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_DEPENDENCIES = host-libaaa libbbb
30 14: define LIBFOO_BUILD_CMDS
31 15: $(MAKE) CC="$(TARGET_CC)" LD="$(TARGET_LD)" -C $(@D) all
34 18: define LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS
35 19: $(INSTALL) -D -m 0755 $(@D)/libfoo.a $(STAGING_DIR)/usr/lib/libfoo.a
36 20: $(INSTALL) -D -m 0644 $(@D)/foo.h $(STAGING_DIR)/usr/include/foo.h
37 21: $(INSTALL) -D -m 0755 $(@D)/libfoo.so* $(STAGING_DIR)/usr/lib
40 24: define LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS
41 25: $(INSTALL) -D -m 0755 $(@D)/libfoo.so* $(TARGET_DIR)/usr/lib
42 26: $(INSTALL) -d -m 0755 $(TARGET_DIR)/etc/foo.d
45 29: define LIBFOO_DEVICES
46 30: /dev/foo c 666 0 0 42 0 - - -
49 33: define LIBFOO_PERMISSIONS
50 34: /bin/foo f 4755 0 0 - - - - -
53 37: $(eval $(generic-package))
54 --------------------------------
56 The Makefile begins on line 6 to 10 with metadata information: the
57 version of the package (+LIBFOO_VERSION+), the name of the
58 tarball containing the package (+LIBFOO_SOURCE+) the
59 Internet location at which the tarball can be downloaded from
60 (+LIBFOO_SITE+), the license (+LIBFOO_LICENSE+) and file with the
61 license text (+LIBFOO_LICENSE_FILES+). All variables must start with
62 the same prefix, +LIBFOO_+ in this case. This prefix is always the
63 uppercased version of the package name (see below to understand where
64 the package name is defined).
66 On line 11, we specify that this package wants to install something to
67 the staging space. This is often needed for libraries, since they must
68 install header files and other development files in the staging space.
69 This will ensure that the commands listed in the
70 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ variable will be executed.
72 On line 12, we specify the list of dependencies this package relies
73 on. These dependencies are listed in terms of lower-case package names,
74 which can be packages for the target (without the +host-+
75 prefix) or packages for the host (with the +host-+) prefix).
76 Buildroot will ensure that all these packages are built and installed
77 'before' the current package starts its configuration.
79 The rest of the Makefile, lines 14..27, defines what should be done
80 at the different steps of the package configuration, compilation and
82 +LIBFOO_BUILD_CMDS+ tells what steps should be performed to
83 build the package. +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ tells what
84 steps should be performed to install the package in the staging space.
85 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+ tells what steps should be
86 performed to install the package in the target space.
88 All these steps rely on the +$(@D)+ variable, which
89 contains the directory where the source code of the package has been
92 On line 29..31, we define a device-node file used by this package
95 On line 33..35, we define the permissions to set to specific files
96 installed by this package (+LIBFOO_PERMISSIONS+).
98 Finally, on line 37, we call the +generic-package+ function, which
99 generates, according to the variables defined previously, all the
100 Makefile code necessary to make your package working.
102 [[generic-package-reference]]
104 +generic-package+ Reference
105 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
107 There are two variants of the generic target. The +generic-package+ macro is
108 used for packages to be cross-compiled for the target. The
109 +host-generic-package+ macro is used for host packages, natively compiled
110 for the host. It is possible to call both of them in a single +.mk+
111 file: once to create the rules to generate a target
112 package and once to create the rules to generate a host package:
114 ----------------------
115 $(eval $(generic-package))
116 $(eval $(host-generic-package))
117 ----------------------
119 This might be useful if the compilation of the target package requires
120 some tools to be installed on the host. If the package name is
121 +libfoo+, then the name of the package for the target is also
122 +libfoo+, while the name of the package for the host is
123 +host-libfoo+. These names should be used in the DEPENDENCIES
124 variables of other packages, if they depend on +libfoo+ or
127 The call to the +generic-package+ and/or +host-generic-package+ macro *must* be
128 at the end of the +.mk+ file, after all variable definitions.
