1 Infrastructure for packages with specific build systems
2 -------------------------------------------------------
4 By 'packages with specific build systems' we mean all the packages
5 whose build system is not one of the standard ones, such as
6 'autotools' or 'CMake'. This typically includes packages whose build
7 system is based on hand-written Makefiles or shell scripts.
9 [[generic-package-tutorial]]
11 +generic-package+ Tutorial
12 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
14 ------------------------------
15 01: #############################################################
19 05: #############################################################
20 06: LIBFOO_VERSION = 1.0
21 07: LIBFOO_SOURCE = libfoo-$(LIBFOO_VERSION).tar.gz
22 08: LIBFOO_SITE = http://www.foosoftware.org/download
23 09: LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING = YES
24 10: LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES = host-libaaa libbbb
26 12: define LIBFOO_BUILD_CMDS
27 13: $(MAKE) CC="$(TARGET_CC)" LD="$(TARGET_LD)" -C $(@D) all
30 16: define LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS
31 17: $(INSTALL) -D -m 0755 $(@D)/libfoo.a $(STAGING_DIR)/usr/lib/libfoo.a
32 18: $(INSTALL) -D -m 0644 $(@D)/foo.h $(STAGING_DIR)/usr/include/foo.h
33 19: $(INSTALL) -D -m 0755 $(@D)/libfoo.so* $(STAGING_DIR)/usr/lib
36 22: define LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS
37 23: $(INSTALL) -D -m 0755 $(@D)/libfoo.so* $(TARGET_DIR)/usr/lib
38 24: $(INSTALL) -d -m 0755 $(TARGET_DIR)/etc/foo.d
41 27: define LIBFOO_DEVICES
42 28: /dev/foo c 666 0 0 42 0 - - -
45 31: define LIBFOO_PERMISSIONS
46 32: /bin/foo f 4755 0 0 - - - - -
49 35: $(eval $(generic-package))
50 --------------------------------
52 The Makefile begins on line 6 to 8 with metadata information: the
53 version of the package (+LIBFOO_VERSION+), the name of the
54 tarball containing the package (+LIBFOO_SOURCE+) and the
55 Internet location at which the tarball can be downloaded
56 (+LIBFOO_SITE+). All variables must start with the same prefix,
57 +LIBFOO_+ in this case. This prefix is always the uppercased
58 version of the package name (see below to understand where the package
61 On line 9, we specify that this package wants to install something to
62 the staging space. This is often needed for libraries, since they must
63 install header files and other development files in the staging space.
64 This will ensure that the commands listed in the
65 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ variable will be executed.
67 On line 10, we specify the list of dependencies this package relies
68 on. These dependencies are listed in terms of lower-case package names,
69 which can be packages for the target (without the +host-+
70 prefix) or packages for the host (with the +host-+) prefix).
71 Buildroot will ensure that all these packages are built and installed
72 'before' the current package starts its configuration.
74 The rest of the Makefile defines what should be done at the different
75 steps of the package configuration, compilation and installation.
76 +LIBFOO_BUILD_CMDS+ tells what steps should be performed to
77 build the package. +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ tells what
78 steps should be performed to install the package in the staging space.
79 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+ tells what steps should be
80 performed to install the package in the target space.
82 All these steps rely on the +$(@D)+ variable, which
83 contains the directory where the source code of the package has been
86 Finally, on line 35, we call the +generic-package+ which
87 generates, according to the variables defined previously, all the
88 Makefile code necessary to make your package working.
90 [[generic-package-reference]]
92 +generic-package+ Reference
93 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
95 There are two variants of the generic target. The +generic-package+ macro is
96 used for packages to be cross-compiled for the target. The
97 +host-generic-package+ macro is used for host packages, natively compiled
98 for the host. It is possible to call both of them in a single +.mk+
99 file: once to create the rules to generate a target
100 package and once to create the rules to generate a host package:
102 ----------------------
103 $(eval $(generic-package))
104 $(eval $(host-generic-package))
105 ----------------------
107 This might be useful if the compilation of the target package requires
108 some tools to be installed on the host. If the package name is
109 +libfoo+, then the name of the package for the target is also
110 +libfoo+, while the name of the package for the host is
111 +host-libfoo+. These names should be used in the DEPENDENCIES
112 variables of other packages, if they depend on +libfoo+ or
115 The call to the +generic-package+ and/or +host-generic-package+ macro *must* be
116 at the end of the +.mk+ file, after all variable definitions.
