3 Infrastructure for packages with specific build systems
4 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
6 By 'packages with specific build systems' we mean all the packages
7 whose build system is not one of the standard ones, such as
8 'autotools' or 'CMake'. This typically includes packages whose build
9 system is based on hand-written Makefiles or shell scripts.
11 [[generic-package-tutorial]]
13 +generic-package+ Tutorial
14 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
16 ------------------------------
17 01: #############################################################
21 05: #############################################################
22 06: LIBFOO_VERSION = 1.0
23 07: LIBFOO_SOURCE = libfoo-$(LIBFOO_VERSION).tar.gz
24 08: LIBFOO_SITE = http://www.foosoftware.org/download
25 09: LIBFOO_LICENSE = GPLv3+
26 10: LIBFOO_LICENSE_FILES = COPYING
27 11: LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING = YES
28 12: LIBFOO_CONFIG_SCRIPTS = libfoo-config
29 13: LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES = host-libaaa libbbb
31 15: define LIBFOO_BUILD_CMDS
32 16: $(MAKE) CC="$(TARGET_CC)" LD="$(TARGET_LD)" -C $(@D) all
35 19: define LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS
36 20: $(INSTALL) -D -m 0755 $(@D)/libfoo.a $(STAGING_DIR)/usr/lib/libfoo.a
37 21: $(INSTALL) -D -m 0644 $(@D)/foo.h $(STAGING_DIR)/usr/include/foo.h
38 22: $(INSTALL) -D -m 0755 $(@D)/libfoo.so* $(STAGING_DIR)/usr/lib
41 25: define LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS
42 26: $(INSTALL) -D -m 0755 $(@D)/libfoo.so* $(TARGET_DIR)/usr/lib
43 27: $(INSTALL) -d -m 0755 $(TARGET_DIR)/etc/foo.d
46 30: define LIBFOO_DEVICES
47 31: /dev/foo c 666 0 0 42 0 - - -
50 34: define LIBFOO_PERMISSIONS
51 35: /bin/foo f 4755 0 0 - - - - -
54 38: $(eval $(generic-package))
55 --------------------------------
57 The Makefile begins on line 6 to 10 with metadata information: the
58 version of the package (+LIBFOO_VERSION+), the name of the
59 tarball containing the package (+LIBFOO_SOURCE+) the
60 Internet location at which the tarball can be downloaded from
61 (+LIBFOO_SITE+), the license (+LIBFOO_LICENSE+) and file with the
62 license text (+LIBFOO_LICENSE_FILES+). All variables must start with
63 the same prefix, +LIBFOO_+ in this case. This prefix is always the
64 uppercased version of the package name (see below to understand where
65 the package name is defined).
67 On line 11, we specify that this package wants to install something to
68 the staging space. This is often needed for libraries, since they must
69 install header files and other development files in the staging space.
70 This will ensure that the commands listed in the
71 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ variable will be executed.
73 On line 12, we specify that there is some fixing to be done to some
74 of the 'libfoo-config' files that were installed during
75 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ phase.
76 These *-config files are executable shell script files that are
77 located in '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin' directory and are executed
78 by other 3rd party packages to find out the location and the linking
79 flags of this particular package.
81 The problem is that all these *-config files by default give wrong,
82 host system linking flags that are unsuitable for cross-compiling.
84 For example: '-I/usr/include' instead of '-I$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/include'
85 or: '-L/usr/lib' instead of '-L$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/lib'
87 So some sed magic is done to these scripts to make them give correct
89 The argument to be given to +LIBFOO_CONFIG_SCRIPTS+ is the file name(s)
90 of the shell script(s) needing fixing. All these names are relative to
91 '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin' and if needed multiple names can be given.
93 In addition, the scripts listed in +LIBFOO_CONFIG_SCRIPTS+ are removed
94 from +$(TARGET_DIR)/usr/bin+, since they are not needed on the target.
98 Package divine installs shell script '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin/divine-config'.
100 So it's fixup would be:
102 DIVINE_CONFIG_SCRIPTS = divine-config
106 Package imagemagick installs the following scripts:
107 '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin/{Magick,Magick++,MagickCore,MagickWand,Wand}-config'
109 So it's fixup would be:
111 IMAGEMAGICK_CONFIG_SCRIPTS = \
112 Magick-config Magick++-config \
113 MagickCore-config MagickWand-config Wand-config
115 On line 13, we specify the list of dependencies this package relies
116 on. These dependencies are listed in terms of lower-case package names,
117 which can be packages for the target (without the +host-+
118 prefix) or packages for the host (with the +host-+) prefix).
119 Buildroot will ensure that all these packages are built and installed
120 'before' the current package starts its configuration.
