2 // vim: set syntax=asciidoc:
4 === Infrastructure for packages with specific build systems
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
15 ------------------------------
16 01: ################################################################################
20 05: ################################################################################
22 07: LIBFOO_VERSION = 1.0
23 08: LIBFOO_SOURCE = libfoo-$(LIBFOO_VERSION).tar.gz
24 09: LIBFOO_SITE = http://www.foosoftware.org/download
25 10: LIBFOO_LICENSE = GPLv3+
26 11: LIBFOO_LICENSE_FILES = COPYING
27 12: LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING = YES
28 13: LIBFOO_CONFIG_SCRIPTS = libfoo-config
29 14: LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES = host-libaaa libbbb
31 16: define LIBFOO_BUILD_CMDS
32 17: $(MAKE) CC="$(TARGET_CC)" LD="$(TARGET_LD)" -C $(@D) all
35 20: define LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS
36 21: $(INSTALL) -D -m 0755 $(@D)/libfoo.a $(STAGING_DIR)/usr/lib/libfoo.a
37 22: $(INSTALL) -D -m 0644 $(@D)/foo.h $(STAGING_DIR)/usr/include/foo.h
38 23: $(INSTALL) -D -m 0755 $(@D)/libfoo.so* $(STAGING_DIR)/usr/lib
41 26: define LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS
42 27: $(INSTALL) -D -m 0755 $(@D)/libfoo.so* $(TARGET_DIR)/usr/lib
43 28: $(INSTALL) -d -m 0755 $(TARGET_DIR)/etc/foo.d
46 31: define LIBFOO_DEVICES
47 32: /dev/foo c 666 0 0 42 0 - - -
50 35: define LIBFOO_PERMISSIONS
51 36: /bin/foo f 4755 0 0 - - - - -
54 39: define LIBFOO_USERS
55 40: foo -1 libfoo -1 * - - - LibFoo daemon
58 43: $(eval $(generic-package))
59 --------------------------------
61 The Makefile begins on line 7 to 11 with metadata information: the
62 version of the package (+LIBFOO_VERSION+), the name of the
63 tarball containing the package (+LIBFOO_SOURCE+) (xz-ed tarball recommended)
64 the Internet location at which the tarball can be downloaded from
65 (+LIBFOO_SITE+), the license (+LIBFOO_LICENSE+) and file with the
66 license text (+LIBFOO_LICENSE_FILES+). All variables must start with
67 the same prefix, +LIBFOO_+ in this case. This prefix is always the
68 uppercased version of the package name (see below to understand where
69 the package name is defined).
71 On line 12, we specify that this package wants to install something to
72 the staging space. This is often needed for libraries, since they must
73 install header files and other development files in the staging space.
74 This will ensure that the commands listed in the
75 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ variable will be executed.
77 On line 13, we specify that there is some fixing to be done to some
78 of the 'libfoo-config' files that were installed during
79 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ phase.
80 These *-config files are executable shell script files that are
81 located in '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin' directory and are executed
82 by other 3rd party packages to find out the location and the linking
83 flags of this particular package.
85 The problem is that all these *-config files by default give wrong,
86 host system linking flags that are unsuitable for cross-compiling.
88 For example: '-I/usr/include' instead of '-I$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/include'
89 or: '-L/usr/lib' instead of '-L$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/lib'
91 So some sed magic is done to these scripts to make them give correct
93 The argument to be given to +LIBFOO_CONFIG_SCRIPTS+ is the file name(s)
94 of the shell script(s) needing fixing. All these names are relative to
95 '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin' and if needed multiple names can be given.
97 In addition, the scripts listed in +LIBFOO_CONFIG_SCRIPTS+ are removed
98 from +$(TARGET_DIR)/usr/bin+, since they are not needed on the target.
100 .Config script: 'divine' package
101 ================================
102 Package divine installs shell script '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin/divine-config'.
104 So its fixup would be:
106 --------------------------------
107 DIVINE_CONFIG_SCRIPTS = divine-config
108 --------------------------------
109 ================================
111 .Config script: 'imagemagick' package:
112 ================================
113 Package imagemagick installs the following scripts:
114 '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin/{Magick,Magick++,MagickCore,MagickWand,Wand}-config'
116 So it's fixup would be:
118 --------------------------------
119 IMAGEMAGICK_CONFIG_SCRIPTS = \
120 Magick-config Magick++-config \
121 MagickCore-config MagickWand-config Wand-config
122 --------------------------------
123 ================================
125 On line 14, we specify the list of dependencies this package relies
126 on. These dependencies are listed in terms of lower-case package names,
127 which can be packages for the target (without the +host-+
128 prefix) or packages for the host (with the +host-+) prefix).
