path: root/docs/manual/adding-packages-generic.txt

Infrastructure for packages with specific build systems
-------------------------------------------------------

By 'packages with specific build systems' we mean all the packages
whose build system is not one of the standard ones, such as
'autotools' or 'CMake'. This typically includes packages whose build
system is based on hand-written Makefiles or shell scripts.

[[generic-package-tutorial]]

+generic-package+ Tutorial
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

------------------------------
01: #############################################################
02: #
03: # libfoo
04: #
05: #############################################################
06: LIBFOO_VERSION = 1.0
07: LIBFOO_SOURCE = libfoo-$(LIBFOO_VERSION).tar.gz
08: LIBFOO_SITE = http://www.foosoftware.org/download
09: LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING = YES
10: LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES = host-libaaa libbbb
11:
12: define LIBFOO_BUILD_CMDS
13: 	$(MAKE) CC="$(TARGET_CC)" LD="$(TARGET_LD)" -C $(@D) all
14: endef
15:
16: define LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS
17: 	$(INSTALL) -D -m 0755 $(@D)/libfoo.a $(STAGING_DIR)/usr/lib/libfoo.a
18: 	$(INSTALL) -D -m 0644 $(@D)/foo.h $(STAGING_DIR)/usr/include/foo.h
19: 	$(INSTALL) -D -m 0755 $(@D)/libfoo.so* $(STAGING_DIR)/usr/lib
20: endef
21:
22: define LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS
23: 	$(INSTALL) -D -m 0755 $(@D)/libfoo.so* $(TARGET_DIR)/usr/lib
24: 	$(INSTALL) -d -m 0755 $(TARGET_DIR)/etc/foo.d
25: endef
26:
27: define LIBFOO_DEVICES
28: 	/dev/foo  c  666  0  0  42  0  -  -  -
29: endef
30:
31: define LIBFOO_PERMISSIONS
32: 	/bin/foo  f  4755  0  0  -  -  -  -  -
33: endef
34:
35: $(eval $(generic-package))
--------------------------------

The Makefile begins on line 6 to 8 with metadata information: the
version of the package (+LIBFOO_VERSION+), the name of the
tarball containing the package (+LIBFOO_SOURCE+) and the
Internet location at which the tarball can be downloaded
(+LIBFOO_SITE+). All variables must start with the same prefix,
+LIBFOO_+ in this case. This prefix is always the uppercased
version of the package name (see below to understand where the package
name is defined).

On line 9, we specify that this package wants to install something to
the staging space. This is often needed for libraries, since they must
install header files and other development files in the staging space.
This will ensure that the commands listed in the
+LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ variable will be executed.

On line 10, we specify the list of dependencies this package relies
on. These dependencies are listed in terms of lower-case package names,
which can be packages for the target (without the +host-+
prefix) or packages for the host (with the +host-+) prefix).
Buildroot will ensure that all these packages are built and installed
'before' the current package starts its configuration.

The rest of the Makefile defines what should be done at the different
steps of the package configuration, compilation and installation.
+LIBFOO_BUILD_CMDS+ tells what steps should be performed to
build the package. +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+ tells what
steps should be performed to install the package in the staging space.
+LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+ tells what steps should be
performed to install the package in the target space.

All these steps rely on the +$(@D)+ variable, which
contains the directory where the source code of the package has been
extracted.

Finally, on line 35, we call the +generic-package+ which
generates, according to the variables defined previously, all the
Makefile code necessary to make your package working.

[[generic-package-reference]]

+generic-package+ Reference
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There are two variants of the generic target. The +generic-package+ macro is
used for packages to be cross-compiled for the target.  The
+host-generic-package+ macro is used for host packages, natively compiled
for the host.  It is possible to call both of them in a single +.mk+
file: once to create the rules to generate a target
package and once to create the rules to generate a host package:

----------------------
$(eval $(generic-package))
$(eval $(host-generic-package))
----------------------

This might be useful if the compilation of the target package requires
some tools to be installed on the host. If the package name is
+libfoo+, then the name of the package for the target is also
+libfoo+, while the name of the package for the host is
+host-libfoo+. These names should be used in the DEPENDENCIES
variables of other packages, if they depend on +libfoo+ or
+host-libfoo+.

