RTEMS Source Builder

Mentors: Chris Johns

Students:

Status: Uninitiated

Introduction:

The Source Builder (sb) is a Python-based tool designed to build compiler toolchains from source code. This tool assists with building and maintaining tool sets, which developers typically need to update a few times each year.

Source Builder compiles code from source and creates tar files that can be installed. It is not designed to create packages of tools or tools for packaging systems. The Source Builder uses a modified version of the ​spec file format to describe build configurations. The spec format supports including files, macros, multiple source packages per build, conditional logic, variables, and parameters.

Source Builder fetches the source if it is not local. A user should be able to run Source Builder with a configuration file for a tool set, and Source Builder will collect the sources directly from the upstream project, compile the sources, and produce an installable tar file.

To use Source Builder, place the tool anywhere on a disk then create a private directory to hold build sets if the default build sets are not suitable. The ability to create private build sets is important. The tool comes with configurations for popular packages, and a private build set can reference them.

The tool needs testing on other platforms. I need to test Windows and Linux. It works on FreeBSD and MacOS. I also need a home and means to the promote the tool so suggestions are welcome.

Goal: Improve the Source Builder. Here are a list of some improvement tasks that can be considered.

• Add support for building native host tools, such as gcc and binutils.
• Add support for checksumming downloaded files, e.g. md5sum, shaXYZsum, or gpg verification.
• Add installer functionality so that users do not need to find and untar the correct tool set manually.
• Add a GUI. The Python code is all class-based and a GUI would be nice. The GUI could include creating configurations, selecting a build set configuration, installing a built tool set, and other useful features.

Requirements: Familiarity with scripting languages. General understanding of how cross-compilation works.

Acknowledgements

• Source Builder was created and is maintained by Chris Johns.

Miscellaneous Sections

As the project progresses, you will need to add build instructions, etc and this page will evolve from a project description into a HOWTO.

References

• http://www.rtems.org/ftp/pub/rtems/people/chrisj/source-builder/source-builder.html

Other sections: If you have more to say about the project, feel free to add other sections at will.