129 Buildroot will ensure that all these packages are built and installed
130 'before' the current package starts its configuration.
132 The rest of the Makefile, lines 16..29, defines what should be done
133 at the different steps of the package configuration, compilation and
135 +LIBFOO_BUILD_CMDS+ tells what steps should be performed to
136 build the package. +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ tells what
137 steps should be performed to install the package in the staging space.
138 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+ tells what steps should be
139 performed to install the package in the target space.
141 All these steps rely on the +$(@D)+ variable, which
142 contains the directory where the source code of the package has been
145 On line 31..33, we define a device-node file used by this package
148 On line 35..37, we define the permissions to set to specific files
149 installed by this package (+LIBFOO_PERMISSIONS+).
151 On lines 39..41, we define a user that is used by this package (e.g.
152 to run a daemon as non-root) (+LIBFOO_USERS+).
154 Finally, on line 43, we call the +generic-package+ function, which
155 generates, according to the variables defined previously, all the
156 Makefile code necessary to make your package working.
158 [[generic-package-reference]]
160 ==== +generic-package+ reference
162 There are two variants of the generic target. The +generic-package+ macro is
163 used for packages to be cross-compiled for the target. The
164 +host-generic-package+ macro is used for host packages, natively compiled
165 for the host. It is possible to call both of them in a single +.mk+
166 file: once to create the rules to generate a target
167 package and once to create the rules to generate a host package:
169 ----------------------
170 $(eval $(generic-package))
171 $(eval $(host-generic-package))
172 ----------------------
174 This might be useful if the compilation of the target package requires
175 some tools to be installed on the host. If the package name is
176 +libfoo+, then the name of the package for the target is also
177 +libfoo+, while the name of the package for the host is
178 +host-libfoo+. These names should be used in the DEPENDENCIES
179 variables of other packages, if they depend on +libfoo+ or
182 The call to the +generic-package+ and/or +host-generic-package+ macro *must* be
183 at the end of the +.mk+ file, after all variable definitions.
185 For the target package, the +generic-package+ uses the variables defined by
186 the .mk file and prefixed by the uppercased package name:
187 +LIBFOO_*+. +host-generic-package+ uses the +HOST_LIBFOO_*+ variables. For
188 'some' variables, if the +HOST_LIBFOO_+ prefixed variable doesn't
189 exist, the package infrastructure uses the corresponding variable
190 prefixed by +LIBFOO_+. This is done for variables that are likely to
191 have the same value for both the target and host packages. See below
194 The list of variables that can be set in a +.mk+ file to give metadata
195 information is (assuming the package name is +libfoo+) :
197 * +LIBFOO_VERSION+, mandatory, must contain the version of the
198 package. Note that if +HOST_LIBFOO_VERSION+ doesn't exist, it is
199 assumed to be the same as +LIBFOO_VERSION+. It can also be a
200 revision number, branch or tag for packages that are fetched
201 directly from their revision control system. +
203 +LIBFOO_VERSION = 0.1.2+ +
204 +LIBFOO_VERSION = cb9d6aa9429e838f0e54faa3d455bcbab5eef057+ +
205 +LIBFOO_VERSION = stable+
207 * +LIBFOO_SOURCE+ may contain the name of the tarball of the package,
208 which Buildroot will use to download the tarball from
209 +LIBFOO_SITE+. If +HOST_LIBFOO_SOURCE+ is not specified, it defaults
210 to +LIBFOO_SOURCE+. If none are specified, then the value is assumed
211 to be +libfoo-$(LIBFOO_VERSION).tar.gz+. +
212 Example: +LIBFOO_SOURCE = foobar-$(LIBFOO_VERSION).tar.bz2+
214 * +LIBFOO_PATCH+ may contain a space-separated list of patch file
215 names, that Buildroot will download and apply to the package source
216 code. If an entry contains +://+, then Buildroot will assume it is a
217 full URL and download the patch from this location. Otherwise,
218 Buildroot will assume that the patch should be downloaded from
219 +LIBFOO_SITE+. If +HOST_LIBFOO_PATCH+ is not specified, it defaults
220 to +LIBFOO_PATCH+. Note that patches that are included in Buildroot
221 itself use a different mechanism: all files of the form
222 +*.patch+ present in the package directory inside
223 Buildroot will be applied to the package after extraction (see
224 xref:patch-policy[patching a package]). Finally, patches listed in
225 the +LIBFOO_PATCH+ variable are applied _before_ the patches stored
226 in the Buildroot package directory.