The call to the +generic-package+ and/or +host-generic-package+ macro *must* be
at the end of the +.mk+ file, after all variable definitions.

For the target package, the +generic-package+ uses the variables defined by
the .mk file and prefixed by the uppercased package name:
+LIBFOO_*+. +host-generic-package+ uses the +HOST_LIBFOO_*+ variables. For
'some' variables, if the +HOST_LIBFOO_+ prefixed variable doesn't
exist, the package infrastructure uses the corresponding variable
prefixed by +LIBFOO_+. This is done for variables that are likely to
have the same value for both the target and host packages. See below
for details.

The list of variables that can be set in a +.mk+ file to give metadata
information is (assuming the package name is +libfoo+) :

* +LIBFOO_VERSION+, mandatory, must contain the version of the
  package. Note that if +HOST_LIBFOO_VERSION+ doesn't exist, it is
  assumed to be the same as +LIBFOO_VERSION+. It can also be a
  revision number, branch or tag for packages that are fetched
  directly from their revision control system. +
  Examples: +
    +LIBFOO_VERSION = 0.1.2+ +
    +LIBFOO_VERSION = cb9d6aa9429e838f0e54faa3d455bcbab5eef057+ +
    +LIBFOO_VERSION = stable+

* +LIBFOO_SOURCE+ may contain the name of the tarball of
  the package. If +HOST_LIBFOO_SOURCE+ is not specified, it
  defaults to +LIBFOO_SOURCE+. If none are specified, then
  the value is assumed to be
  +packagename-$(LIBFOO_VERSION).tar.gz+. +
  Example: +LIBFOO_SOURCE = foobar-$(LIBFOO_VERSION).tar.bz2+

* +LIBFOO_PATCH+ may contain the name of a patch, that will be
  downloaded from the same location as the tarball indicated in
  +LIBFOO_SOURCE+. If +HOST_LIBFOO_PATCH+ is not specified, it
  defaults to +LIBFOO_PATCH+. Also note that another mechanism is
  available to patch a package: all files of the form
  +packagename-packageversion-description.patch+ present in the
  package directory inside Buildroot will be applied to the package
  after extraction.

* +LIBFOO_SITE+ provides the location of the package, which can be a
  URL or a local filesystem path. HTTP, FTP and SCP are supported URL
  types for retrieving package tarballs. Git, Subversion, Mercurial,
  and Bazaar are supported URL types for retrieving packages directly
  from source code management systems. A filesystem path may be used
  to specify either a tarball or a directory containing the package
  source code. See +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ below for more details on how
  retrieval works. +
  Note that SCP URLs should be of the form
  +scp://[user@]host:filepath+, and that filepath is relative to the
  user's home directory, so you may want to prepend the path with a
  slash for absolute paths:
  +scp://[user@]host:/absolutepath+. +
  If +HOST_LIBFOO_SITE+ is not specified, it defaults to
  +LIBFOO_SITE+.
  Examples: +
    +LIBFOO_SITE=http://www.libfoosoftware.org/libfoo+ +
    +LIBFOO_SITE=http://svn.xiph.org/trunk/Tremor/+ +
    +LIBFOO_SITE=git://github.com/kergoth/tslib.git+
    +LIBFOO_SITE=/opt/software/libfoo.tar.gz+
    +LIBFOO_SITE=$(TOPDIR)/../src/libfoo/+

