m 0755 $(@D)/libfoo.so* $(STAGING_DIR)/usr/lib
43 26: define LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS
44 27: $(INSTALL) -D -m 0755 $(@D)/libfoo.so* $(TARGET_DIR)/usr/lib
45 28: $(INSTALL) -d -m 0755 $(TARGET_DIR)/etc/foo.d
48 31: define LIBFOO_DEVICES
49 32: /dev/foo c 666 0 0 42 0 - - -
52 35: define LIBFOO_PERMISSIONS
53 36: /bin/foo f 4755 0 0 - - - - -
56 39: define LIBFOO_USERS
57 40: foo -1 libfoo -1 * - - - LibFoo daemon
60 43: $(eval $(generic-package))
61 --------------------------------
63 The Makefile begins on line 7 to 11 with metadata information: the
64 version of the package (+LIBFOO_VERSION+), the name of the
65 tarball containing the package (+LIBFOO_SOURCE+) the
66 Internet location at which the tarball can be downloaded from
67 (+LIBFOO_SITE+), the license (+LIBFOO_LICENSE+) and file with the
68 license text (+LIBFOO_LICENSE_FILES+). All variables must start with
69 the same prefix, +LIBFOO_+ in this case. This prefix is always the
70 uppercased version of the package name (see below to understand where
71 the package name is defined).
73 On line 12, we specify that this package wants to install something to
74 the staging space. This is often needed for libraries, since they must
75 install header files and other development files in the staging space.
76 This will ensure that the commands listed in the
77 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ variable will be executed.
79 On line 13, we specify that there is some fixing to be done to some
80 of the 'libfoo-config' files that were installed during
81 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ phase.
82 These *-config files are executable shell script files that are
83 located in '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin' directory and are executed
84 by other 3rd party packages to find out the location and the linking
85 flags of this particular package.
87 The problem is that all these *-config files by default give wrong,
88 host system linking flags that are unsuitable for cross-compiling.
90 For example: '-I/usr/include' instead of '-I$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/include'
91 or: '-L/usr/lib' instead of '-L$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/lib'
93 So some sed magic is done to these scripts to make them give correct
95 The argument to be given to +LIBFOO_CONFIG_SCRIPTS+ is the file name(s)
96 of the shell script(s) needing fixing. All these names are relative to
97 '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin' and if needed multiple names can be given.
99 In addition, the scripts listed in +LIBFOO_CONFIG_SCRIPTS+ are removed
100 from +$(TARGET_DIR)/usr/bin+, since they are not needed on the target.
104 Package divine installs shell script '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin/divine-config'.
106 So it's fixup would be:
108 DIVINE_CONFIG_SCRIPTS = divine-config
112 Package imagemagick installs the following scripts:
113 '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin/{Magick,Magick++,MagickCore,MagickWand,Wand}-config'
115 So it's fixup would be:
117 IMAGEMAGICK_CONFIG_SCRIPTS = \
118 Magick-config Magick++-config \
119 MagickCore-config MagickWand-config Wand-config
121 On line 14, we specify the list of dependencies this package relies
122 on. These dependencies are listed in terms of lower-case package names,
123 which can be packages for the target (without the +host-+
124 prefix) or packages for the host (with the +host-+) prefix).
125 Buildroot will ensure that all these packages are built and installed
126 'before' the current package starts its configuration.
128 The rest of the Makefile, lines 16..29, defines what should be done
129 at the different steps of the package configuration, compilation and
131 +LIBFOO_BUILD_CMDS+ tells what steps should be performed to
132 build the package. +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ tells what
133 steps should be performed to install the package in the staging space.
134 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+ tells what steps should be
135 performed to install the package in the target space.
137 All these steps rely on the +$(@D)+ variable, which
138 contains the directory where the source code of the package has been
141 On line 31..33, we define a device-node file used by this package
144 On line 35..37, we define the permissions to set to specific files
145 installed by this package (+LIBFOO_PERMISSIONS+).
147 On lines 39..41, we define a user that is used by this package (eg.
148 to run a daemon as non-root) (+LIBFOO_USERS+).