228 * +LIBFOO_SITE+ provides the location of the package, which can be a
229 URL or a local filesystem path. HTTP, FTP and SCP are supported URL
230 types for retrieving package tarballs. In these cases don't include a
231 trailing slash: it will be added by Buildroot between the directory
232 and the filename as appropriate. Git, Subversion, Mercurial,
233 and Bazaar are supported URL types for retrieving packages directly
234 from source code management systems. There is a helper function to make
235 it easier to download source tarballs from GitHub (refer to
236 xref:github-download-url[] for details). A filesystem path may be used
237 to specify either a tarball or a directory containing the package
238 source code. See +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ below for more details on how
240 Note that SCP URLs should be of the form
241 +scp://[user@]host:filepath+, and that filepath is relative to the
242 user's home directory, so you may want to prepend the path with a
243 slash for absolute paths:
244 +scp://[user@]host:/absolutepath+. +
245 If +HOST_LIBFOO_SITE+ is not specified, it defaults to
248 +LIBFOO_SITE=http://www.libfoosoftware.org/libfoo+ +
249 +LIBFOO_SITE=http://svn.xiph.org/trunk/Tremor+ +
250 +LIBFOO_SITE=/opt/software/libfoo.tar.gz+ +
251 +LIBFOO_SITE=$(TOPDIR)/../src/libfoo+
253 * +LIBFOO_EXTRA_DOWNLOADS+ is a space-separated list of additional
254 files that Buildroot should download. If an entry contains +://+
255 then Buildroot will assume it is a complete URL and will download
256 the file using this URL. Otherwise, Buildroot will assume the file
257 to be downloaded is located at +LIBFOO_SITE+. Buildroot will not do
258 anything with those additional files, except download them: it will
259 be up to the package recipe to use them from +$(BR2_DL_DIR)+.
261 * +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ determines the method used to fetch or copy the
262 package source code. In many cases, Buildroot guesses the method
263 from the contents of +LIBFOO_SITE+ and setting +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+
264 is unnecessary. When +HOST_LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ is not specified, it
265 defaults to the value of +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+. +
266 The possible values of +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ are:
267 ** +wget+ for normal FTP/HTTP downloads of tarballs. Used by
268 default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +http://+, +https://+ or
270 ** +scp+ for downloads of tarballs over SSH with scp. Used by
271 default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +scp://+.
272 ** +svn+ for retrieving source code from a Subversion repository.
273 Used by default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +svn://+. When a
274 +http://+ Subversion repository URL is specified in
275 +LIBFOO_SITE+, one 'must' specify +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD=svn+.
276 Buildroot performs a checkout which is preserved as a tarball in
277 the download cache; subsequent builds use the tarball instead of
278 performing another checkout.
279 ** +cvs+ for retrieving source code from a CVS repository.
280 Used by default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +cvs://+.
281 The downloaded source code is cached as with the +svn+ method.
282 Only anonymous pserver mode is supported.
283 +LIBFOO_SITE+ 'must' contain the source URL as well as the remote
284 repository directory. The module is the package name.
285 +LIBFOO_VERSION+ is 'mandatory' and 'must' be a tag, a branch, or
286 a date (e.g. "2014-10-20", "2014-10-20 13:45", "2014-10-20
287 13:45+01" see "man cvs" for further details).
288 ** +git+ for retrieving source code from a Git repository. Used by
289 default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +git://+. The downloaded
290 source code is cached as with the +svn+
292 ** +hg+ for retrieving source code from a Mercurial repository. One
293 'must' specify +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD=hg+ when +LIBFOO_SITE+
294 contains a Mercurial repository URL. The downloaded source code
295 is cached as with the +svn+ method.
296 ** +bzr+ for retrieving source code from a Bazaar repository. Used
297 by default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +bzr://+. The
298 downloaded source code is cached as with the +svn+ method.
299 ** +file+ for a local tarball. One should use this when
300 +LIBFOO_SITE+ specifies a package tarball as a local filename.
301 Useful for software that isn't available publicly or in version
303 ** +local+ for a local source code directory. One should use this
304 when +LIBFOO_SITE+ specifies a local directory path containing
305 the package source code. Buildroot copies the contents of the
306 source directory into the package's build directory.
308 * +LIBFOO_STRIP_COMPONENTS+ is the number of leading components
309 (directories) that tar must strip from file names on extraction.
