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: $(eval $(generic-package))
57 --------------------------------
59 The Makefile begins on line 7 to 11 with metadata information: the
60 version of the package (+LIBFOO_VERSION+), the name of the
61 tarball containing the package (+LIBFOO_SOURCE+) the
62 Internet location at which the tarball can be downloaded from
63 (+LIBFOO_SITE+), the license (+LIBFOO_LICENSE+) and file with the
64 license text (+LIBFOO_LICENSE_FILES+). All variables must start with
65 the same prefix, +LIBFOO_+ in this case. This prefix is always the
66 uppercased version of the package name (see below to understand where
67 the package name is defined).
69 On line 12, we specify that this package wants to install something to
70 the staging space. This is often needed for libraries, since they must
71 install header files and other development files in the staging space.
72 This will ensure that the commands listed in the
73 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ variable will be executed.
75 On line 13, we specify that there is some fixing to be done to some
76 of the 'libfoo-config' files that were installed during
77 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ phase.
78 These *-config files are executable shell script files that are
79 located in '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin' directory and are executed
80 by other 3rd party packages to find out the location and the linking
81 flags of this particular package.
83 The problem is that all these *-config files by default give wrong,
84 host system linking flags that are unsuitable for cross-compiling.
86 For example: '-I/usr/include' instead of '-I$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/include'
87 or: '-L/usr/lib' instead of '-L$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/lib'
89 So some sed magic is done to these scripts to make them give correct
91 The argument to be given to +LIBFOO_CONFIG_SCRIPTS+ is the file name(s)
92 of the shell script(s) needing fixing. All these names are relative to
93 '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin' and if needed multiple names can be given.
95 In addition, the scripts listed in +LIBFOO_CONFIG_SCRIPTS+ are removed
96 from +$(TARGET_DIR)/usr/bin+, since they are not needed on the target.
100 Package divine installs shell script '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin/divine-config'.
102 So it's fixup would be:
104 DIVINE_CONFIG_SCRIPTS = divine-config
108 Package imagemagick installs the following scripts:
109 '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin/{Magick,Magick++,MagickCore,MagickWand,Wand}-config'
111 So it's fixup would be:
113 IMAGEMAGICK_CONFIG_SCRIPTS = \
114 Magick-config Magick++-config \
115 MagickCore-config MagickWand-config Wand-config
117 On line 14, we specify the list of dependencies this package relies
118 on. These dependencies are listed in terms of lower-case package names,
119 which can be packages for the target (without the +host-+
120 prefix) or packages for the host (with the +host-+) prefix).
121 Buildroot will ensure that all these packages are built and installed
122 'before' the current package starts its configuration.
124 The rest of the Makefile, lines 16..29, defines what should be done
125 at the different steps of the package configuration, compilation and
127 +LIBFOO_BUILD_CMDS+ tells what steps should be performed to
128 build the package. +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ tells what
129 steps should be performed to install the package in the staging space.
130 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+ tells what steps should be
131 performed to install the package in the target space.
133 All these steps rely on the +$(@D)+ variable, which
134 contains the directory where the source code of the package has been
137 On line 31..33, we define a device-node file used by this package
140 On line 35..37, we define the permissions to set to specific files
141 installed by this package (+LIBFOO_PERMISSIONS+).
143 Finally, on line 39, we call the +generic-package+ function, which
144 generates, according to the variables defined previously, all the
145 Makefile code necessary to make your package working.
147 [[generic-package-reference]]
149 +generic-package+ Reference
150 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
152 There are two variants of the generic target. The +generic-package+ macro is
153 used for packages to be cross-compiled for the target. The
154 +host-generic-package+ macro is used for host packages, natively compiled
155 for the host. It is possible to call both of them in a single +.mk+
156 file: once to create the rules to generate a target
157 package and once to create the rules to generate a host package:
159 ----------------------
160 $(eval $(generic-package))
161 $(eval $(host-generic-package))
162 ----------------------
164 This might be useful if the compilation of the target package requires
165 some tools to be installed on the host. If the package name is
166 +libfoo+, then the name of the package for the target is also
167 +libfoo+, while the name of the package for the host is
168 +host-libfoo+. These names should be used in the DEPENDENCIES
169 variables of other packages, if they depend on +libfoo+ or
172 The call to the +generic-package+ and/or +host-generic-package+ macro *must* be
173 at the end of the +.mk+ file, after all variable definitions.
