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<chapter id="build">
<title>The Build Process</title>

<!-- {{{ Introit                -->

<para>
Some &CDL; properties describe the consequences of manipulating
configuration options. There are two main types of consequences.
Typically enabling a configuration option results in one or more
<literal>#define's</literal> in a configuration header file, and
properties that affect this include &define;, &define-proc; and
&no-define;. Enabling a configuration option can also affect the build
process, primarily determining which files get built and added to the
appropriate library. Properties related to the build process include
&compile; and &make;. This chapter describes the whole build process,
including details such as compiler flags and custom build steps.
</para>
<para>
Part of the overall design of the &eCos; component framework is that
it can interact with a number of different build systems. The most
obvious of these is <application class="software">GNU
make</application>:the component framework can generate one or more
makefiles, and the user can then build the various packages simply by
invoking <application class="software">make</application>. However it
should also be possible to build &eCos; by other means: the
component framework can be queried about what is involved in building
a given configuration, and this information can then be fed into the
desired build system. Component writers should be aware of this
possibility. Most packages will not be affected because the &compile;
property can be used to provide all the required information, but care
has to be taken when writing custom build steps.
</para>

<!-- }}} -->
<!-- {{{ Build Tree Generation  -->

<sect1 id="build.outline">
<title>Build Tree Generation</title>

<para>
It is necessary to create an &eCos; configuration before anything can
be built. With some tools such as the graphical configuration tool
this configuration will be created in memory, and it is not essential
to produce an <filename>ecos.ecc</filename> savefile first (although
it is still very desirable to generate such a savefile at some point,
to allow the configuration to be re-loaded later on). With other tools
the savefile is generated first, for example using
<literal>ecosconfig&nbsp;new</literal>, and then a build tree is
generated using <literal>ecosconfig&nbsp;tree</literal>. The savefile
contains all the information needed to recreate a configuration.
</para>
<para>
An &eCos; build actually involves three separate trees. The component
repository acts as the source tree, and for application developers
this should be considered a read-only resource. The build tree is
where all intermediate files, especially object files, are created.
The install tree is where the main library
<filename>libtarget.a</filename>, the exported header files, and
similar files end up. Following a successful build it is possible to
take just the install tree and use it for developing an application:
none of the files in the component repository or the build tree are
needed for that. The build tree will be needed again only if the user
changes the configuration. However the install tree does not contain
copies of all of the documentation for the various packages, instead
the documentation is kept only in the component repository.
</para>
<para>
By default the build tree, the install tree, and the
<filename>ecos.ecc</filename> savefile all reside in the same
directory tree. This is not a requirement, both the install tree and
the savefile can be anywhere in the file system.
</para>
<para>
It is worth noting that the component framework does not separate the
usual <literal>make</literal> and <literal>make&nbsp;install</literal>
stages. A build always populates the install tree, and any
<literal>make&nbsp;install</literal> step would be redundant.
</para>
<para>
The install tree will always begin with two directories, <filename
class="directory">include</filename> for the exported header files and
<filename class="directory">lib</filename> for the main library
<filename class="directory">libtarget.a</filename> and other files
such as the linker script. In addition there will be a subdirectory
<filename class="directory">include/pkgconf</filename> containing the
configuration header files, which are generated or updated at the same
time the build tree is created or updated. More details of header file
generation are given below. Additional <filename
class="directory">include</filename> subdirectories such as <filename
class="directory">sys</filename> and <filename
class="directory">cyg/kernel</filename> will be created during the
first build, when each package's exported header files are copied to
the install tree. The install tree may also end up with additional
subdirectories during a build, for example as a result of custom build
steps. 
</para>
<para>
The component framework does not define the structure of the build
tree, and this may vary between build systems. It can be assumed that
each package in the configuration will have its own directory in the
build tree, and that this directory will be used for storing the
package's object files and as the current directory for any build
steps for that package. This avoids problems when custom build steps
from different packages generate intermediate files which happen to
have the same name.
</para>
<para>
Some build systems may allow application developers to copy a source
file from the component repository to the build tree and edit the
copy. This allows users to experiment with small changes, for example
to add a couple of lines of debugging to a package, without having to
modify the master copy in the component repository which could be
shared by several projects or several people. Functionality such as
this is transparent to component writers, and it is the responsibility
of the build system to make sure that the right thing happens.
</para>