122 The rest of the Makefile, lines 14..27, defines what should be done
123 at the different steps of the package configuration, compilation and
125 +LIBFOO_BUILD_CMDS+ tells what steps should be performed to
126 build the package. +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ tells what
127 steps should be performed to install the package in the staging space.
128 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+ tells what steps should be
129 performed to install the package in the target space.
131 All these steps rely on the +$(@D)+ variable, which
132 contains the directory where the source code of the package has been
135 On line 29..31, we define a device-node file used by this package
138 On line 33..35, we define the permissions to set to specific files
139 installed by this package (+LIBFOO_PERMISSIONS+).
141 Finally, on line 37, we call the +generic-package+ function, which
142 generates, according to the variables defined previously, all the
143 Makefile code necessary to make your package working.
145 [[generic-package-reference]]
147 +generic-package+ Reference
148 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
150 There are two variants of the generic target. The +generic-package+ macro is
151 used for packages to be cross-compiled for the target. The
152 +host-generic-package+ macro is used for host packages, natively compiled
153 for the host. It is possible to call both of them in a single +.mk+
154 file: once to create the rules to generate a target
155 package and once to create the rules to generate a host package:
157 ----------------------
158 $(eval $(generic-package))
159 $(eval $(host-generic-package))
160 ----------------------
162 This might be useful if the compilation of the target package requires
163 some tools to be installed on the host. If the package name is
164 +libfoo+, then the name of the package for the target is also
165 +libfoo+, while the name of the package for the host is
166 +host-libfoo+. These names should be used in the DEPENDENCIES
167 variables of other packages, if they depend on +libfoo+ or
170 The call to the +generic-package+ and/or +host-generic-package+ macro *must* be
171 at the end of the +.mk+ file, after all variable definitions.
173 For the target package, the +generic-package+ uses the variables defined by
174 the .mk file and prefixed by the uppercased package name:
175 +LIBFOO_*+. +host-generic-package+ uses the +HOST_LIBFOO_*+ variables. For
176 'some' variables, if the +HOST_LIBFOO_+ prefixed variable doesn't
177 exist, the package infrastructure uses the corresponding variable
178 prefixed by +LIBFOO_+. This is done for variables that are likely to
179 have the same value for both the target and host packages. See below
182 The list of variables that can be set in a +.mk+ file to give metadata
183 information is (assuming the package name is +libfoo+) :
185 * +LIBFOO_VERSION+, mandatory, must contain the version of the
186 package. Note that if +HOST_LIBFOO_VERSION+ doesn't exist, it is
187 assumed to be the same as +LIBFOO_VERSION+. It can also be a
188 revision number, branch or tag for packages that are fetched
189 directly from their revision control system. +
191 +LIBFOO_VERSION = 0.1.2+ +
192 +LIBFOO_VERSION = cb9d6aa9429e838f0e54faa3d455bcbab5eef057+ +
193 +LIBFOO_VERSION = stable+
195 * +LIBFOO_SOURCE+ may contain the name of the tarball of
196 the package. If +HOST_LIBFOO_SOURCE+ is not specified, it
197 defaults to +LIBFOO_SOURCE+. If none are specified, then
198 the value is assumed to be
199 +packagename-$(LIBFOO_VERSION).tar.gz+. +
200 Example: +LIBFOO_SOURCE = foobar-$(LIBFOO_VERSION).tar.bz2+
202 * +LIBFOO_PATCH+ may contain a space-separated list of patch file
203 names, that will be downloaded from the same location as the tarball
204 indicated in +LIBFOO_SOURCE+, and then applied to the package source
205 code. If +HOST_LIBFOO_PATCH+ is not specified, it defaults to
206 +LIBFOO_PATCH+. Note that patches that are included in Buildroot
207 itself use a different mechanism: all files of the form
208 +<packagename>-*.patch+ present in the package directory inside
209 Buildroot will be applied to the package after extraction (see
210 xref:patch-policy[patching a package]). Finally, patches listed in
211 the +LIBFOO_PATCH+ variable are applied _before_ the patches stored
212 in the Buildroot package directory.