310 The tarball for most packages has one leading component named
311 "<pkg-name>-<pkg-version>", thus Buildroot passes
312 --strip-components=1 to tar to remove it.
313 For non-standard packages that don't have this component, or
314 that have more than one leading component to strip, set this
315 variable with the value to be passed to tar. Default: 1.
317 * +LIBFOO_EXCLUDES+ is a space-separated list of patterns to exclude
318 when extracting the archive. Each item from that list is passed as
319 a tar's +--exclude+ option. By default, empty.
321 * +LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES+ lists the dependencies (in terms of package
322 name) that are required for the current target package to
323 compile. These dependencies are guaranteed to be compiled and
324 installed before the configuration of the current package starts. In
325 a similar way, +HOST_LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES+ lists the dependencies for
326 the current host package.
328 * +LIBFOO_PATCH_DEPENDENCIES+ lists the dependencies (in terms of
329 package name) that are required for the current package to be
330 patched. These dependencies are guaranteed to be extracted and
331 patched before the current package is patched. In a similar way,
332 +HOST_LIBFOO_PATCH_DEPENDENCIES+ lists the dependencies for the
333 current host package.
334 This is seldom used; usually, +LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES+ is what you
337 * +LIBFOO_PROVIDES+ lists all the virtual packages +libfoo+ is an
338 implementation of. See xref:virtual-package-tutorial[].
340 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING+ can be set to +YES+ or +NO+ (default). If
341 set to +YES+, then the commands in the +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+
342 variables are executed to install the package into the staging
345 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET+ can be set to +YES+ (default) or +NO+. If
346 set to +YES+, then the commands in the +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+
347 variables are executed to install the package into the target
350 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_IMAGES+ can be set to +YES+ or +NO+ (default). If
351 set to +YES+, then the commands in the +LIBFOO_INSTALL_IMAGES_CMDS+
352 variable are executed to install the package into the images
355 * +LIBFOO_CONFIG_SCRIPTS+ lists the names of the files in
356 '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin' that need some special fixing to make them
357 cross-compiling friendly. Multiple file names separated by space can
358 be given and all are relative to '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin'. The files
359 listed in +LIBFOO_CONFIG_SCRIPTS+ are also removed from
360 +$(TARGET_DIR)/usr/bin+ since they are not needed on the target.
362 * +LIBFOO_DEVICES+ lists the device files to be created by Buildroot
363 when using the static device table. The syntax to use is the
364 makedevs one. You can find some documentation for this syntax in the
365 xref:makedev-syntax[]. This variable is optional.
367 * +LIBFOO_PERMISSIONS+ lists the changes of permissions to be done at
368 the end of the build process. The syntax is once again the makedevs one.
369 You can find some documentation for this syntax in the xref:makedev-syntax[].
370 This variable is optional.
372 * +LIBFOO_USERS+ lists the users to create for this package, if it installs
373 a program you want to run as a specific user (e.g. as a daemon, or as a
374 cron-job). The syntax is similar in spirit to the makedevs one, and is
375 described in the xref:makeuser-syntax[]. This variable is optional.
377 * +LIBFOO_LICENSE+ defines the license (or licenses) under which the package
379 This name will appear in the manifest file produced by +make legal-info+.
380 If the license appears in xref:legal-info-list-licenses[the following list],
381 use the same string to make the manifest file uniform.
382 Otherwise, describe the license in a precise and concise way, avoiding
383 ambiguous names such as +BSD+ which actually name a family of licenses.
384 This variable is optional. If it is not defined, +unknown+ will appear in
385 the +license+ field of the manifest file for this package.
387 * +LIBFOO_LICENSE_FILES+ is a space-separated list of files in the package
388 tarball that contain the license(s) under which the package is released.
389 +make legal-info+ copies all of these files in the +legal-info+ directory.
390 See xref:legal-info[] for more information.
391 This variable is optional. If it is not defined, a warning will be produced
392 to let you know, and +not saved+ will appear in the +license files+ field
393 of the manifest file for this package.
395 * +LIBFOO_ACTUAL_SOURCE_TARBALL+ only applies to packages whose
396 +LIBFOO_SITE+ / +LIBTOO_SOURCE+ pair points to an archive that does
397 not actually contain source code, but binary code. This a very
398 uncommon case, only known to apply to external toolchains which come
399 already compiled, although theoretically it might apply to other
400 packages. In such cases a separate tarball is usually available with
401 the actual source code. Set +LIBFOO_ACTUAL_SOURCE_TARBALL+ to the
402 name of the actual source code archive and Buildroot will download
403 it and use it when you run +make legal-info+ to collect
404 legally-relevant material. Note this file will not be downloaded
405 during regular builds nor by +make source+.