<note>
<para>
There are some unresolved issues related to the build tree and install
tree. Specifically, when updating an existing build or install tree,
what should happen to unexpected files or directories? Suppose the
user started with a configuration that included the math library, and
the install tree contains header files <filename
class="headerfile">include/math.h</filename> and <filename
class="headerfile">include/sys/ieeefp.h</filename>. The user then removed
the math library from the configuration and is updating the build
tree. It is now desirable to remove these header files from the
install tree, so that if any application code still attempts to use
the math library this will fail at compile time rather than at link
time. There will also be some object files in the existing
<literal>libtarget.a</literal> library which are no longer
appropriate, and there may be other files in the install tree as a
result of custom build steps. The build tree will still contain a
directory for the math library, which no longer serves any purpose.
</para>
<para>
However, it is also possible that some of the files in the build tree
or the install tree were placed there by the user, in which case
removing them automatically would be a bad idea.
</para>
<para>
At present the component framework does not keep track of exactly what
should be present in the build and install trees, so it cannot readily
determine which files or library members are obsolete and can safely
be removed, and which ones are unexpected and need to be reported to
the user. This will be addressed in a future release of the system.
</para>
</note>

</sect1>

<!-- }}} -->
<!-- {{{ Header File Generation -->

<sect1 id="build.headers">
<title>Configuration Header File Generation</title>

<para>
Configuration options can affect a build in two main ways. First,
enabling a configuration option or other &CDL; entity can result in
various files being built and added to a library, thus providing
functionality to the application code. However this mechanism can only
operate at a rather coarse grain, at the level of entire source files.
Hence the component framework also generates configuration header
files containing mainly C preprocessor <literal>#define</literal>
directives. Package source code can then <literal>#include</literal>
the appropriate header files and use <literal>#if</literal>,
<literal>#ifdef</literal> and <literal>#ifndef</literal> directives to
adapt accordingly. In this way configuration options can be used to
enable or disable entire functions within a source file or just a
single line, whichever is appropriate.
</para>
<para>
The configuration header files end up in the <filename
class="directory">include/pkgconf</filename> subdirectory of the
install tree. There will be one header file for the system as a whole,
<filename class="headerfile">pkgconf/system.h</filename>, and there will
be additional header files for each package, for example
<filename class="headerfile">pkgconf/kernel.h</filename>. The header files
are generated when creating or updating the build and install trees,
which needs to happen after every change to the configuration.
</para>
<para>
The component framework processes each package in the configuration
one at a time. The exact order in which the packages are processed is
not defined, so the order in which <literal>#define's</literal> will
end up in the global <filename
class="headerfile">pkgconf/system.h</filename> header may vary. However
for any given configuration the order should remain consistent until
packages are added to or removed from the system. This avoids
unnecessary changes to the global header file and hence unnecessary
rebuilds of the packages and of application code because of header
file dependency handling.
</para>
<para>
Within a given package the various components, options and interfaces
will be processed in the order in which they were defined in the
corresponding &CDL; scripts. Typically the data in the configuration
headers consists only of a sequence of <literal>#define's</literal> so
the order in which these are generated is irrelevant, but some
properties such as &define-proc; can be used to add arbitrary data to
a configuration header and hence there may be dependencies on the
order. It should be noted that re-parenting an option below some other
package has no effect on which header file will contain the
corresponding <literal>#define</literal>: the preprocessor directives
will always end up in the header file for the package that defines the
option, or in the global configuration header.
</para>
<para>
There are six properties which affect the process of generating header
files:
<link linkend="ref.define-header">&define-header;</link>,
<link linkend="ref.no-define">&no-define;</link>,
<link linkend="ref.define-format">&define-format;</link>,
<link linkend="ref.define">&define;</link>,
<link linkend="ref.if-define">&if-define;</link>, and
<link linkend="ref.define-proc">&define-proc;</link>.
</para>
<para>
The &define-header; property can only occur in the body of a
&cdl-package; command and specifies the name of the header file which
should contain the package's configuration data, for example:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
cdl_package &lt;some_package&gt; {
    &hellip;
    define_header xyzzy.h
}
</programlisting>
<para>
Given such a &define-header; property the component framework will
use the file <filename class="headerfile">pkgconf/xyzzy.h</filename> for
the package's configuration data. If a package does not have
a &define-header; property then a suitable file name is constructed
from the package's name. This involves:
</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
All characters in the package name up to and including the first
underscore are removed. For example <varname>CYGPKG_KERNEL</varname>
is converted to <literal>KERNEL</literal>, and
<varname>CYGPKG_HAL_ARM</varname> is converted to
<literal>HAL_ARM</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Any upper case letters in the resulting string will be converted to
lower case, yielding e.g. <literal>kernel</literal> and
<literal>hal_arm</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
A <literal>.h</literal> suffix is appended, yielding e.g.
<literal>kernel.h</literal> and <literal>hal_arm.h</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>
Because of the naming restrictions on configuration options, this
