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 $(generic-package))
61 --------------------------------
63 The Makefile begins on line 7 to 11 with metadata information: the
64 version of the package (+LIBFOO_VERSION+), the name of the
65 tarball containing the package (+LIBFOO_SOURCE+) (xz-ed tarball recommended)
66 the Internet location at which the tarball can be downloaded from
67 (+LIBFOO_SITE+), the license (+LIBFOO_LICENSE+) and file with the
68 license text (+LIBFOO_LICENSE_FILES+). All variables must start with
69 the same prefix, +LIBFOO_+ in this case. This prefix is always the
70 uppercased version of the package name (see below to understand where
71 the package name is defined).
73 On line 12, we specify that this package wants to install something to
74 the staging space. This is often needed for libraries, since they must
75 install header files and other development files in the staging space.
76 This will ensure that the commands listed in the
77 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ variable will be executed.
79 On line 13, we specify that there is some fixing to be done to some
80 of the 'libfoo-config' files that were installed during
81 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ phase.
82 These *-config files are executable shell script files that are
83 located in '$(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.
102 .Config script: 'divine' package
103 ================================
104 Package divine installs shell script '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin/divine-config'.
106 So its fixup would be:
108 --------------------------------
109 DIVINE_CONFIG_SCRIPTS = divine-config
110 --------------------------------
111 ================================
113 .Config script: 'imagemagick' package:
114 ================================
115 Package imagemagick installs the following scripts:
116 '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin/{Magick,Magick++,MagickCore,MagickWand,Wand}-config'
118 So it's fixup would be:
120 --------------------------------
121 IMAGEMAGICK_CONFIG_SCRIPTS = \
122 Magick-config Magick++-config \
123 MagickCore-config MagickWand-config Wand-config
124 --------------------------------
125 ================================
127 On line 14, we specify the list of dependencies this package relies
128 on. These dependencies are listed in terms of lower-case package names,
129 which can be packages for the target (without the +host-+
130 prefix) or packages for the host (with the +host-+) prefix).
131 Buildroot will ensure that all these packages are built and installed
132 'before' the current package starts its configuration.
134 The rest of the Makefile, lines 16..29, defines what should be done
135 at the different steps of the package configuration, compilation and
137 +LIBFOO_BUILD_CMDS+ tells what steps should be performed to
138 build the package. +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ tells what
139 steps should be performed to install the package in the staging space.
140 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+ tells what steps should be
141 performed to install the package in the target space.
143 All these steps rely on the +$(@D)+ variable, which
144 contains the directory where the source code of the package has been
147 On line 31..33, we define a device-node file used by this package
150 On line 35..37, we define the permissions to set to specific files
151 installed by this package (+LIBFOO_PERMISSIONS+).
153 On lines 39..41, we define a user that is used by this package (eg.
154 to run a daemon as non-root) (+LIBFOO_USERS+).
156 Finally, on line 43, we call the +generic-package+ function, which
157 generates, according to the variables defined previously, all the
158 Makefile code necessary to make your package working.
160 [[generic-package-reference]]
162 +generic-package+ Reference
163 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
165 There are two variants of the generic target. The +generic-package+ macro is
166 used for packages to be cross-compiled for the target. The
167 +host-generic-package+ macro is used for host packages, natively compiled
168 for the host. It is possible to call both of them in a single +.mk+
169 file: once to create the rules to generate a target
170 package and once to create the rules to generate a host package:
172 ----------------------
173 $(eval $(generic-package))
174 $(eval $(host-generic-package))
175 ----------------------
177 This might be useful if the compilation of the target package requires
178 some tools to be installed on the host. If the package name is
179 +libfoo+, then the name of the package for the target is also
180 +libfoo+, while the name of the package for the host is
181 +host-libfoo+. These names should be used in the DEPENDENCIES
182 variables of other packages, if they depend on +libfoo+ or
185 The call to the +generic-package+ and/or +host-generic-package+ macro *must* be
186 at the end of the +.mk+ file, after all variable definitions.