175 For the target package, the +generic-package+ uses the variables defined by
176 the .mk file and prefixed by the uppercased package name:
177 +LIBFOO_*+. +host-generic-package+ uses the +HOST_LIBFOO_*+ variables. For
178 'some' variables, if the +HOST_LIBFOO_+ prefixed variable doesn't
179 exist, the package infrastructure uses the corresponding variable
180 prefixed by +LIBFOO_+. This is done for variables that are likely to
181 have the same value for both the target and host packages. See below
184 The list of variables that can be set in a +.mk+ file to give metadata
185 information is (assuming the package name is +libfoo+) :
187 * +LIBFOO_VERSION+, mandatory, must contain the version of the
188 package. Note that if +HOST_LIBFOO_VERSION+ doesn't exist, it is
189 assumed to be the same as +LIBFOO_VERSION+. It can also be a
190 revision number, branch or tag for packages that are fetched
191 directly from their revision control system. +
193 +LIBFOO_VERSION = 0.1.2+ +
194 +LIBFOO_VERSION = cb9d6aa9429e838f0e54faa3d455bcbab5eef057+ +
195 +LIBFOO_VERSION = stable+
197 * +LIBFOO_SOURCE+ may contain the name of the tarball of
198 the package. If +HOST_LIBFOO_SOURCE+ is not specified, it
199 defaults to +LIBFOO_SOURCE+. If none are specified, then
200 the value is assumed to be
201 +packagename-$(LIBFOO_VERSION).tar.gz+. +
202 Example: +LIBFOO_SOURCE = foobar-$(LIBFOO_VERSION).tar.bz2+
204 * +LIBFOO_PATCH+ may contain a space-separated list of patch file
205 names, that will be downloaded from the same location as the tarball
206 indicated in +LIBFOO_SOURCE+, and then applied to the package source
207 code. If +HOST_LIBFOO_PATCH+ is not specified, it defaults to
208 +LIBFOO_PATCH+. Note that patches that are included in Buildroot
209 itself use a different mechanism: all files of the form
210 +<packagename>-*.patch+ present in the package directory inside
211 Buildroot will be applied to the package after extraction (see
212 xref:patch-policy[patching a package]). Finally, patches listed in
213 the +LIBFOO_PATCH+ variable are applied _before_ the patches stored
214 in the Buildroot package directory.
216 * +LIBFOO_SITE+ provides the location of the package, which can be a
217 URL or a local filesystem path. HTTP, FTP and SCP are supported URL
218 types for retrieving package tarballs. Git, Subversion, Mercurial,
219 and Bazaar are supported URL types for retrieving packages directly
220 from source code management systems. A filesystem path may be used
221 to specify either a tarball or a directory containing the package
222 source code. See +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ below for more details on how
224 Note that SCP URLs should be of the form
225 +scp://[user@]host:filepath+, and that filepath is relative to the
226 user's home directory, so you may want to prepend the path with a
227 slash for absolute paths:
228 +scp://[user@]host:/absolutepath+. +
229 If +HOST_LIBFOO_SITE+ is not specified, it defaults to
232 +LIBFOO_SITE=http://www.libfoosoftware.org/libfoo+ +
233 +LIBFOO_SITE=http://svn.xiph.org/trunk/Tremor/+ +
234 +LIBFOO_SITE=git://github.com/kergoth/tslib.git+ +
235 +LIBFOO_SITE=/opt/software/libfoo.tar.gz+ +
236 +LIBFOO_SITE=$(TOPDIR)/../src/libfoo/+
238 * +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ determines the method used to fetch or copy the
239 package source code. In many cases, Buildroot guesses the method
240 from the contents of +LIBFOO_SITE+ and setting +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+
241 is unnecessary. When +HOST_LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ is not specified, it
242 defaults to the value of +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+. +
243 The possible values of +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ are:
244 ** +wget+ for normal FTP/HTTP downloads of tarballs. Used by
245 default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +http://+, +https://+ or
247 ** +scp+ for downloads of tarballs over SSH with scp. Used by
248 default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +scp://+.