150 Finally, on line 43, we call the +generic-package+ function, which
151 generates, according to the variables defined previously, all the
152 Makefile code necessary to make your package working.
154 [[generic-package-reference]]
156 +generic-package+ Reference
157 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
159 There are two variants of the generic target. The +generic-package+ macro is
160 used for packages to be cross-compiled for the target. The
161 +host-generic-package+ macro is used for host packages, natively compiled
162 for the host. It is possible to call both of them in a single +.mk+
163 file: once to create the rules to generate a target
164 package and once to create the rules to generate a host package:
166 ----------------------
167 $(eval $(generic-package))
168 $(eval $(host-generic-package))
169 ----------------------
171 This might be useful if the compilation of the target package requires
172 some tools to be installed on the host. If the package name is
173 +libfoo+, then the name of the package for the target is also
174 +libfoo+, while the name of the package for the host is
175 +host-libfoo+. These names should be used in the DEPENDENCIES
176 variables of other packages, if they depend on +libfoo+ or
179 The call to the +generic-package+ and/or +host-generic-package+ macro *must* be
180 at the end of the +.mk+ file, after all variable definitions.
182 For the target package, the +generic-package+ uses the variables defined by
183 the .mk file and prefixed by the uppercased package name:
184 +LIBFOO_*+. +host-generic-package+ uses the +HOST_LIBFOO_*+ variables. For
185 'some' variables, if the +HOST_LIBFOO_+ prefixed variable doesn't
186 exist, the package infrastructure uses the corresponding variable
187 prefixed by +LIBFOO_+. This is done for variables that are likely to
188 have the same value for both the target and host packages. See below
191 The list of variables that can be set in a +.mk+ file to give metadata
192 information is (assuming the package name is +libfoo+) :
194 * +LIBFOO_VERSION+, mandatory, must contain the version of the
195 package. Note that if +HOST_LIBFOO_VERSION+ doesn't exist, it is
196 assumed to be the same as +LIBFOO_VERSION+. It can also be a
197 revision number, branch or tag for packages that are fetched
198 directly from their revision control system. +
200 +LIBFOO_VERSION = 0.1.2+ +
201 +LIBFOO_VERSION = cb9d6aa9429e838f0e54faa3d455bcbab5eef057+ +
202 +LIBFOO_VERSION = stable+
204 * +LIBFOO_SOURCE+ may contain the name of the tarball of
205 the package. If +HOST_LIBFOO_SOURCE+ is not specified, it
206 defaults to +LIBFOO_SOURCE+. If none are specified, then
207 the value is assumed to be
208 +packagename-$(LIBFOO_VERSION).tar.gz+. +
209 Example: +LIBFOO_SOURCE = foobar-$(LIBFOO_VERSION).tar.bz2+
211 * +LIBFOO_PATCH+ may contain a space-separated list of patch file
212 names, that will be downloaded from the same location as the tarball
213 indicated in +LIBFOO_SOURCE+, and then applied to the package source
214 code. If +HOST_LIBFOO_PATCH+ is not specified, it defaults to
215 +LIBFOO_PATCH+. Note that patches that are included in Buildroot
216 itself use a different mechanism: all files of the form
217 +<packagename>-*.patch+ present in the package directory inside
218 Buildroot will be applied to the package after extraction (see
219 xref:patch-policy[patching a package]). Finally, patches listed in
220 the +LIBFOO_PATCH+ variable are applied _before_ the patches stored
221 in the Buildroot package directory.
223 * +LIBFOO_SITE+ provides the location of the package, which can be a
224 URL or a local filesystem path. HTTP, FTP and SCP are supported URL
225 types for retrieving package tarballs. Git, Subversion, Mercurial,
226 and Bazaar are supported URL types for retrieving packages directly
227 from source code management systems. A filesystem path may be used
228 to specify either a tarball or a directory containing the package
229 source code. See +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ below for more details on how
231 Note that SCP URLs should be of the form
232 +scp://[user@]host:filepath+, and that filepath is relative to the
233 user's home directory, so you may want to prepend the path with a
234 slash for absolute paths:
235 +scp://[user@]host:/absolutepath+. +
236 If +HOST_LIBFOO_SITE+ is not specified, it defaults to
239 +LIBFOO_SITE=http://www.libfoosoftware.org/libfoo+ +
240 +LIBFOO_SITE=http://svn.xiph.org/trunk/Tremor/+ +
241 +LIBFOO_SITE=git://github.com/kergoth/tslib.git+ +
242 +LIBFOO_SITE=/opt/software/libfoo.tar.gz+ +
243 +LIBFOO_SITE=$(TOPDIR)/../src/libfoo/+
245 * +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ determines the method used to fetch or copy the
246 package source code. In many cases, Buildroot guesses the method
247 from the contents of +LIBFOO_SITE+ and setting +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+
248 is unnecessary. When +HOST_LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ is not specified, it
249 defaults to the value of +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+. +
250 The possible values of +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ are:
251 ** +wget+ for normal FTP/HTTP downloads of tarballs. Used by
252 default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +http://+, +https://+ or
254 ** +scp+ for downloads of tarballs over SSH with scp. Used by
255 default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +scp://+.