188 For the target package, the +generic-package+ uses the variables defined by
189 the .mk file and prefixed by the uppercased package name:
190 +LIBFOO_*+. +host-generic-package+ uses the +HOST_LIBFOO_*+ variables. For
191 'some' variables, if the +HOST_LIBFOO_+ prefixed variable doesn't
192 exist, the package infrastructure uses the corresponding variable
193 prefixed by +LIBFOO_+. This is done for variables that are likely to
194 have the same value for both the target and host packages. See below
197 The list of variables that can be set in a +.mk+ file to give metadata
198 information is (assuming the package name is +libfoo+) :
200 * +LIBFOO_VERSION+, mandatory, must contain the version of the
201 package. Note that if +HOST_LIBFOO_VERSION+ doesn't exist, it is
202 assumed to be the same as +LIBFOO_VERSION+. It can also be a
203 revision number, branch or tag for packages that are fetched
204 directly from their revision control system. +
206 +LIBFOO_VERSION = 0.1.2+ +
207 +LIBFOO_VERSION = cb9d6aa9429e838f0e54faa3d455bcbab5eef057+ +
208 +LIBFOO_VERSION = stable+
210 * +LIBFOO_SOURCE+ may contain the name of the tarball of
211 the package. If +HOST_LIBFOO_SOURCE+ is not specified, it
212 defaults to +LIBFOO_SOURCE+. If none are specified, then
213 the value is assumed to be
214 +packagename-$(LIBFOO_VERSION).tar.gz+. +
215 Example: +LIBFOO_SOURCE = foobar-$(LIBFOO_VERSION).tar.bz2+
217 * +LIBFOO_PATCH+ may contain a space-separated list of patch file
218 names, that will be downloaded from the same location as the tarball
219 indicated in +LIBFOO_SOURCE+, and then applied to the package source
220 code. If +HOST_LIBFOO_PATCH+ is not specified, it defaults to
221 +LIBFOO_PATCH+. Note that patches that are included in Buildroot
222 itself use a different mechanism: all files of the form
223 +<packagename>-*.patch+ present in the package directory inside
224 Buildroot will be applied to the package after extraction (see
225 xref:patch-policy[patching a package]). Finally, patches listed in
226 the +LIBFOO_PATCH+ variable are applied _before_ the patches stored
227 in the Buildroot package directory.
229 * +LIBFOO_SITE+ provides the location of the package, which can be a
230 URL or a local filesystem path. HTTP, FTP and SCP are supported URL
231 types for retrieving package tarballs. Git, Subversion, Mercurial,
232 and Bazaar are supported URL types for retrieving packages directly
233 from source code management systems. A filesystem path may be used
234 to specify either a tarball or a directory containing the package
235 source code. See +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ below for more details on how
237 Note that SCP URLs should be of the form
238 +scp://[user@]host:filepath+, and that filepath is relative to the
239 user's home directory, so you may want to prepend the path with a
240 slash for absolute paths:
241 +scp://[user@]host:/absolutepath+. +
242 If +HOST_LIBFOO_SITE+ is not specified, it defaults to
245 +LIBFOO_SITE=http://www.libfoosoftware.org/libfoo+ +
246 +LIBFOO_SITE=http://svn.xiph.org/trunk/Tremor/+ +
247 +LIBFOO_SITE=git://github.com/kergoth/tslib.git+ +
248 +LIBFOO_SITE=/opt/software/libfoo.tar.gz+ +
249 +LIBFOO_SITE=$(TOPDIR)/../src/libfoo/+
251 * +LIBFOO_EXTRA_DOWNLOADS+ lists a number of additional files that
252 Buildroot should download from +LIBFOO_SITE+ in addition to the main
253 +LIBFOO_SOURCE+ (which usually is a tarball). Buildroot will not do
254 anything with those additional files, except download files: it will
255 be up to the package recipe to use them from +$(DL_DIR)+.
257 * +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ determines the method used to fetch or copy the
258 package source code. In many cases, Buildroot guesses the method
259 from the contents of +LIBFOO_SITE+ and setting +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+
260 is unnecessary. When +HOST_LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ is not specified, it
261 defaults to the value of +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+. +
262 The possible values of +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ are:
263 ** +wget+ for normal FTP/HTTP downloads of tarballs. Used by
264 default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +http://+, +https://+ or
266 ** +scp+ for downloads of tarballs over SSH with scp. Used by
267 default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +scp://+.
268 ** +svn+ for retrieving source code from a Subversion repository.
269 Used by default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +svn://+. When a
270 +http://+ Subversion repository URL is specified in
271 +LIBFOO_SITE+, one 'must' specify +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD=svn+.
272 Buildroot performs a checkout which is preserved as a tarball in
273 the download cache; subsequent builds use the tarball instead of
274 performing another checkout.
275 ** +cvs+ for retrieving source code from a CVS repository.
276 Used by default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +cvs://+.
277 The downloaded source code is cached as with the +svn+ method.
278 Only anonymous pserver mode is supported.
279 +LIBFOO_SITE+ 'must' contain the source URL as well as the remote
280 repository directory. The module is the package name.