should result in a valid filename. There is a small possibility of a
file name class, for example <varname>CYGPKG_PLUGH</varname> and
<varname>CYGPKG_plugh</varname> would both end up trying to use the
same header file <filename class="headerfile">pkgconf/plugh.h</filename>,
but the use of lower case letters for package names violates the
naming conventions. It is not legal to use the &define-header;
property to put the configuration data for several packages in a
single header file. The resulting behaviour is undefined.
</para>
<para>
Once the name of the package's header file has been determined and the
file has been opened, the various components, options and interfaces
in the package will be processed starting with the package itself. The
following steps are involved:
</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
If the current option or other &CDL; entity is inactive or disabled,
the option is ignored for the purposes of header file generation.
<literal>#define's</literal> are only generated for options that are
both active and enabled.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The next step is to generate a default <literal>#define</literal> for
the current option. If this option has a &no-define; property then the
default <literal>#define</literal> is suppressed, and processing
continues for &define;, &if-define; and &define-proc; properties.
</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
The header file appropriate for the default <literal>#define</literal>
is determined. For a &cdl-package; this will be <filename
class="headerfile">pkgconf/system.h</filename>, for any other option this
will be the package's own header file. The intention here is that
packages and application code can always determine which packages are
in the configuration by <literal>#include'ing</literal> <filename
class="headerfile">pkgconf/system.h</filename>. The C preprocessor lacks
any facilities for including a header file only if it exists, and
taking appropriate action otherwise.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
For options with the flavors <literal>bool</literal> or
<literal>none</literal>, a single <literal>#define</literal> will be
generated. This takes the form:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
#define &lt;option&gt; 1
</programlisting>
<para>
For example:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
#define CYGFUN_LIBC_TIME_POSIX 1
</programlisting>
<para>
Package source code can check whether or not an option is active and
enabled by using the <literal>#ifdef</literal>,
<literal>#ifndef</literal> or <literal>#if
defined(&hellip;)</literal>directives.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
For options with the flavors <literal>data</literal> or
<literal>booldata</literal>, either one or two
<literal>#define's</literal> will be generated. The first of these may
be affected by a &define-format; property. If this property is not
defined then the first <literal>#define</literal> will take the form:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
#define &lt;option&gt; &lt;value&gt;
</programlisting>
<para>
For example:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
#define CYGNUM_LIBC_ATEXIT_HANDLERS 32
</programlisting>
<para>
Package source code can examine this value using the
<literal>#if</literal> directive, or by using the symbol in
code such as:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
    for (i = 0; i < CYGNUM_LIBC_ATEXIT_HANDLERS; i++) {
        &hellip;
    }
</programlisting>
<para>
It must be noted that the <literal>#define</literal> will be generated
only if the corresponding option is both active and enabled. Options
with the <literal>data</literal> flavor are always enabled but may not
be active. Code like the above should be written only if it is known
that the symbol will always be defined, for example if the
corresponding source file will only get built if the containing
component is active and enabled. Otherwise the use of additional
<literal>#ifdef</literal> or similar directives will be necessary.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
If there is a &define-format; property then this controls how the
option's value will appear in the header file. Given a format string
such as <literal>%08x</literal> and a value 42, the component
framework will execute the &Tcl; command
<literal>format&nbsp;%08x&nbsp;42</literal> and the result will be
used for the <literal>#define's</literal> value. It is the
responsibility of the component writer to make sure that this &Tcl;
command will be valid given the format string and the legal values for
the option.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
In addition a second <literal>#define</literal> may or may not be
generated. This will take the form:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
#define &lt;option&gt;_&lt;value&gt;
</programlisting>
<para>
For example:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
#define CYGNUM_LIBC_ATEXIT_HANDLERS_32
</programlisting>
<para>
The <literal>#define</literal> will be generated only if it would
result in a valid C preprocessor symbol. If the value is a string such
as <literal>"/dev/ser0"</literal> then the <literal>#define</literal>
would be suppressed. This second <literal>#define</literal> is not
particularly useful for numerical data, but can be valuable in other
circumstances. For example if the legal values for an option
<literal>XXX_COLOR</literal> are <literal>red</literal>,
<literal>green</literal> and <literal>blue</literal> then code like
the following can be used:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
#ifdef XXX_COLOR_red
    &hellip;
#endif
#ifdef XXX_COLOR_green
    &hellip;
#endif
#ifdef XXX_COLOR_blue
    &hellip;
#endif
</programlisting>
<para>
The expression syntax provided by the C preprocessor is limited to
numerical data and cannot perform string comparisons. By generating
two <literal>#define's</literal> in this way it is possible to work
around this limitation of the C preprocessor. However some care has to
be taken: if a component writer also defined a configuration option
<literal>XXX_COLOR_green</literal> then there will be confusion. Since
such a configuration option violates the naming conventions, the
problem is unlikely to arise in practice.
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</listitem>