118 For the target package, the +generic-package+ uses the variables defined by
119 the .mk file and prefixed by the uppercased package name:
120 +LIBFOO_*+. +host-generic-package+ uses the +HOST_LIBFOO_*+ variables. For
121 'some' variables, if the +HOST_LIBFOO_+ prefixed variable doesn't
122 exist, the package infrastructure uses the corresponding variable
123 prefixed by +LIBFOO_+. This is done for variables that are likely to
124 have the same value for both the target and host packages. See below
127 The list of variables that can be set in a +.mk+ file to give metadata
128 information is (assuming the package name is +libfoo+) :
130 * +LIBFOO_VERSION+, mandatory, must contain the version of the
131 package. Note that if +HOST_LIBFOO_VERSION+ doesn't exist, it is
132 assumed to be the same as +LIBFOO_VERSION+. It can also be a
133 revision number, branch or tag for packages that are fetched
134 directly from their revision control system. +
136 +LIBFOO_VERSION = 0.1.2+ +
137 +LIBFOO_VERSION = cb9d6aa9429e838f0e54faa3d455bcbab5eef057+ +
138 +LIBFOO_VERSION = stable+
140 * +LIBFOO_SOURCE+ may contain the name of the tarball of
141 the package. If +HOST_LIBFOO_SOURCE+ is not specified, it
142 defaults to +LIBFOO_SOURCE+. If none are specified, then
143 the value is assumed to be
144 +packagename-$(LIBFOO_VERSION).tar.gz+. +
145 Example: +LIBFOO_SOURCE = foobar-$(LIBFOO_VERSION).tar.bz2+
147 * +LIBFOO_PATCH+ may contain the name of a patch, that will be
148 downloaded from the same location as the tarball indicated in
149 +LIBFOO_SOURCE+. If +HOST_LIBFOO_PATCH+ is not specified, it
150 defaults to +LIBFOO_PATCH+. Also note that another mechanism is
151 available to patch a package: all files of the form
152 +packagename-packageversion-description.patch+ present in the
153 package directory inside Buildroot will be applied to the package
156 * +LIBFOO_SITE+ provides the location of the package, which can be a
157 URL or a local filesystem path. HTTP, FTP and SCP are supported URL
158 types for retrieving package tarballs. Git, Subversion, Mercurial,
159 and Bazaar are supported URL types for retrieving packages directly
160 from source code management systems. A filesystem path may be used
161 to specify either a tarball or a directory containing the package
162 source code. See +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ below for more details on how
164 Note that SCP URLs should be of the form
165 +scp://[user@]host:filepath+, and that filepath is relative to the
166 user's home directory, so you may want to prepend the path with a
167 slash for absolute paths:
168 +scp://[user@]host:/absolutepath+. +
169 If +HOST_LIBFOO_SITE+ is not specified, it defaults to
170 +LIBFOO_SITE+. If none are specified, then the location is assumed
172 +http://$$(BR2_SOURCEFORGE_MIRROR).dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/packagename+. +
174 +LIBFOO_SITE=http://www.libfoosoftware.org/libfoo+ +
175 +LIBFOO_SITE=http://svn.xiph.org/trunk/Tremor/+ +
176 +LIBFOO_SITE=git://github.com/kergoth/tslib.git+
177 +LIBFOO_SITE=/opt/software/libfoo.tar.gz+
178 +LIBFOO_SITE=$(TOPDIR)/../src/libfoo/+
180 * +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ determines the method used to fetch or copy the
181 package source code. In many cases, Buildroot guesses the method
182 from the contents of +LIBFOO_SITE+ and setting +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+
183 is unnecessary. When +HOST_LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ is not specified, it
184 defaults to the value of +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+. +
185 The possible values of +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ are:
186 ** +wget+ for normal FTP/HTTP downloads of tarballs. Used by
187 default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +http://+, +https://+ or
189 ** +scp+ for downloads of tarballs over SSH with scp. Used by
190 default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +scp://+.