214 * +LIBFOO_SITE+ provides the location of the package, which can be a
215 URL or a local filesystem path. HTTP, FTP and SCP are supported URL
216 types for retrieving package tarballs. Git, Subversion, Mercurial,
217 and Bazaar are supported URL types for retrieving packages directly
218 from source code management systems. A filesystem path may be used
219 to specify either a tarball or a directory containing the package
220 source code. See +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ below for more details on how
222 Note that SCP URLs should be of the form
223 +scp://[user@]host:filepath+, and that filepath is relative to the
224 user's home directory, so you may want to prepend the path with a
225 slash for absolute paths:
226 +scp://[user@]host:/absolutepath+. +
227 If +HOST_LIBFOO_SITE+ is not specified, it defaults to
230 +LIBFOO_SITE=http://www.libfoosoftware.org/libfoo+ +
231 +LIBFOO_SITE=http://svn.xiph.org/trunk/Tremor/+ +
232 +LIBFOO_SITE=git://github.com/kergoth/tslib.git+ +
233 +LIBFOO_SITE=/opt/software/libfoo.tar.gz+ +
234 +LIBFOO_SITE=$(TOPDIR)/../src/libfoo/+
236 * +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ determines the method used to fetch or copy the
237 package source code. In many cases, Buildroot guesses the method
238 from the contents of +LIBFOO_SITE+ and setting +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+
239 is unnecessary. When +HOST_LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ is not specified, it
240 defaults to the value of +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+. +
241 The possible values of +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ are:
242 ** +wget+ for normal FTP/HTTP downloads of tarballs. Used by
243 default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +http://+, +https://+ or
245 ** +scp+ for downloads of tarballs over SSH with scp. Used by
246 default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +scp://+.
247 ** +svn+ for retrieving source code from a Subversion repository.
248 Used by default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +svn://+. When a
249 +http://+ Subversion repository URL is specified in
250 +LIBFOO_SITE+, one 'must' specify +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD=svn+.
251 Buildroot performs a checkout which is preserved as a tarball in
252 the download cache; subsequent builds use the tarball instead of
253 performing another checkout.
254 ** +git+ for retrieving source code from a Git repository. Used by
255 default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +git://+. The downloaded
256 source code is cached as with the +svn+
258 ** +hg+ for retrieving source code from a Mercurial repository. One
259 'must' specify +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD=hg+ when +LIBFOO_SITE+
260 contains a Mercurial repository URL. The downloaded source code
261 is cached as with the +svn+ method.
262 ** +bzr+ for retrieving source code from a Bazaar repository. Used
263 by default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +bzr://+. The
264 downloaded source code is cached as with the +svn+ method.
265 ** +file+ for a local tarball. One should use this when
266 +LIBFOO_SITE+ specifies a package tarball as a local filename.
267 Useful for software that isn't available publicly or in version
269 ** +local+ for a local source code directory. One should use this
270 when +LIBFOO_SITE+ specifies a local directory path containing
271 the package source code. Buildroot copies the contents of the
272 source directory into the package's build directory.
274 * +LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES+ lists the dependencies (in terms of package
275 name) that are required for the current target package to
276 compile. These dependencies are guaranteed to be compiled and
277 installed before the configuration of the current package starts. In
278 a similar way, +HOST_LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES+ lists the dependencies for
279 the current host package.
281 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING+ can be set to +YES+ or +NO+ (default). If
282 set to +YES+, then the commands in the +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+
283 variables are executed to install the package into the staging
286 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET+ can be set to +YES+ (default) or +NO+. If
287 set to +YES+, then the commands in the +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+
288 variables are executed to install the package into the target
291 * +LIBFOO_CONFIG_SCRIPTS+ lists the names of the files in
292 '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin' that need some special fixing to make them
293 cross-compiling friendly. Multiple file names separated by space can
294 be given and all are relative to '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin'. The files
295 listed in +LIBFOO_CONFIG_SCRIPTS+ are also removed from
296 +$(TARGET_DIR)/usr/bin+ since they are not needed on the target.
298 * +LIBFOO_DEVICES+ lists the device files to be created by Buildroot
299 when using the static device table. The syntax to use is the
300 makedevs one. You can find some documentation for this syntax in the
301 xref:makedev-syntax[]. This variable is optional.
303 * +LIBFOO_PERMISSIONS+ lists the changes of permissions to be done at
304 the end of the build process. The syntax is once again the makedevs one.
305 You can find some documentation for this syntax in the xref:makedev-syntax[].
306 This variable is optional.
308 * +LIBFOO_LICENSE+ defines the license (or licenses) under which the package
310 This name will appear in the manifest file produced by +make legal-info+.
311 If the license appears in xref:legal-info-list-licenses[the following list],
312 use the same string to make the manifest file uniform.
313 Otherwise, describe the license in a precise and concise way, avoiding
314 ambiguous names such as +BSD+ which actually name a family of licenses.
315 This variable is optional. If it is not defined, +unknown+ will appear in
316 the +license+ field of the manifest file for this package.
318 * +LIBFOO_LICENSE_FILES+ is a space-separated list of files in the package
319 tarball that contain the license(s) under which the package is released.
320 +make legal-info+ copies all of these files in the +legal-info+ directory.
