2 // vim: set syntax=asciidoc:
6 [[package-name-variable-relation]]
7 ==== Package name, config entry name and makefile variable relationship
9 In Buildroot, there is some relationship between:
11 * the _package name_, which is the package directory name (and the
12 name of the +*.mk+ file);
14 * the config entry name that is declared in the +Config.in+ file;
16 * the makefile variable prefix.
18 It is mandatory to maintain consistency between these elements,
19 using the following rules:
21 * the package directory and the +*.mk+ name are the _package name_
22 itself (e.g.: +package/foo-bar_boo/foo-bar_boo.mk+);
24 * the _make_ target name is the _package name_ itself (e.g.:
27 * the config entry is the upper case _package name_ with `.` and `-`
28 characters substituted with `_`, prefixed with +BR2_PACKAGE_+ (e.g.:
29 +BR2_PACKAGE_FOO_BAR_BOO+);
31 * the +*.mk+ file variable prefix is the upper case _package name_
32 with `.` and `-` characters substituted with `_` (e.g.:
33 +FOO_BAR_BOO_VERSION+).
36 ==== How to check the coding style
38 Buildroot provides a script in +utils/check-package+ that checks new or
39 changed files for coding style. It is not a complete language validator,
40 but it catches many common mistakes. It is meant to run in the actual
41 files you created or modified, before creating the patch for submission.
43 This script can be used for packages, filesystem makefiles, Config.in
44 files, etc. It does not check the files defining the package
45 infrastructures and some other files containing similar common code.
47 To use it, run the +check-package+ script, by telling which files you
51 $ ./utils/check-package package/new-package/*
54 If you have the +utils+ directory in your path you can also run:
57 $ cd package/new-package/
61 The tool can also be used for packages in a br2-external:
64 $ check-package -b /path/to/br2-ext-tree/package/my-package/*
68 ==== How to test your package
70 Once you have added your new package, it is important that you test it
71 under various conditions: does it build for all architectures? Does it
72 build with the different C libraries? Does it need threads, NPTL? And
75 Buildroot runs http://autobuild.buildroot.org/[autobuilders] which
76 continuously test random configurations. However, these only build the
77 `master` branch of the git tree, and your new fancy package is not yet
80 Buildroot provides a script in +utils/test-pkg+ that uses the same base
81 configurations as used by the autobuilders so you can test your package
82 in the same conditions.
84 First, create a config snippet that contains all the necessary options
85 needed to enable your package, but without any architecture or toolchain
86 option. For example, let's create a config snippet that just enables
87 +libcurl+, without any TLS backend:
94 If your package needs more configuration options, you can add them to the
95 config snippet. For example, here's how you would test +libcurl+ with
96 +openssl+ as a TLS backend and the +curl+ program:
100 BR2_PACKAGE_LIBCURL=y
102 BR2_PACKAGE_OPENSSL=y
105 Then run the +test-pkg+ script, by telling it what config snippet to use
106 and what package to test:
109 $ ./utils/test-pkg -c libcurl.config -p libcurl
112 By default, +test-pkg+ will build your package against a subset of the
113 toolchains used by the autobuilders, which has been selected by the
114 Buildroot developers as being the most useful and representative
115 subset. If you want to test all toolchains, pass the +-a+ option. Note
116 that in any case, internal toolchains are excluded as they take too
119 The output lists all toolchains that are tested and the corresponding
120 result (excerpt, results are fake):
123 $ ./utils/test-pkg -c libcurl.config -p libcurl
124 armv5-ctng-linux-gnueabi [ 1/11]: OK
125 armv7-ctng-linux-gnueabihf [ 2/11]: OK
126 br-aarch64-glibc [ 3/11]: SKIPPED
127 br-arcle-hs38 [ 4/11]: SKIPPED
128 br-arm-basic [ 5/11]: FAILED
129 br-arm-cortex-a9-glibc [ 6/11]: OK
130 br-arm-cortex-a9-musl [ 7/11]: FAILED
131 br-arm-cortex-m4-full [ 8/11]: OK
132 br-arm-full [ 9/11]: OK
133 br-arm-full-nothread [10/11]: FAILED
134 br-arm-full-static [11/11]: OK
135 11 builds, 2 skipped, 2 build failed, 1 legal-info failed
140 * `OK`: the build was successful.
141 * `SKIPPED`: one or more configuration options listed in the config
142 snippet were not present in the final configuration. This is due to
143 options having dependencies not satisfied by the toolchain, such as
144 for example a package that +depends on BR2_USE_MMU+ with a noMMU
145 toolchain. The missing options are reported in +missing.config+ in
146 the output build directory (+~/br-test-pkg/TOOLCHAIN_NAME/+ by
148 * `FAILED`: the build failed. Inspect the +logfile+ file in the output
149 build directory to see what went wrong:
150 ** the actual build failed,
151 ** the legal-info failed,
152 ** one of the preliminary steps (downloading the config file, applying
153 the configuration, running `dirclean` for the package) failed.
155 When there are failures, you can just re-run the script with the same
156 options (after you fixed your package); the script will attempt to
157 re-build the package specified with +-p+ for all toolchains, without
158 the need to re-build all the dependencies of that package.
160 The +test-pkg+ script accepts a few options, for which you can get some
164 $ ./utils/test-pkg -h
167 [[github-download-url]]
168 ==== How to add a package from GitHub
170 Packages on GitHub often don't have a download area with release tarballs.
171 However, it is possible to download tarballs directly from the repository
172 on GitHub. As GitHub is known to have changed download mechanisms in the
173 past, the 'github' helper function should be used as shown below.
175 ------------------------
176 # Use a tag or a full commit ID
178 FOO_SITE = $(call github,<user>,<package>,$(FOO_VERSION))
179 ------------------------
182 - The FOO_VERSION can either be a tag or a commit ID.
183 - The tarball name generated by github matches the default one from
184 Buildroot (e.g.: +foo-f6fb6654af62045239caed5950bc6c7971965e60.tar.gz+),
185 so it is not necessary to specify it in the +.mk+ file.
186 - When using a commit ID as version, you should use the full 40 hex characters.
188 If the package you wish to add does have a release section on GitHub, the
189 maintainer may have uploaded a release tarball, or the release may just point
190 to the automatically generated tarball from the git tag. If there is a
191 release tarball uploaded by the maintainer, we prefer to use that since it
192 may be slightly different (e.g. it contains a configure script so we don't
193 need to do AUTORECONF).
195 You can see on the release page if it's an uploaded tarball or a git tag:
197 image::github_hash_mongrel2.png[]
199 - If it looks like the image above then it was uploaded by the
200 maintainer and you should use that link (in that example:
201 'mongrel2-v1.9.2.tar.bz2') to specify +FOO_SITE+, and not use the
204 - On the other hand, if there's is *only* the "Source code" link, then
205 it's an automatically generated tarball and you should use the
206 'github' helper function.