249 ** +svn+ for retrieving source code from a Subversion repository.
250 Used by default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +svn://+. When a
251 +http://+ Subversion repository URL is specified in
252 +LIBFOO_SITE+, one 'must' specify +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD=svn+.
253 Buildroot performs a checkout which is preserved as a tarball in
254 the download cache; subsequent builds use the tarball instead of
255 performing another checkout.
256 ** +git+ for retrieving source code from a Git repository. Used by
257 default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +git://+. The downloaded
258 source code is cached as with the +svn+
260 ** +hg+ for retrieving source code from a Mercurial repository. One
261 'must' specify +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD=hg+ when +LIBFOO_SITE+
262 contains a Mercurial repository URL. The downloaded source code
263 is cached as with the +svn+ method.
264 ** +bzr+ for retrieving source code from a Bazaar repository. Used
265 by default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +bzr://+. The
266 downloaded source code is cached as with the +svn+ method.
267 ** +file+ for a local tarball. One should use this when
268 +LIBFOO_SITE+ specifies a package tarball as a local filename.
269 Useful for software that isn't available publicly or in version
271 ** +local+ for a local source code directory. One should use this
272 when +LIBFOO_SITE+ specifies a local directory path containing
273 the package source code. Buildroot copies the contents of the
274 source directory into the package's build directory.
276 * +LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES+ lists the dependencies (in terms of package
277 name) that are required for the current target package to
278 compile. These dependencies are guaranteed to be compiled and
279 installed before the configuration of the current package starts. In
280 a similar way, +HOST_LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES+ lists the dependencies for
281 the current host package.
283 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING+ can be set to +YES+ or +NO+ (default). If
284 set to +YES+, then the commands in the +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+
285 variables are executed to install the package into the staging
288 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET+ can be set to +YES+ (default) or +NO+. If
289 set to +YES+, then the commands in the +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+
290 variables are executed to install the package into the target
293 * +LIBFOO_CONFIG_SCRIPTS+ lists the names of the files in
294 '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin' that need some special fixing to make them
295 cross-compiling friendly. Multiple file names separated by space can
296 be given and all are relative to '$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/bin'. The files
297 listed in +LIBFOO_CONFIG_SCRIPTS+ are also removed from
298 +$(TARGET_DIR)/usr/bin+ since they are not needed on the target.
300 * +LIBFOO_DEVICES+ lists the device files to be created by Buildroot
301 when using the static device table. The syntax to use is the
302 makedevs one. You can find some documentation for this syntax in the
303 xref:makedev-syntax[]. This variable is optional.
305 * +LIBFOO_PERMISSIONS+ lists the changes of permissions to be done at
306 the end of the build process. The syntax is once again the makedevs one.
307 You can find some documentation for this syntax in the xref:makedev-syntax[].
308 This variable is optional.
310 * +LIBFOO_LICENSE+ defines the license (or licenses) under which the package
312 This name will appear in the manifest file produced by +make legal-info+.
313 If the license appears in xref:legal-info-list-licenses[the following list],
314 use the same string to make the manifest file uniform.
315 Otherwise, describe the license in a precise and concise way, avoiding
316 ambiguous names such as +BSD+ which actually name a family of licenses.
317 This variable is optional. If it is not defined, +unknown+ will appear in
318 the +license+ field of the manifest file for this package.
320 * +LIBFOO_LICENSE_FILES+ is a space-separated list of files in the package
321 tarball that contain the license(s) under which the package is released.
322 +make legal-info+ copies all of these files in the +legal-info+ directory.
323 See xref:legal-info[] for more information.
324 This variable is optional. If it is not defined, a warning will be produced
325 to let you know, and +not saved+ will appear in the +license files+ field
326 of the manifest file for this package.
328 * +LIBFOO_REDISTRIBUTE+ can be set to +YES+ (default) or +NO+ to indicate if
329 the package source code is allowed to be redistributed. Set it to +NO+ for
330 non-opensource packages: Buildroot will not save the source code for this
331 package when collecting the +legal-info+.
