buildroot

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=== Infrastructure for autotools-based packages

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[[autotools-package-tutorial]]

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==== +autotools-package+ tutorial

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First, let's see how to write a +.mk+ file for an autotools-based

package, with an example :

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01: ################################################################################

02: #

03: # libfoo

04: #

05: ################################################################################

06:

07: LIBFOO_VERSION = 1.0

08: LIBFOO_SOURCE = libfoo-$(LIBFOO_VERSION).tar.gz

09: LIBFOO_SITE = http://www.foosoftware.org/download

10: LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING = YES

11: LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET = NO

12: LIBFOO_CONF_OPTS = --disable-shared

13: LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES = libglib2 host-pkgconf

14:

15: $(eval $(autotools-package))

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On line 7, we declare the version of the package.

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On line 8 and 9, we declare the name of the tarball (xz-ed tarball recommended)

and the location of the tarball on the Web. Buildroot will automatically

download the tarball from this location.

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On line 10, we tell Buildroot to install the package to the staging

directory. The staging directory, located in +output/staging/+

is the directory where all the packages are installed, including their

development files, etc. By default, packages are not installed to the

staging directory, since usually, only libraries need to be installed in

the staging directory: their development files are needed to compile

other libraries or applications depending on them. Also by default, when

staging installation is enabled, packages are installed in this location

using the +make install+ command.

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On line 11, we tell Buildroot to not install the package to the

target directory. This directory contains what will become the root

filesystem running on the target. For purely static libraries, it is

not necessary to install them in the target directory because they will

not be used at runtime. By default, target installation is enabled; setting

this variable to NO is almost never needed. Also by default, packages are

installed in this location using the +make install+ command.

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On line 12, we tell Buildroot to pass a custom configure option, that

will be passed to the +./configure+ script before configuring

and building the package.

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On line 13, we declare our dependencies, so that they are built

before the build process of our package starts.

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Finally, on line line 15, we invoke the +autotools-package+

macro that generates all the Makefile rules that actually allows the

package to be built.

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[[autotools-package-reference]]

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==== +autotools-package+ reference

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The main macro of the autotools package infrastructure is

+autotools-package+. It is similar to the +generic-package+ macro. The ability to

have target and host packages is also available, with the

+host-autotools-package+ macro.

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Just like the generic infrastructure, the autotools infrastructure

works by defining a number of variables before calling the

+autotools-package+ macro.

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First, all the package metadata information variables that exist in the

generic infrastructure also exist in the autotools infrastructure:

+LIBFOO_VERSION+, +LIBFOO_SOURCE+,

+LIBFOO_PATCH+, +LIBFOO_SITE+,

+LIBFOO_SUBDIR+, +LIBFOO_DEPENDENCIES+,

+LIBFOO_INSTALL_STAGING+, +LIBFOO_INSTALL_TARGET+.

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A few additional variables, specific to the autotools infrastructure,

can also be defined. Many of them are only useful in very specific

cases, typical packages will therefore only use a few of them.

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* +LIBFOO_SUBDIR+ may contain the name of a subdirectory

  inside the package that contains the configure script. This is useful,

  if for example, the main configure script is not at the root of the