256 ** +svn+ for retrieving source code from a Subversion repository.
257 Used by default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +svn://+. When a
258 +http://+ Subversion repository URL is specified in
259 +LIBFOO_SITE+, one 'must' specify +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD=svn+.
260 Buildroot performs a checkout which is preserved as a tarball in
261 the download cache; subsequent builds use the tarball instead of
262 performing another checkout.
263 ** +git+ for retrieving source code from a Git repository. Used by
264 default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +git://+. The downloaded
265 source code is cached as with the +svn+
267 ** +hg+ for retrieving source code from a Mercurial repository. One
268 'must' specify +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD=hg+ when +LIBFOO_SITE+
269 contains a Mercurial repository URL. The downloaded source code
270 is cached as with the +svn+ method.
271 ** +bzr+ for retrieving source code from a Bazaar repository. Used
272 by default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +bzr://+. The
273 downloaded source code is cached as with the +svn+ method.
274 ** +file+ for a local tarball. One should use this when
275 +LIBFOO_SITE+ specifies a package tarball as a local filename.
276 Useful for software that isn't available publicly or in version
278 ** +local+ for a local source code directory. One should use this
279 when +LIBFOO_SITE+ specifies a local directory path containing
280 the package source code. Buildroot copies the contents of the
281 source directory into the package's build directory.
283 * +LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES+ lists the dependencies (in terms of package
284 name) that are required for the current target package to
285 compile. These dependencies are guaranteed to be compiled and
286 installed before the configuration of the current package starts. In
287 a similar way, +HOST_LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES+ lists the dependencies for
288 the current host package.
290 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING+ can be set to +YES+ or +NO+ (default). If
291 set to +YES+, then the commands in the +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+
292 variables are executed to install the package into the staging
295 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET+ can be set to +YES+ (default) or +NO+. If
296 set to +YES+, then the commands in the +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+
297 variables are executed to install the package into the target
300 * +LIBFOO_CONFIG_SCRIPTS+ lists the names of the files in
301 '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin' that need some special fixing to make them
302 cross-compiling friendly. Multiple file names separated by space can
303 be given and all are relative to '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin'. The files
304 listed in +LIBFOO_CONFIG_SCRIPTS+ are also removed from
305 +$(TARGET_DIR)/usr/bin+ since they are not needed on the target.
307 * +LIBFOO_DEVICES+ lists the device files to be created by Buildroot
308 when using the static device table. The syntax to use is the
309 makedevs one. You can find some documentation for this syntax in the
310 xref:makedev-syntax[]. This variable is optional.
312 * +LIBFOO_PERMISSIONS+ lists the changes of permissions to be done at
313 the end of the build process. The syntax is once again the makedevs one.
314 You can find some documentation for this syntax in the xref:makedev-syntax[].
315 This variable is optional.
317 * +LIBFOO_USERS+ lists the users to create for this package, if it installs
318 a program you want to run as a specific user (eg. as a daemon, or as a
319 cron-job). The syntax is similar in spirit to the makedevs one, and is
320 described in the xref:makeuser-syntax[]. This variable is optional.
322 * +LIBFOO_LICENSE+ defines the license (or licenses) under which the package
324 This name will appear in the manifest file produced by +make legal-info+.
325 If the license appears in xref:legal-info-list-licenses[the following list],
326 use the same string to make the manifest file uniform.
327 Otherwise, describe the license in a precise and concise way, avoiding
328 ambiguous names such as +BSD+ which actually name a family of licenses.
329 This variable is optional. If it is not defined, +unknown+ will appear in
330 the +license+ field of the manifest file for this package.
332 * +LIBFOO_LICENSE_FILES+ is a space-separated list of files in the package
333 tarball that contain the license(s) under which the package is released.
334 +make legal-info+ copies all of these files in the +legal-info+ directory.
335 See xref:legal-info[] for more information.
336 This variable is optional. If it is not defined, a warning will be produced
337 to let you know, and +not saved+ will appear in the +license files+ field
338 of the manifest file for this package.