333 The recommended way to define these variables is to use the following
336 ----------------------
337 LIBFOO_VERSION = 2.32
338 ----------------------
340 Now, the variables that define what should be performed at the
341 different steps of the build process.
343 * +LIBFOO_CONFIGURE_CMDS+ lists the actions to be performed to
344 configure the package before its compilation.
346 * +LIBFOO_BUILD_CMDS+ lists the actions to be performed to
349 * +HOST_LIBFOO_INSTALL_CMDS+ lists the actions to be performed
350 to install the package, when the package is a host package. The
351 package must install its files to the directory given by
352 +$(HOST_DIR)+. All files, including development files such as
353 headers should be installed, since other packages might be compiled
354 on top of this package.
356 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+ lists the actions to be
357 performed to install the package to the target directory, when the
358 package is a target package. The package must install its files to
359 the directory given by +$(TARGET_DIR)+. Only the files required for
360 'execution' of the package have to be
361 installed. Header files, static libraries and documentation will be
362 removed again when the target filesystem is finalized.
364 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ lists the actions to be
365 performed to install the package to the staging directory, when the
366 package is a target package. The package must install its files to
367 the directory given by +$(STAGING_DIR)+. All development files
368 should be installed, since they might be needed to compile other
371 * +LIBFOO_CLEAN_CMDS+, lists the actions to perform to clean up
372 the build directory of the package.
374 * +LIBFOO_UNINSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+ lists the actions to
375 uninstall the package from the target directory +$(TARGET_DIR)+
377 * +LIBFOO_UNINSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ lists the actions to
378 uninstall the package from the staging directory +$(STAGING_DIR)+.
380 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSV+ and +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSTEMD+ list the
381 actions to install init scripts either for the systemV-like init systems
382 (busybox, sysvinit, etc.) or for the systemd units. These commands
383 will be run only when the relevant init system is installed (i.e. if
384 systemd is selected as the init system in the configuration, only
385 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSTEMD+ will be run).
387 The preferred way to define these variables is:
389 ----------------------
390 define LIBFOO_CONFIGURE_CMDS
395 ----------------------
397 In the action definitions, you can use the following variables:
399 * +$(@D)+, which contains the directory in which the package source
400 code has been uncompressed.
402 * +$(TARGET_CC)+, +$(TARGET_LD)+, etc. to get the target
403 cross-compilation utilities
405 * +$(TARGET_CROSS)+ to get the cross-compilation toolchain prefix
407 * Of course the +$(HOST_DIR)+, +$(STAGING_DIR)+ and +$(TARGET_DIR)+
408 variables to install the packages properly.
410 The last feature of the generic infrastructure is the ability to add
411 hooks. These define further actions to perform after existing steps.
412 Most hooks aren't really useful for generic packages, since the +.mk+
413 file already has full control over the actions performed in each step
414 of the package construction. The hooks are more useful for packages
415 using the autotools infrastructure described below. However, since
416 they are provided by the generic infrastructure, they are documented
417 here. The exception is +LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS+. Patching the
418 package and producing legal info are not user definable, so
419 +LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS+ and +LIBFOO_POST_LEGAL_INFO_HOOKS+ are
420 useful for generic packages.
422 The following hook points are available:
424 * +LIBFOO_POST_DOWNLOAD_HOOKS+
425 * +LIBFOO_POST_EXTRACT_HOOKS+
426 * +LIBFOO_PRE_PATCH_HOOKS+
427 * +LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS+
428 * +LIBFOO_PRE_CONFIGURE_HOOKS+
429 * +LIBFOO_POST_CONFIGURE_HOOKS+
430 * +LIBFOO_POST_BUILD_HOOKS+
431 * +LIBFOO_POST_INSTALL_HOOKS+ (for host packages only)
432 * +LIBFOO_POST_INSTALL_STAGING_HOOKS+ (for target packages only)
433 * +LIBFOO_POST_INSTALL_TARGET_HOOKS+ (for target packages only)
434 * +LIBFOO_POST_LEGAL_INFO_HOOKS+
436 These variables are 'lists' of variable names containing actions to be
437 performed at this hook point. This allows several hooks to be
438 registered at a given hook point. Here is an example:
440 ----------------------
441 define LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_FIXUP
446 LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS += LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_FIXUP
447 ----------------------