Short introduction into LTP build system ======================================== ****************************************************************************** The following document briefly describes the steps and methodologies used for the new and improved Makefile system. Changelog: * Initial version: Ngie Cooper * Reformated for asciidoc: Cyril Hrubis ****************************************************************************** The Problem ----------- The problem with the old Makefile system is that it was very difficult to maintain and it lacked any sense of formal structure, thus developing for LTP and including new targets was more difficult than it should have been (maintenance). Furthermore, proper option-based cross-compilation was impossible due to the fact that the Makefiles didn't support a prefixing system, and the appropriate implicit / static rules hadn't been configured to compile into multiple object directories for out-of-tree build support (ease of use / functionality). Finally, there wasn't a means to setup dependencies between components, such that if a component required libltp.a in order to compile, it would go off and compile libltp.a first (ease of use). These items needed to be fixed to reduce maintenance nightmares for the development community contributing to LTP, and the project maintainers. Design ------ The system was designed such that including a single GNU Makefile compatible set in each new directory component is all that's essentially required to build the system. Say you had a directory like the following (with .c files in them which directly tie into applications, e.g. baz.c -> baz): ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- .../foo/ |--> Makefile | --> bar/ | --> Makefile | --> baz.c ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here's an example of how one would accomplish that: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- .../foo/Makefile: # # Copyright disclaimer goes here -- please use GPLv2. # top_srcdir ?= .. include $(top_srcdir)/include/mk/env_pre.mk include $(top_srcdir)/include/mk/generic_trunk_target.mk .../foo/bar/Makefile: # # Copyright disclaimer goes here -- please use GPLv2. # top_srcdir ?= .. include $(top_srcdir)/include/mk/env_pre.mk include $(top_srcdir)/include/mk/generic_leaf_target.mk ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kernel Modules -------------- Some of the tests need to build kernel modules, happily LTP has infrastructure for this. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ifneq ($(KERNELRELEASE),) obj-m := module01.o else top_srcdir ?= ../../../.. include $(top_srcdir)/include/mk/testcases.mk REQ_VERSION_MAJOR := 2 REQ_VERSION_PATCH := 6 MAKE_TARGETS := test01 test02 module01.ko include $(top_srcdir)/include/mk/module.mk include $(top_srcdir)/include/mk/generic_leaf_target.mk endif ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is example Makefile that allows you build kernel modules inside of LTP. The prerequisites for the build are detected by the 'configure' script. The 'REQ_VERSION_MAJOR' and 'REQ_VERSION_PATCH' describe minimal kernel version for which the build system tries to build the module. The buildsystem is also forward compatible with changes in Linux kernel internal API so that if modul fails to build the failure is ignored both on build and installation. If the userspace counterpart of the test fails to load the module because the file does not exists, the test is skipped. Note the 'ifneq($(KERNELRELEASE),)', the reason it's there is that the Makefile is executed twice, once by LTP build system and once by kernel kbuild, see 'Documentation/kbuild/modules.txt' in the Linux kernel tree for details on external module build. Make Rules and Make Variables ----------------------------- When using make rules, avoid writing ad hoc rules like: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [prog]: [dependencies] cc -I../../include $(CFLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) $(LDLIBS) \ -o [prog] [dependencies] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- etc. This makes cross-compilation and determinism difficult, if not impossible. Besides, implicit rules are your friends and as long as you use `MAKEOPTS=;' in the top-level caller (or do $(subst r,$(MAKEOPTS)) to remove -r), the compile will complete successfully, assuming all other prerequisites have been fulfilled (libraries, headers, etc). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- $(AR) : The library archiver. $(CC) : The system C compiler. $(CPP) : The system C preprocessor. $(CFLAGS) : C compiler flags. $(CPPFLAGS) : Preprocessor flags, e.g. -I arguments. $(DEBUG_CFLAGS) : Debug flags to pass to $(CC), -g, etc. $(LD) : The system linker (typically $(CC), but not necessarily). $(LDFLAGS) : What to pass in to the linker, including -L arguments and other ld arguments, apart from -l library includes (see $(LDLIBS)). This should be done in the $(CC) args passing style when LD := $(CC), e.g. `-Wl,-foo', as opposed to `-foo'. $(LDLIBS) : Libraries to pass to the linker (e.g. -lltp, etc). $(OPT_CFLAGS) : Optimization flags to pass into the C compiler, -O2, etc. If you specify -O2 or higher, you should also specify -fno-strict-aliasing, because of gcc fstrict-aliasing optimization bugs in the tree optimizer. Search for `fstrict-aliasing optimization bug' with your favorite search engine. Examples of more recent bugs: 1. tree-optimization/17510 2. tree-optimization/39100 Various bugs have occurred in the past due to buggy logic in the tree-optimization portion of the gcc compiler, from 3.3.x to 4.4. $(RANLIB) : What to run after archiving a library. $(WCFLAGS) : Warning flags to pass to $(CC), e.g. -Werror, -Wall, etc. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Make System Variables --------------------- A series of variables are used within the make system that direct what actions need to be taken. Rather than me listing the variables here, please with their intended uses, please refer to the comments contained in +.../include/mk/env_pre.mk+. Guidelines and Recommendations ------------------------------ Of course, the GNU Make manual is key to understanding the Make system, but here are the following sections and chapters I suggest reviewing: link:http://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/make.html#Implicit-Rules[Implicit Rules] link:http://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/make.html#Using-Variables[Variables and Expansion] link:http://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/make.html#Origin-Function[Origin Use] link:http://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/make.html#Directory-Search[VPath Use] Before Committing ----------------- One should rebuild from scratch before committing. Please see INSTALL for more details. Other Errata ------------ Please see TODO for any issues related to the Makefile infrastructure, and build structure / source tree in general.