130 For the target package, the +generic-package+ uses the variables defined by
131 the .mk file and prefixed by the uppercased package name:
132 +LIBFOO_*+. +host-generic-package+ uses the +HOST_LIBFOO_*+ variables. For
133 'some' variables, if the +HOST_LIBFOO_+ prefixed variable doesn't
134 exist, the package infrastructure uses the corresponding variable
135 prefixed by +LIBFOO_+. This is done for variables that are likely to
136 have the same value for both the target and host packages. See below
139 The list of variables that can be set in a +.mk+ file to give metadata
140 information is (assuming the package name is +libfoo+) :
142 * +LIBFOO_VERSION+, mandatory, must contain the version of the
143 package. Note that if +HOST_LIBFOO_VERSION+ doesn't exist, it is
144 assumed to be the same as +LIBFOO_VERSION+. It can also be a
145 revision number, branch or tag for packages that are fetched
146 directly from their revision control system. +
148 +LIBFOO_VERSION = 0.1.2+ +
149 +LIBFOO_VERSION = cb9d6aa9429e838f0e54faa3d455bcbab5eef057+ +
150 +LIBFOO_VERSION = stable+
152 * +LIBFOO_SOURCE+ may contain the name of the tarball of
153 the package. If +HOST_LIBFOO_SOURCE+ is not specified, it
154 defaults to +LIBFOO_SOURCE+. If none are specified, then
155 the value is assumed to be
156 +packagename-$(LIBFOO_VERSION).tar.gz+. +
157 Example: +LIBFOO_SOURCE = foobar-$(LIBFOO_VERSION).tar.bz2+
159 * +LIBFOO_PATCH+ may contain the name of a patch, that will be
160 downloaded from the same location as the tarball indicated in
161 +LIBFOO_SOURCE+. If +HOST_LIBFOO_PATCH+ is not specified, it
162 defaults to +LIBFOO_PATCH+. Note that patches that are included
163 in Buildroot itself use a different mechanism: all files of the
164 form +<packagename>-*.patch+ present in the package directory inside
165 Buildroot will be applied to the package after extraction (see
166 xref:patch-policy[patching a package]).
168 * +LIBFOO_SITE+ provides the location of the package, which can be a
169 URL or a local filesystem path. HTTP, FTP and SCP are supported URL
170 types for retrieving package tarballs. Git, Subversion, Mercurial,
171 and Bazaar are supported URL types for retrieving packages directly
172 from source code management systems. A filesystem path may be used
173 to specify either a tarball or a directory containing the package
174 source code. See +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ below for more details on how
176 Note that SCP URLs should be of the form
177 +scp://[user@]host:filepath+, and that filepath is relative to the
178 user's home directory, so you may want to prepend the path with a
179 slash for absolute paths:
180 +scp://[user@]host:/absolutepath+. +
181 If +HOST_LIBFOO_SITE+ is not specified, it defaults to
184 +LIBFOO_SITE=http://www.libfoosoftware.org/libfoo+ +
185 +LIBFOO_SITE=http://svn.xiph.org/trunk/Tremor/+ +
186 +LIBFOO_SITE=git://github.com/kergoth/tslib.git+ +
187 +LIBFOO_SITE=/opt/software/libfoo.tar.gz+ +
188 +LIBFOO_SITE=$(TOPDIR)/../src/libfoo/+
190 * +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ determines the method used to fetch or copy the
191 package source code. In many cases, Buildroot guesses the method
192 from the contents of +LIBFOO_SITE+ and setting +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+
193 is unnecessary. When +HOST_LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ is not specified, it
194 defaults to the value of +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+. +
195 The possible values of +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ are:
196 ** +wget+ for normal FTP/HTTP downloads of tarballs. Used by
197 default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +http://+, +https://+ or
199 ** +scp+ for downloads of tarballs over SSH with scp. Used by
200 default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +scp://+.