407 * +LIBFOO_ACTUAL_SOURCE_SITE+ provides the location of the actual
408 source tarball. The default value is +LIBFOO_SITE+, so you don't
409 need to set this variable if the binary and source archives are
410 hosted on the same directory. If +LIBFOO_ACTUAL_SOURCE_TARBALL+ is
411 not set, it doesn't make sense to define
412 +LIBFOO_ACTUAL_SOURCE_SITE+.
414 * +LIBFOO_REDISTRIBUTE+ can be set to +YES+ (default) or +NO+ to indicate if
415 the package source code is allowed to be redistributed. Set it to +NO+ for
416 non-opensource packages: Buildroot will not save the source code for this
417 package when collecting the +legal-info+.
419 * +LIBFOO_FLAT_STACKSIZE+ defines the stack size of an application built into
420 the FLAT binary format. The application stack size on the NOMMU architecture
421 processors can't be enlarged at run time. The default stack size for the
422 FLAT binary format is only 4k bytes. If the application consumes more stack,
423 append the required number here.
425 The recommended way to define these variables is to use the following
428 ----------------------
429 LIBFOO_VERSION = 2.32
430 ----------------------
432 Now, the variables that define what should be performed at the
433 different steps of the build process.
435 * +LIBFOO_EXTRACT_CMDS+ lists the actions to be performed to extract
436 the package. This is generally not needed as tarballs are
437 automatically handled by Buildroot. However, if the package uses a
438 non-standard archive format, such as a ZIP or RAR file, or has a
439 tarball with a non-standard organization, this variable allows to
440 override the package infrastructure default behavior.
442 * +LIBFOO_CONFIGURE_CMDS+ lists the actions to be performed to
443 configure the package before its compilation.
445 * +LIBFOO_BUILD_CMDS+ lists the actions to be performed to
448 * +HOST_LIBFOO_INSTALL_CMDS+ lists the actions to be performed
449 to install the package, when the package is a host package. The
450 package must install its files to the directory given by
451 +$(HOST_DIR)+. All files, including development files such as
452 headers should be installed, since other packages might be compiled
453 on top of this package.
455 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+ lists the actions to be
456 performed to install the package to the target directory, when the
457 package is a target package. The package must install its files to
458 the directory given by +$(TARGET_DIR)+. Only the files required for
459 'execution' of the package have to be
460 installed. Header files, static libraries and documentation will be
461 removed again when the target filesystem is finalized.
463 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ lists the actions to be
464 performed to install the package to the staging directory, when the
465 package is a target package. The package must install its files to
466 the directory given by +$(STAGING_DIR)+. All development files
467 should be installed, since they might be needed to compile other
470 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_IMAGES_CMDS+ lists the actions to be performed to
471 install the package to the images directory, when the package is a
472 target package. The package must install its files to the directory
473 given by +$(BINARIES_DIR)+. Only files that are binary images (aka
474 images) that do not belong in the +TARGET_DIR+ but are necessary
475 for booting the board should be placed here. For example, a package
476 should utilize this step if it has binaries which would be similar
477 to the kernel image, bootloader or root filesystem images.
479 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSV+ and +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSTEMD+ list the
480 actions to install init scripts either for the systemV-like init systems
481 (busybox, sysvinit, etc.) or for the systemd units. These commands
482 will be run only when the relevant init system is installed (i.e. if
483 systemd is selected as the init system in the configuration, only
484 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSTEMD+ will be run).
486 The preferred way to define these variables is:
488 ----------------------
489 define LIBFOO_CONFIGURE_CMDS
494 ----------------------
496 In the action definitions, you can use the following variables:
498 * +$(FOO_PKGDIR)+ contains the path to the directory containing the
499 +foo.mk+ and +Config.in+ files. This variable is useful when it is
500 necessary to install a file bundled in Buildroot, like a runtime
501 configuration file, a splashscren image...
503 * +$(@D)+, which contains the directory in which the package source
504 code has been uncompressed.
506 * +$(TARGET_CC)+, +$(TARGET_LD)+, etc. to get the target
507 cross-compilation utilities
509 * +$(TARGET_CROSS)+ to get the cross-compilation toolchain prefix
511 * Of course the +$(HOST_DIR)+, +$(STAGING_DIR)+ and +$(TARGET_DIR)+
512 variables to install the packages properly.
514 Finally, you can also use hooks. See xref:hooks[] for more information.