340 * +LIBFOO_REDISTRIBUTE+ can be set to +YES+ (default) or +NO+ to indicate if
341 the package source code is allowed to be redistributed. Set it to +NO+ for
342 non-opensource packages: Buildroot will not save the source code for this
343 package when collecting the +legal-info+.
345 The recommended way to define these variables is to use the following
348 ----------------------
349 LIBFOO_VERSION = 2.32
350 ----------------------
352 Now, the variables that define what should be performed at the
353 different steps of the build process.
355 * +LIBFOO_CONFIGURE_CMDS+ lists the actions to be performed to
356 configure the package before its compilation.
358 * +LIBFOO_BUILD_CMDS+ lists the actions to be performed to
361 * +HOST_LIBFOO_INSTALL_CMDS+ lists the actions to be performed
362 to install the package, when the package is a host package. The
363 package must install its files to the directory given by
364 +$(HOST_DIR)+. All files, including development files such as
365 headers should be installed, since other packages might be compiled
366 on top of this package.
368 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+ lists the actions to be
369 performed to install the package to the target directory, when the
370 package is a target package. The package must install its files to
371 the directory given by +$(TARGET_DIR)+. Only the files required for
372 'execution' of the package have to be
373 installed. Header files, static libraries and documentation will be
374 removed again when the target filesystem is finalized.
376 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ lists the actions to be
377 performed to install the package to the staging directory, when the
378 package is a target package. The package must install its files to
379 the directory given by +$(STAGING_DIR)+. All development files
380 should be installed, since they might be needed to compile other
383 * +LIBFOO_CLEAN_CMDS+, lists the actions to perform to clean up
384 the build directory of the package.
386 * +LIBFOO_UNINSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+ lists the actions to
387 uninstall the package from the target directory +$(TARGET_DIR)+
389 * +LIBFOO_UNINSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ lists the actions to
390 uninstall the package from the staging directory +$(STAGING_DIR)+.
392 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSV+ and +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSTEMD+ list the
393 actions to install init scripts either for the systemV-like init systems
394 (busybox, sysvinit, etc.) or for the systemd units. These commands
395 will be run only when the relevant init system is installed (i.e. if
396 systemd is selected as the init system in the configuration, only
397 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSTEMD+ will be run).
399 The preferred way to define these variables is:
401 ----------------------
402 define LIBFOO_CONFIGURE_CMDS
407 ----------------------
409 In the action definitions, you can use the following variables:
411 * +$(@D)+, which contains the directory in which the package source
412 code has been uncompressed.
414 * +$(TARGET_CC)+, +$(TARGET_LD)+, etc. to get the target
415 cross-compilation utilities
417 * +$(TARGET_CROSS)+ to get the cross-compilation toolchain prefix
419 * Of course the +$(HOST_DIR)+, +$(STAGING_DIR)+ and +$(TARGET_DIR)+
420 variables to install the packages properly.
422 The last feature of the generic infrastructure is the ability to add
423 hooks. These define further actions to perform after existing steps.
424 Most hooks aren't really useful for generic packages, since the +.mk+
425 file already has full control over the actions performed in each step
426 of the package construction. The hooks are more useful for packages
427 using the autotools infrastructure described below. However, since
428 they are provided by the generic infrastructure, they are documented
429 here. The exception is +LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS+. Patching the
430 package and producing legal info are not user definable, so
431 +LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS+ and +LIBFOO_POST_LEGAL_INFO_HOOKS+ are
432 useful for generic packages.
434 The following hook points are available:
436 * +LIBFOO_POST_DOWNLOAD_HOOKS+
437 * +LIBFOO_POST_EXTRACT_HOOKS+
438 * +LIBFOO_PRE_PATCH_HOOKS+
439 * +LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS+
440 * +LIBFOO_PRE_CONFIGURE_HOOKS+
441 * +LIBFOO_POST_CONFIGURE_HOOKS+
442 * +LIBFOO_POST_BUILD_HOOKS+
443 * +LIBFOO_POST_INSTALL_HOOKS+ (for host packages only)
444 * +LIBFOO_POST_INSTALL_STAGING_HOOKS+ (for target packages only)
445 * +LIBFOO_POST_INSTALL_TARGET_HOOKS+ (for target packages only)
446 * +LIBFOO_POST_LEGAL_INFO_HOOKS+
448 These variables are 'lists' of variable names containing actions to be
449 performed at this hook point. This allows several hooks to be
450 registered at a given hook point. Here is an example:
452 ----------------------
453 define LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_FIXUP
458 LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS += LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_FIXUP
459 ----------------------