201 ** +svn+ for retrieving source code from a Subversion repository.
202 Used by default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +svn://+. When a
203 +http://+ Subversion repository URL is specified in
204 +LIBFOO_SITE+, one 'must' specify +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD=svn+.
205 Buildroot performs a checkout which is preserved as a tarball in
206 the download cache; subsequent builds use the tarball instead of
207 performing another checkout.
208 ** +git+ for retrieving source code from a Git repository. Used by
209 default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +git://+. The downloaded
210 source code is cached as with the +svn+
212 ** +hg+ for retrieving source code from a Mercurial repository. One
213 'must' specify +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD=hg+ when +LIBFOO_SITE+
214 contains a Mercurial repository URL. The downloaded source code
215 is cached as with the +svn+ method.
216 ** +bzr+ for retrieving source code from a Bazaar repository. Used
217 by default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +bzr://+. The
218 downloaded source code is cached as with the +svn+ method.
219 ** +file+ for a local tarball. One should use this when
220 +LIBFOO_SITE+ specifies a package tarball as a local filename.
221 Useful for software that isn't available publicly or in version
223 ** +local+ for a local source code directory. One should use this
224 when +LIBFOO_SITE+ specifies a local directory path containing
225 the package source code. Buildroot copies the contents of the
226 source directory into the package's build directory.
228 * +LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES+ lists the dependencies (in terms of package
229 name) that are required for the current target package to
230 compile. These dependencies are guaranteed to be compiled and
231 installed before the configuration of the current package starts. In
232 a similar way, +HOST_LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES+ lists the dependencies for
233 the current host package.
235 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING+ can be set to +YES+ or +NO+ (default). If
236 set to +YES+, then the commands in the +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+
237 variables are executed to install the package into the staging
240 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET+ can be set to +YES+ (default) or +NO+. If
241 set to +YES+, then the commands in the +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+
242 variables are executed to install the package into the target
245 * +LIBFOO_DEVICES+ lists the device files to be created by Buildroot
246 when using the static device table. The syntax to use is the
247 makedevs one. You can find some documentation for this syntax in the
248 xref:makedev-syntax[]. This variable is optional.
250 * +LIBFOO_PERMISSIONS+ lists the changes of permissions to be done at
251 the end of the build process. The syntax is once again the makedevs one.
252 You can find some documentation for this syntax in the xref:makedev-syntax[].
253 This variable is optional.
255 * +LIBFOO_LICENSE+ defines the license (or licenses) under which the package
257 This name will appear in the manifest file produced by +make legal-info+.
258 If the license appears in xref:legal-info-list-licenses[the following list],
259 use the same string to make the manifest file uniform.
260 Otherwise, describe the license in a precise and concise way, avoiding
261 ambiguous names such as +BSD+ which actually name a family of licenses.
262 This variable is optional. If it is not defined, +unknown+ will appear in
263 the +license+ field of the manifest file for this package.
265 * +LIBFOO_LICENSE_FILES+ is a space-separated list of files in the package
266 tarball that contain the license(s) under which the package is released.
267 +make legal-info+ copies all of these files in the +legal-info+ directory.
268 See xref:legal-info[] for more information.
269 This variable is optional. If it is not defined, a warning will be produced
270 to let you know, and +not saved+ will appear in the +license files+ field
271 of the manifest file for this package.
273 * +LIBFOO_REDISTRIBUTE+ can be set to +YES+ (default) or +NO+ to indicate if
274 the package source code is allowed to be redistributed. Set it to +NO+ for
275 non-opensource packages: Buildroot will not save the source code for this
276 package when collecting the +legal-info+.
278 The recommended way to define these variables is to use the following
281 ----------------------
282 LIBFOO_VERSION = 2.32
283 ----------------------
285 Now, the variables that define what should be performed at the
286 different steps of the build process.
288 * +LIBFOO_CONFIGURE_CMDS+ lists the actions to be performed to
289 configure the package before its compilation.