321 See xref:legal-info[] for more information.
322 This variable is optional. If it is not defined, a warning will be produced
323 to let you know, and +not saved+ will appear in the +license files+ field
324 of the manifest file for this package.
326 * +LIBFOO_REDISTRIBUTE+ can be set to +YES+ (default) or +NO+ to indicate if
327 the package source code is allowed to be redistributed. Set it to +NO+ for
328 non-opensource packages: Buildroot will not save the source code for this
329 package when collecting the +legal-info+.
331 The recommended way to define these variables is to use the following
334 ----------------------
335 LIBFOO_VERSION = 2.32
336 ----------------------
338 Now, the variables that define what should be performed at the
339 different steps of the build process.
341 * +LIBFOO_CONFIGURE_CMDS+ lists the actions to be performed to
342 configure the package before its compilation.
344 * +LIBFOO_BUILD_CMDS+ lists the actions to be performed to
347 * +HOST_LIBFOO_INSTALL_CMDS+ lists the actions to be performed
348 to install the package, when the package is a host package. The
349 package must install its files to the directory given by
350 +$(HOST_DIR)+. All files, including development files such as
351 headers should be installed, since other packages might be compiled
352 on top of this package.
354 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+ lists the actions to be
355 performed to install the package to the target directory, when the
356 package is a target package. The package must install its files to
357 the directory given by +$(TARGET_DIR)+. Only the files required for
358 'execution' of the package have to be
359 installed. Header files, static libraries and documentation will be
360 removed again when the target filesystem is finalized.
362 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ lists the actions to be
363 performed to install the package to the staging directory, when the
364 package is a target package. The package must install its files to
365 the directory given by +$(STAGING_DIR)+. All development files
366 should be installed, since they might be needed to compile other
369 * +LIBFOO_CLEAN_CMDS+, lists the actions to perform to clean up
370 the build directory of the package.
372 * +LIBFOO_UNINSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+ lists the actions to
373 uninstall the package from the target directory +$(TARGET_DIR)+
375 * +LIBFOO_UNINSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ lists the actions to
376 uninstall the package from the staging directory +$(STAGING_DIR)+.
378 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSV+ and +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSTEMD+ list the
379 actions to install init scripts either for the systemV-like init systems
380 (busybox, sysvinit, etc.) or for the systemd units. These commands
381 will be run only when the relevant init system is installed (i.e. if
382 systemd is selected as the init system in the configuration, only
383 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSTEMD+ will be run).
385 The preferred way to define these variables is:
387 ----------------------
388 define LIBFOO_CONFIGURE_CMDS
393 ----------------------
395 In the action definitions, you can use the following variables:
397 * +$(@D)+, which contains the directory in which the package source
398 code has been uncompressed.
400 * +$(TARGET_CC)+, +$(TARGET_LD)+, etc. to get the target
401 cross-compilation utilities
403 * +$(TARGET_CROSS)+ to get the cross-compilation toolchain prefix
405 * Of course the +$(HOST_DIR)+, +$(STAGING_DIR)+ and +$(TARGET_DIR)+
406 variables to install the packages properly.
408 The last feature of the generic infrastructure is the ability to add
409 hooks. These define further actions to perform after existing steps.
410 Most hooks aren't really useful for generic packages, since the +.mk+
411 file already has full control over the actions performed in each step
412 of the package construction. The hooks are more useful for packages
413 using the autotools infrastructure described below. However, since
414 they are provided by the generic infrastructure, they are documented
415 here. The exception is +LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS+. Patching the
416 package and producing legal info are not user definable, so
417 +LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS+ and +LIBFOO_POST_LEGAL_INFO_HOOKS+ are
418 useful for generic packages.
420 The following hook points are available:
422 * +LIBFOO_POST_DOWNLOAD_HOOKS+
423 * +LIBFOO_POST_EXTRACT_HOOKS+
424 * +LIBFOO_PRE_PATCH_HOOKS+
425 * +LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS+
426 * +LIBFOO_PRE_CONFIGURE_HOOKS+
427 * +LIBFOO_POST_CONFIGURE_HOOKS+
428 * +LIBFOO_POST_BUILD_HOOKS+
429 * +LIBFOO_POST_INSTALL_HOOKS+ (for host packages only)
430 * +LIBFOO_POST_INSTALL_STAGING_HOOKS+ (for target packages only)
431 * +LIBFOO_POST_INSTALL_TARGET_HOOKS+ (for target packages only)
432 * +LIBFOO_POST_LEGAL_INFO_HOOKS+
434 These variables are 'lists' of variable names containing actions to be
435 performed at this hook point. This allows several hooks to be
436 registered at a given hook point. Here is an example:
438 ----------------------
439 define LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_FIXUP
444 LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS += LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_FIXUP
445 ----------------------