* +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ determines the method used to fetch or copy the
  package source code. In many cases, Buildroot guesses the method
  from the contents of +LIBFOO_SITE+ and setting +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+
  is unnecessary. When +HOST_LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ is not specified, it
  defaults to the value of +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+. +
  The possible values of +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD+ are:
  ** +wget+ for normal FTP/HTTP downloads of tarballs.  Used by
     default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +http://+, +https://+ or
     +ftp://+.
  ** +scp+ for downloads of tarballs over SSH with scp.  Used by
     default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +scp://+.
  ** +svn+ for retrieving source code from a Subversion repository.
     Used by default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +svn://+.  When a
     +http://+ Subversion repository URL is specified in
     +LIBFOO_SITE+, one 'must' specify +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD=svn+.
     Buildroot performs a checkout which is preserved as a tarball in
     the download cache; subsequent builds use the tarball instead of
     performing another checkout.
  ** +git+ for retrieving source code from a Git repository.  Used by
     default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +git://+. The downloaded
     source code is cached as with the +svn+
     method.
  ** +hg+ for retrieving source code from a Mercurial repository. One
     'must' specify +LIBFOO_SITE_METHOD=hg+ when +LIBFOO_SITE+
     contains a Mercurial repository URL. The downloaded source code
     is cached as with the +svn+ method.
  ** +bzr+ for retrieving source code from a Bazaar repository. Used
     by default when +LIBFOO_SITE+ begins with +bzr://+. The
     downloaded source code is cached as with the +svn+ method.
  ** +file+ for a local tarball.  One should use this when
     +LIBFOO_SITE+ specifies a package tarball as a local filename.
     Useful for software that isn't available publicly or in version
     control.
  ** +local+ for a local source code directory.  One should use this
     when +LIBFOO_SITE+ specifies a local directory path containing
     the package source code.  Buildroot copies the contents of the
     source directory into the package's build directory.

* +LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES+ lists the dependencies (in terms of package
  name) that are required for the current target package to
  compile. These dependencies are guaranteed to be compiled and
  installed before the configuration of the current package starts. In
  a similar way, +HOST_LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES+ lists the dependency for
  the current host package.

* +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING+ can be set to +YES+ or +NO+ (default). If
  set to +YES+, then the commands in the +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+
  variables are executed to install the package into the staging
  directory.

* +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET+ can be set to +YES+ (default) or +NO+. If
  set to +YES+, then the commands in the +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+
  variables are executed to install the package into the target
  directory.

* +LIBFOO_DEVICES+ lists the device files to be created by Buildroot
  when using the static device table. The syntax to use is the
  makedevs one. You can find some documentation for this syntax in the
  xref:makedev-syntax[]. This variable is optional.

* +LIBFOO_PERMISSIONS+ lists the changes of permissions to be done at
  the end of the build process. The syntax is once again the makedevs one.
  You can find some documentation for this syntax in the xref:makedev-syntax[].
  This variable is optional.

* +LIBFOO_LICENSE+ defines the license (or licenses) under which the package
  is released.
  This name will appear in the manifest file produced by +make legal-info+.
  If the license is one of those listed in xref:legal-info[],
  use the same string to make the manifest file uniform.
  Otherwise, describe the license in a precise and concise way, avoiding
  ambiguous names such as +BSD+ which actually name a family of licenses.
  If the root filesystem you generate contains non-opensource packages, you
  can define their license as +PROPRIETARY+: Buildroot will not save any
  licensing info or source code for this package.
  This variable is optional. If it is not defined, +unknown+ will appear in
  the +license+ field of the manifest file for this package.

* +LIBFOO_LICENSE_FILES+ is a space-separated list of files in the package
  tarball that contain the license(s) under which the package is released.
  +make legal-info+ copies all of these files in the +legal-info+ directory.
  See xref:legal-info[] for more information.
  This variable is optional. If it is not defined, a warning will be produced
  to let you know, and +not saved+ will appear in the +license files+ field
  of the manifest file for this package.

The recommended way to define these variables is to use the following
syntax:

----------------------
LIBFOO_VERSION = 2.32
----------------------

Now, the variables that define what should be performed at the
different steps of the build process.