<listitem>
<para>
For some options it may be useful to generate one or more additional
<literal>#define's</literal> or, in conjunction with the &no-define;
property, to define a symbol with a name different from the option's
name. This can be achieved with the &define; property, which takes the
following form:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
    define [-file=&lt;filename&gt;] [-format=&lt;format&gt;] &lt;symbol&gt;
</programlisting>
<para>
For example:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
    define FOPEN_MAX
</programlisting>
<para>
This will result in something like:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
#define FOPEN_MAX 8
#define FOPEN_MAX_8
</programlisting>
<para>
The specified symbol must be a valid C preprocessor symbol. Normally
the <literal>#define</literal> will end up in the same header file as
the default one, in other words <filename
class="headerfile">pkgconf/system.h</filename> in the case of a
&cdl-package;, or the package's own header file for any other option.
The <literal>-file</literal> option can be used to change this. At
present the only legal value is <literal>system.h</literal>, for
example:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
    define -file=system.h &lt;symbol&gt;
</programlisting>
<para>
This will cause the <literal>#define</literal> to end up in the global
configuration header rather than in the package's own header. Use of
this facility should be avoided since it is very rarely necessary to
make options globally visible.
</para>
<para>
The &define; property takes another option,
<literal>-format</literal>, to provide a format string.
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
    define -format=%08x &lt;symbol&gt;
</programlisting>
<para>
This should only be used for options with the <literal>data</literal>
or <literal>booldata</literal> flavor, and has the same effect as the
&define-format; property has on the default
<literal>#define</literal>.
</para>
<para>
&define; properties are processed in the same way the default
<literal>#define</literal>. For options with the
<literal>bool</literal> or <literal>none</literal> flavors a single
<literal>#define</literal> will be generated using the value
<literal>1</literal>. For options with the <literal>data</literal> or
<literal>booldata</literal> flavors either one or two
<literal>#define's</literal> will be generated.
</para>
</listitem>

<listitem>
<para>
After processing all &define; properties, the component framework will
look for any &if-define; properties. These take the following form:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
    if_define [-file=&lt;filename&gt;] &lt;symbol1&gt; &lt;symbol2&gt;
</programlisting>
<para>
For example:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
    if_define CYGSRC_KERNEL CYGDBG_USE_ASSERTS
</programlisting>
<para>
The following will be generated in the configuration header file:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
#ifdef CYGSRC_KERNEL
# define CYGDBG_USE_ASSERTS
#endif
</programlisting>
<para>
Typical kernel source code would begin with the following construct:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
#define CYGSRC_KERNEL 1
#include &lt;pkgconf/kernel.h&gt;
#include &lt;cyg/infra/cyg_ass.h&gt;
</programlisting>
<para>
The infrastructure header file <filename
class="headerfile">cyg/infra/cyg_ass.h</filename> only checks for symbols
such as <literal>CYGDBG_USE_ASSERTS</literal>, and has no special
knowledge of the kernel or any other package. The &if-define; property
will only affect code that defines the symbol
<literal>CYGSRC_KERNEL</literal>, so typically only kernel source
code. If the option is enabled then assertion support will be enabled
for the kernel source code only. If the option is inactive or disabled
then kernel assertions will be disabled. Assertions in other packages
are not affected. Thus the &if-define; property allows control over
assertions, tracing, and similar facilities at the level of individual
packages, or at finer levels such as components or even single source
files if desired.
</para>
<note>
<para>
Current &eCos; packages do not yet make use of this facility. Instead
there is a single global configuration option
<varname>CYGDBG_USE_ASSERTS</varname> which is used to enable or
disable assertions for all packages. This issue should be addressed in
a future release of the system.
</para>
</note>
<para>
As with the &define; property, the &if-define; property takes an
option <literal>-file</literal> with a single legal value
<literal>system.h</literal>. This allows the output to be redirected
to <filename class="headerfile">pkgconf/system.h</filename> if and when
necessary. 
</para>
</listitem>