191 ** +svn+ for retrieving source code from a Subversion repository.
192 Used by default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +svn://+. When a
193 +http://+ Subversion repository URL is specified in
194 +LIBFOO_SITE+, one 'must' specify +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD=svn+.
195 Buildroot performs a checkout which is preserved as a tarball in
196 the download cache; subsequent builds use the tarball instead of
197 performing another checkout.
198 ** +git+ for retrieving source code from a Git repository. Used by
199 default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +git://+. The downloaded
200 source code is cached as with the +svn+
202 ** +hg+ for retrieving source code from a Mercurial repository. One
203 'must' specify +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD=hg+ when +LIBFOO_SITE+
204 contains a Mercurial repository URL. The downloaded source code
205 is cached as with the +svn+ method.
206 ** +bzr+ for retrieving source code from a Bazaar repository. Used
207 by default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +bzr://+. The
208 downloaded source code is cached as with the +svn+ method.
209 ** +file+ for a local tarball. One should use this when
210 +LIBFOO_SITE+ specifies a package tarball as a local filename.
211 Useful for software that isn't available publicly or in version
213 ** +local+ for a local source code directory. One should use this
214 when +LIBFOO_SITE+ specifies a local directory path containing
215 the package source code. Buildroot copies the contents of the
216 source directory into the package's build directory.
218 * +LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES+ lists the dependencies (in terms of package
219 name) that are required for the current target package to
220 compile. These dependencies are guaranteed to be compiled and
221 installed before the configuration of the current package starts. In
222 a similar way, +HOST_LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES+ lists the dependency for
223 the current host package.
225 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING+ can be set to +YES+ or +NO+ (default). If
226 set to +YES+, then the commands in the +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+
227 variables are executed to install the package into the staging
230 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET+ can be set to +YES+ (default) or +NO+. If
231 set to +YES+, then the commands in the +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+
232 variables are executed to install the package into the target
235 * +LIBFOO_DEVICES+ lists the device files to be created by Buildroot
236 when using the static device table. The syntax to use is the
237 makedevs one. You can find some documentation for this syntax in the
238 xref:makedev-syntax[]. This variable is optional.
240 * +LIBFOO_PERMISSIONS+ lists the changes of permissions to be done at
241 the end of the build process. The syntax is once again the makedevs one.
242 You can find some documentation for this syntax in the xref:makedev-syntax[].
243 This variable is optional.
245 * +LIBFOO_LICENSE+ defines the license (or licenses) under which the package
247 This name will appear in the manifest file produced by +make legal-info+.
248 If the license is one of those listed in xref:legal-info[],
249 use the same string to make the manifest file uniform.
250 Otherwise, describe the license in a precise and concise way, avoiding
251 ambiguous names such as +BSD+ which actually name a family of licenses.
252 If the root filesystem you generate contains non-opensource packages, you
253 can define their license as +PROPRIETARY+: Buildroot will not save any
254 licensing info or source code for this package.
255 This variable is optional. If it is not defined, +unknown+ will appear in
256 the +license+ field of the manifest file for this package.
258 * +LIBFOO_LICENSE_FILES+ is a space-separated list of files in the package
259 tarball that contain the license(s) under which the package is released.
260 +make legal-info+ copies all of these files in the +legal-info+ directory.
261 See xref:legal-info[] for more information.
262 This variable is optional. If it is not defined, a warning will be produced
263 to let you know, and +not saved+ will appear in the +license files+ field
264 of the manifest file for this package.
266 The recommended way to define these variables is to use the following
269 ----------------------
270 LIBFOO_VERSION = 2.32
271 ----------------------
273 Now, the variables that define what should be performed at the
274 different steps of the build process.
