[Buildroot] Buildroot in use

William Wagner will_wagner at carallon.com
Thu Mar 17 12:14:54 UTC 2011


On 16/03/2011 16:44, Steve Calfee wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----
>
>> From: Thomas Petazzoni<thomas.petazzoni at free-electrons.com>
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> On Tue, 15 Mar 2011 14:32:07 -0400
>> "Heyendal, Carl"<CHeyendal at stanleyworks.com>   wrote:
>>
>>> Really!! 'make clean' from Buildroot directory? That's a  complete
>>> rebuild!!
>> Yes, it is. For now, Buildroot is "nothing"  more but a tool that
>> automates the process of building an embedded Linux  system. It is not
>> very smart, so it cannot remove packages that have been  installed, or
>> revert changes that have been made to the target  filesystem.
>>
>> My view on this: Buildroot has been more or less abandonned  until late
>> 2008/early 2009, when Peter took over the maintainership of  the
>> project. Since that time, our main goal was to clean up the  existing
>> code base, keeping the existing feature set (in fact, we added a  bunch
>> of features as well, but we didn't fundamentaly changed how  Buildroot
>> works). Now that this cleanup process is mostly over, I'd say  that
>> solving the issue you're facing here is now on the top priorities  of
>> the project. At least it's where it is on my own Buildroot TODO  list.
>> But there a fairly huge and complex amount of work to do here, so  it
>> isn't going to happen overnight.
>>
> I think a general discussion of how we use buildroot and what we would like to
> see is in order. It seems the framework is stabilizing and useful (thanks guys).
>
> It seems in my use that I am either working on the kernel or configuring a
> system with packages (rootfs). make clean is unbearable where it removes the
> toolchain etc.

I agree, this is the only part of the build that takes any time. It 
would be great if there was a way of cleaning back to only the toolchain 
built. I am getting round this at the moment by using an external 
crosstools-NG toolchain in most projects, which gives much the same 
functionality, just would be easier for a beginner to understand if 
buildroot could do this itself.

Given how we support external toolchains would it not be possible to be 
able to clean everything but toolchain (Which I think only gets produced 
if you have an internal toolchain) and then when you build again it does 
the same as for an external toolchain and copies the files into staging etc?

>
> So what I do is I git pull one tree just for my toolchain and compiler. I
> configure and build it without bootstraps, busybox, kernel etc. If I need to
> change a toolchain option I go back to this tree and fix it. This build becomes
> my "external toolchain".
>
> I then git pull another tree which uses that external toolchain. Make clean is
> now much less painful.
>
> During development it is common to want to change stuff in the "skeleton"
> filesystem - add scripts, configure things etc. This is kind of painful from
> within the buildroot framework, with no clear way to force an update to the
> rootfs image etc. So what I do is I create a skeleton directory for my board. In
> the post build script I copy my skeleton on top of the existing buildroot
> constructed skeleton. In this way I only have the files I care about in my board
> skeleton, they are updated every build etc.

I do something very similar. The default skeleton is fine for most 
things, there are just a couple of customisations I want. Recent work in 
this area is already adding config options for some of what I want. A 
custom board script can then make any further modifications.

Would be great to have an example of recommended practice checked in for 
people to see/copy. Also would be great to remove the xtensa bits as 
they are just confusing. Perhaps we should convert that over to the new 
scheme?


Will

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Will Wagner                                     will_wagner at carallon.com
Development Manager                      Office Tel: +44 (0)20 7371 2032
Carallon Ltd, Studio G20, Shepherds Building, Rockley Rd, London W14 0DA
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