281 +LIBFOO_VERSION+ is 'mandatory' and 'must' be a timestamp.
282 ** +git+ for retrieving source code from a Git repository. Used by
283 default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +git://+. The downloaded
284 source code is cached as with the +svn+
286 ** +hg+ for retrieving source code from a Mercurial repository. One
287 'must' specify +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD=hg+ when +LIBFOO_SITE+
288 contains a Mercurial repository URL. The downloaded source code
289 is cached as with the +svn+ method.
290 ** +bzr+ for retrieving source code from a Bazaar repository. Used
291 by default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +bzr://+. The
292 downloaded source code is cached as with the +svn+ method.
293 ** +file+ for a local tarball. One should use this when
294 +LIBFOO_SITE+ specifies a package tarball as a local filename.
295 Useful for software that isn't available publicly or in version
297 ** +local+ for a local source code directory. One should use this
298 when +LIBFOO_SITE+ specifies a local directory path containing
299 the package source code. Buildroot copies the contents of the
300 source directory into the package's build directory.
302 * +LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES+ lists the dependencies (in terms of package
303 name) that are required for the current target package to
304 compile. These dependencies are guaranteed to be compiled and
305 installed before the configuration of the current package starts. In
306 a similar way, +HOST_LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES+ lists the dependencies for
307 the current host package.
309 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING+ can be set to +YES+ or +NO+ (default). If
310 set to +YES+, then the commands in the +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+
311 variables are executed to install the package into the staging
314 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET+ can be set to +YES+ (default) or +NO+. If
315 set to +YES+, then the commands in the +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+
316 variables are executed to install the package into the target
319 * +LIBFOO_CONFIG_SCRIPTS+ lists the names of the files in
320 '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin' that need some special fixing to make them
321 cross-compiling friendly. Multiple file names separated by space can
322 be given and all are relative to '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin'. The files
323 listed in +LIBFOO_CONFIG_SCRIPTS+ are also removed from
324 +$(TARGET_DIR)/usr/bin+ since they are not needed on the target.
326 * +LIBFOO_DEVICES+ lists the device files to be created by Buildroot
327 when using the static device table. The syntax to use is the
328 makedevs one. You can find some documentation for this syntax in the
329 xref:makedev-syntax[]. This variable is optional.
331 * +LIBFOO_PERMISSIONS+ lists the changes of permissions to be done at
332 the end of the build process. The syntax is once again the makedevs one.
333 You can find some documentation for this syntax in the xref:makedev-syntax[].
334 This variable is optional.
336 * +LIBFOO_USERS+ lists the users to create for this package, if it installs
337 a program you want to run as a specific user (eg. as a daemon, or as a
338 cron-job). The syntax is similar in spirit to the makedevs one, and is
339 described in the xref:makeuser-syntax[]. This variable is optional.
341 * +LIBFOO_LICENSE+ defines the license (or licenses) under which the package
343 This name will appear in the manifest file produced by +make legal-info+.
344 If the license appears in xref:legal-info-list-licenses[the following list],
345 use the same string to make the manifest file uniform.
346 Otherwise, describe the license in a precise and concise way, avoiding
347 ambiguous names such as +BSD+ which actually name a family of licenses.
348 This variable is optional. If it is not defined, +unknown+ will appear in
349 the +license+ field of the manifest file for this package.
351 * +LIBFOO_LICENSE_FILES+ is a space-separated list of files in the package
352 tarball that contain the license(s) under which the package is released.
353 +make legal-info+ copies all of these files in the +legal-info+ directory.
354 See xref:legal-info[] for more information.
355 This variable is optional. If it is not defined, a warning will be produced
356 to let you know, and +not saved+ will appear in the +license files+ field
357 of the manifest file for this package.
359 * +LIBFOO_REDISTRIBUTE+ can be set to +YES+ (default) or +NO+ to indicate if
360 the package source code is allowed to be redistributed. Set it to +NO+ for
361 non-opensource packages: Buildroot will not save the source code for this
362 package when collecting the +legal-info+.
364 * +LIBFOO_FLAT_STACKSIZE+ defines the stack size of an application built into
365 the FLAT binary format. The application stack size on the NOMMU architecture
366 processors can't be enlarged at run time. The default stack size for the
367 FLAT binary format is only 4k bytes. If the application consumes more stack,
368 append the required number here.
370 The recommended way to define these variables is to use the following
373 ----------------------
374 LIBFOO_VERSION = 2.32
375 ----------------------
377 Now, the variables that define what should be performed at the
378 different steps of the build process.