276 * +LIBFOO_CONFIGURE_CMDS+, used to list the actions to be performed to
277 configure the package before its compilation
279 * +LIBFOO_BUILD_CMDS+, used to list the actions to be performed to
282 * +HOST_LIBFOO_INSTALL_CMDS+, used to list the actions to be performed
283 to install the package, when the package is a host package. The
284 package must install its files to the directory given by
285 +$(HOST_DIR)+. All files, including development files such as
286 headers should be installed, since other packages might be compiled
287 on top of this package.
289 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+, used to list the actions to be
290 performed to install the package to the target directory, when the
291 package is a target package. The package must install its files to
292 the directory given by +$(TARGET_DIR)+. Only the files required for
293 'documentation' and 'execution' of the package should be
294 installed. Header files should not be installed, they will be copied
295 to the target, if the +development files in target filesystem+
298 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+, used to list the actions to be
299 performed to install the package to the staging directory, when the
300 package is a target package. The package must install its files to
301 the directory given by +$(STAGING_DIR)+. All development files
302 should be installed, since they might be needed to compile other
305 * +LIBFOO_CLEAN_CMDS+, used to list the actions to perform to clean up
306 the build directory of the package.
308 * +LIBFOO_UNINSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+, used to list the actions to
309 uninstall the package from the target directory +$(TARGET_DIR)+
311 * +LIBFOO_UNINSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+, used to list the actions to
312 uninstall the package from the staging directory +$(STAGING_DIR)+.
314 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSV+ and +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSTEMD+, used
315 to install init scripts either for the systemV-like init systems
316 (busybox, sysvinit, etc.) or for the systemd units. These commands
317 will be run only when the relevant init system is installed (i.e. if
318 systemd is selected as the init system in the configuration, only
319 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSTEMD+ will be run).
321 The preferred way to define these variables is:
323 ----------------------
324 define LIBFOO_CONFIGURE_CMDS
329 ----------------------
331 In the action definitions, you can use the following variables:
333 * +$(@D)+, which contains the directory in which the package source
334 code has been uncompressed.
336 * +$(TARGET_CC)+, +$(TARGET_LD)+, etc. to get the target
337 cross-compilation utilities
339 * +$(TARGET_CROSS)+ to get the cross-compilation toolchain prefix
341 * Of course the +$(HOST_DIR)+, +$(STAGING_DIR)+ and +$(TARGET_DIR)+
342 variables to install the packages properly.
344 The last feature of the generic infrastructure is the ability to add
345 hooks. These define further actions to perform after existing steps.
346 Most hooks aren't really useful for generic packages, since the +.mk+
347 file already has full control over the actions performed in each step
348 of the package construction. The hooks are more useful for packages
349 using the autotools infrastructure described below. However, since
350 they are provided by the generic infrastructure, they are documented
351 here. The exception is +LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS+. Patching the
352 package and producing legal info are not user definable, so
353 +LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS+ and +LIBFOO_POST_LEGAL_INFO_HOOKS+ will be
354 userful for generic packages.
356 The following hook points are available:
358 * +LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS+
359 * +LIBFOO_PRE_CONFIGURE_HOOKS+
360 * +LIBFOO_POST_CONFIGURE_HOOKS+
361 * +LIBFOO_POST_BUILD_HOOKS+
362 * +LIBFOO_POST_INSTALL_HOOKS+ (for host packages only)
363 * +LIBFOO_POST_INSTALL_STAGING_HOOKS+ (for target packages only)
364 * +LIBFOO_POST_INSTALL_TARGET_HOOKS+ (for target packages only)
365 * +LIBFOO_POST_LEGAL_INFO_HOOKS+
367 These variables are 'lists' of variable names containing actions to be
368 performed at this hook point. This allows several hooks to be
369 registered at a given hook point. Here is an example:
371 ----------------------
372 define LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_FIXUP
377 LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS += LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_FIXUP
378 ----------------------