291 * +LIBFOO_BUILD_CMDS+ lists the actions to be performed to
294 * +HOST_LIBFOO_INSTALL_CMDS+ lists the actions to be performed
295 to install the package, when the package is a host package. The
296 package must install its files to the directory given by
297 +$(HOST_DIR)+. All files, including development files such as
298 headers should be installed, since other packages might be compiled
299 on top of this package.
301 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+ lists the actions to be
302 performed to install the package to the target directory, when the
303 package is a target package. The package must install its files to
304 the directory given by +$(TARGET_DIR)+. Only the files required for
305 'execution' of the package have to be
306 installed. Header files, static libraries and documentation will be
307 removed again when the target filesystem is finalized.
309 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ lists the actions to be
310 performed to install the package to the staging directory, when the
311 package is a target package. The package must install its files to
312 the directory given by +$(STAGING_DIR)+. All development files
313 should be installed, since they might be needed to compile other
316 * +LIBFOO_CLEAN_CMDS+, lists the actions to perform to clean up
317 the build directory of the package.
319 * +LIBFOO_UNINSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+ lists the actions to
320 uninstall the package from the target directory +$(TARGET_DIR)+
322 * +LIBFOO_UNINSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ lists the actions to
323 uninstall the package from the staging directory +$(STAGING_DIR)+.
325 * +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSV+ and +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSTEMD+ list the
326 actions to install init scripts either for the systemV-like init systems
327 (busybox, sysvinit, etc.) or for the systemd units. These commands
328 will be run only when the relevant init system is installed (i.e. if
329 systemd is selected as the init system in the configuration, only
330 +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSTEMD+ will be run).
332 The preferred way to define these variables is:
334 ----------------------
335 define LIBFOO_CONFIGURE_CMDS
340 ----------------------
342 In the action definitions, you can use the following variables:
344 * +$(@D)+, which contains the directory in which the package source
345 code has been uncompressed.
347 * +$(TARGET_CC)+, +$(TARGET_LD)+, etc. to get the target
348 cross-compilation utilities
350 * +$(TARGET_CROSS)+ to get the cross-compilation toolchain prefix
352 * Of course the +$(HOST_DIR)+, +$(STAGING_DIR)+ and +$(TARGET_DIR)+
353 variables to install the packages properly.
355 The last feature of the generic infrastructure is the ability to add
356 hooks. These define further actions to perform after existing steps.
357 Most hooks aren't really useful for generic packages, since the +.mk+
358 file already has full control over the actions performed in each step
359 of the package construction. The hooks are more useful for packages
360 using the autotools infrastructure described below. However, since
361 they are provided by the generic infrastructure, they are documented
362 here. The exception is +LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS+. Patching the
363 package and producing legal info are not user definable, so
364 +LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS+ and +LIBFOO_POST_LEGAL_INFO_HOOKS+ are
365 useful for generic packages.
367 The following hook points are available:
369 * +LIBFOO_POST_DOWNLOAD_HOOKS+
370 * +LIBFOO_POST_EXTRACT_HOOKS+
371 * +LIBFOO_PRE_PATCH_HOOKS+
372 * +LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS+
373 * +LIBFOO_PRE_CONFIGURE_HOOKS+
374 * +LIBFOO_POST_CONFIGURE_HOOKS+
375 * +LIBFOO_POST_BUILD_HOOKS+
376 * +LIBFOO_POST_INSTALL_HOOKS+ (for host packages only)
377 * +LIBFOO_POST_INSTALL_STAGING_HOOKS+ (for target packages only)
378 * +LIBFOO_POST_INSTALL_TARGET_HOOKS+ (for target packages only)
379 * +LIBFOO_POST_LEGAL_INFO_HOOKS+
381 These variables are 'lists' of variable names containing actions to be
382 performed at this hook point. This allows several hooks to be
383 registered at a given hook point. Here is an example:
385 ----------------------
386 define LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_FIXUP
391 LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS += LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_FIXUP
392 ----------------------