* +LIBFOO_CONFIGURE_CMDS+, used to list the actions to be performed to
  configure the package before its compilation

* +LIBFOO_BUILD_CMDS+, used to list the actions to be performed to
  compile the package

* +HOST_LIBFOO_INSTALL_CMDS+, used to list the actions to be performed
  to install the package, when the package is a host package. The
  package must install its files to the directory given by
  +$(HOST_DIR)+. All files, including development files such as
  headers should be installed, since other packages might be compiled
  on top of this package.

* +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+, used to list the actions to be
  performed to install the package to the target directory, when the
  package is a target package. The package must install its files to
  the directory given by +$(TARGET_DIR)+. Only the files required for
  'documentation' and 'execution' of the package should be
  installed. Header files should not be installed, they will be copied
  to the target, if the +development files in target filesystem+
  option is selected.

* +LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+, used to list the actions to be
  performed to install the package to the staging directory, when the
  package is a target package. The package must install its files to
  the directory given by +$(STAGING_DIR)+. All development files
  should be installed, since they might be needed to compile other
  packages.

* +LIBFOO_CLEAN_CMDS+, used to list the actions to perform to clean up
  the build directory of the package.

* +LIBFOO_UNINSTALL_TARGET_CMDS+, used to list the actions to
  uninstall the package from the target directory +$(TARGET_DIR)+

* +LIBFOO_UNINSTALL_STAGING_CMDS+, used to list the actions to
  uninstall the package from the staging directory +$(STAGING_DIR)+.

* +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSV+ and +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSTEMD+, used
  to install init scripts either for the systemV-like init systems
  (busybox, sysvinit, etc.) or for the systemd units. These commands
  will be run only when the relevant init system is installed (i.e. if
  systemd is selected as the init system in the configuration, only
  +LIBFOO_INSTALL_INIT_SYSTEMD+ will be run).

The preferred way to define these variables is:

----------------------
define LIBFOO_CONFIGURE_CMDS
	action 1
	action 2
	action 3
endef
----------------------

In the action definitions, you can use the following variables:

* +$(@D)+, which contains the directory in which the package source
  code has been uncompressed.

* +$(TARGET_CC)+, +$(TARGET_LD)+, etc. to get the target
  cross-compilation utilities

* +$(TARGET_CROSS)+ to get the cross-compilation toolchain prefix

* Of course the +$(HOST_DIR)+, +$(STAGING_DIR)+ and +$(TARGET_DIR)+
  variables to install the packages properly.

The last feature of the generic infrastructure is the ability to add
hooks. These define further actions to perform after existing steps.
Most hooks aren't really useful for generic packages, since the +.mk+
file already has full control over the actions performed in each step
of the package construction. The hooks are more useful for packages
using the autotools infrastructure described below.  However, since
they are provided by the generic infrastructure, they are documented
here. The exception is +LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS+.  Patching the
package and producing legal info are not user definable, so
+LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS+ and +LIBFOO_POST_LEGAL_INFO_HOOKS+ will be
userful for generic packages.

The following hook points are available:

* +LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS+
* +LIBFOO_PRE_CONFIGURE_HOOKS+
* +LIBFOO_POST_CONFIGURE_HOOKS+
* +LIBFOO_POST_BUILD_HOOKS+
* +LIBFOO_POST_INSTALL_HOOKS+ (for host packages only)
* +LIBFOO_POST_INSTALL_STAGING_HOOKS+ (for target packages only)
* +LIBFOO_POST_INSTALL_TARGET_HOOKS+ (for target packages only)
* +LIBFOO_POST_LEGAL_INFO_HOOKS+

These variables are 'lists' of variable names containing actions to be
performed at this hook point. This allows several hooks to be
registered at a given hook point. Here is an example:

----------------------
define LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_FIXUP
	action1
	action2
endef

LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_HOOKS += LIBFOO_POST_PATCH_FIXUP
----------------------