380 * +LIBFOO_EXTRACT_CMDS+ lists the actions to be performed to extract
381 the package. This is generally not needed as tarballs are
382 automatically handled by Buildroot. However, if the package uses a
383 non-standard archive format, such as a ZIP or RAR file, or has a
384 tarball with a non-standard organization, this variable allows to
385 override the package infrastructure default behavior.
387 * +LIBFOO_CONFIGURE_CMDS+ lists the actions to be performed to
388 configure the package before its compilation.
390 * +LIBFOO_BUILD_CMDS+ lists the actions to be performed to
393 * +HOST_LIBFOO_INSTALL_CMDS+ lists the actions to be performed
394 to install the package, when the package is a host package. The
395 package must install its files to the directory given by
396 +$(HOST_DIR)+. All files, including development files such as
397 headers should be installed, since other packages might be compiled
398 on top of this package.
400 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+ lists the actions to be
401 performed to install the package to the target directory, when the
402 package is a target package. The package must install its files to
403 the directory given by +$(TARGET_DIR)+. Only the files required for
404 'execution' of the package have to be
405 installed. Header files, static libraries and documentation will be
406 removed again when the target filesystem is finalized.
408 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ lists the actions to be
409 performed to install the package to the staging directory, when the
410 package is a target package. The package must install its files to
411 the directory given by +$(STAGING_DIR)+. All development files
412 should be installed, since they might be needed to compile other
415 * +LIBFOO_CLEAN_CMDS+, lists the actions to perform to clean up
416 the build directory of the package.
418 * +LIBFOO_UNINSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+ lists the actions to
419 uninstall the package from the target directory +$(TARGET_DIR)+
421 * +LIBFOO_UNINSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ lists the actions to
422 uninstall the package from the staging directory +$(STAGING_DIR)+.
424 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSV+ and +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSTEMD+ list the
425 actions to install init scripts either for the systemV-like init systems
426 (busybox, sysvinit, etc.) or for the systemd units. These commands
427 will be run only when the relevant init system is installed (i.e. if
428 systemd is selected as the init system in the configuration, only
429 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSTEMD+ will be run).
431 The preferred way to define these variables is:
433 ----------------------
434 define LIBFOO_CONFIGURE_CMDS
439 ----------------------
441 In the action definitions, you can use the following variables:
443 * +$(@D)+, which contains the directory in which the package source
444 code has been uncompressed.
446 * +$(TARGET_CC)+, +$(TARGET_LD)+, etc. to get the target
447 cross-compilation utilities
449 * +$(TARGET_CROSS)+ to get the cross-compilation toolchain prefix
451 * Of course the +$(HOST_DIR)+, +$(STAGING_DIR)+ and +$(TARGET_DIR)+
452 variables to install the packages properly.
454 The last feature of the generic infrastructure is the ability to add
455 hooks. These define further actions to perform after existing steps.
456 Most hooks aren't really useful for generic packages, since the +.mk+
457 file already has full control over the actions performed in each step
458 of the package construction. The hooks are more useful for packages
459 using the autotools infrastructure described below. However, since
460 they are provided by the generic infrastructure, they are documented
461 here. The exception is +LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS+. Patching the
462 package and producing legal info are not user definable, so
463 +LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS+ and +LIBFOO_POST_LEGAL_INFO_HOOKS+ are
464 useful for generic packages.
466 The following hook points are available:
468 * +LIBFOO_POST_DOWNLOAD_HOOKS+
469 * +LIBFOO_POST_EXTRACT_HOOKS+
470 * +LIBFOO_PRE_PATCH_HOOKS+
471 * +LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS+
472 * +LIBFOO_PRE_CONFIGURE_HOOKS+
473 * +LIBFOO_POST_CONFIGURE_HOOKS+
474 * +LIBFOO_POST_BUILD_HOOKS+
475 * +LIBFOO_POST_INSTALL_HOOKS+ (for host packages only)
476 * +LIBFOO_POST_INSTALL_STAGING_HOOKS+ (for target packages only)
477 * +LIBFOO_POST_INSTALL_TARGET_HOOKS+ (for target packages only)
478 * +LIBFOO_POST_LEGAL_INFO_HOOKS+
480 These variables are 'lists' of variable names containing actions to be
481 performed at this hook point. This allows several hooks to be
482 registered at a given hook point. Here is an example:
484 ----------------------
485 define LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_FIXUP
490 LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS += LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_FIXUP
491 ----------------------