<listitem>
<para>
The final property that is relevant to configuration header file
generation is &define-proc;. This takes a single argument, a &Tcl;
fragment that can add arbitrary data to the global header <filename
class="headerfile">pkgconf/system.h</filename> and to the package's own
header. When the &define-proc; script is invoked two variables will be
set up to allow access to these headers: <literal>cdl_header</literal>
will be a channel to the package's own header file, for example
<filename class="headerfile">pkgconf/kernel.h</filename>;
<literal>cdl_system_header</literal> will be a channel to <filename
class="headerfile">pkgconf/system.h</filename>. A typical &define-proc;
script will use the &Tcl; <literal>puts</literal> command to output
data to one of these channels, for example:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
cdl_option &lt;name&gt; {
    &hellip;
    define_proc {
        puts $::cdl_header "#define XXX 1"
    }
}
</programlisting>
<note>
<para>
In the current implementation the use of &define-proc; is limited
because the &Tcl; script cannot access any of the configuration data.
Therefore the script is limited to writing constant data to the
configuration headers. This is a major limitation which will be
addressed in a future release of the component framework.
</para>
</note>

</listitem>

</orderedlist>

<note>
<para>
Generating C header files with <literal>#define's</literal> for the
configuration data suffices for existing packages written in some
combination of C, C++ and assembler. It can also be used in
conjunction with some other languages, for example by first passing
the source code through the C preprocessor and feeding the result into
the appropriate compiler. In future versions of the component
framework additional programming languages such as Java may be
supported, and the configuration data may also be written to files in
some format other than C preprocessor directives. 
</para>
</note>

<note>
<para>
At present there is no way for application or package source code to
get hold of all the configuration details related to the current
hardware. Instead that information is spread over various different
configuration headers for the HAL and device driver packages, with
some of the information going into <filename
class="headerfile">pkgconf/system.h</filename>. It is possible that in
some future release of the system there will be another global
configuration header file <filename
class="headerfile">pkgconf/hardware.h</filename> which either contains the
configuration details for the various hardware-specific packages or
which <literal>#include's</literal> all the hardware-specific
configuration headers. The desirability and feasibility of such a
scheme are still to be determined. To avoid future incompatibility
problems as a result of any such changes, it is recommended that all
hardware packages (in other packages containing the &hardware;
property) use the &define-header; property to specify explicitly which
configuration header should be generated.
</para>
</note>

<sect2 id = "build.headers.system.h">
<title>The <filename class="headerfile">system.h</filename> Header</title>

<para>
Typically configuration header files are <literal>#include'd</literal>
only by the package's source code at build time, or by a package's
exported header files if the interface provided by the package may be
affected by a configuration option. There should be no need for
application code to know the details of individual configuration
options, instead the configuration should specifically meet the needs
of the application.
</para>
<para>
There are always exceptions. Application code may want to adapt to
configuration options, for example to do different things for ROM and
RAM booting systems, or when it is necessary to support several
different target boards. This is especially true if the code in question
is really re-usable library code which has not been converted to an
eCos package, and hence cannot use any CDL facilities.
</para>
<para>
A major problem here is determining which packages are in the
configuration: attempting to <literal>#include</literal> a header file
such as <filename class="headerfile">pkgconf/net.h</filename>
when it is not known for certain that that particular package is part
of the configuration will result in compilation errors. The global
header file <filename class="headerfile">pkgconf/system.h</filename>
serves to provide such information, so application code can use
techniques like the following:
</para>

<programlisting width=72>
#include &lt;pkgconf/system.h&gt;
#ifdef CYGPKG_NET
# include &lt;pkgconf/net.h&gt;
#endif
</programlisting>

<para>
This will compile correctly irrespective of the eCos configuration,
and subsequent code can use <literal>#ifdef</literal> or similar
directives on <literal>CYGPKG_NET</literal> or any of the
configuration options in that package. 
</para>
<para>
In addition to determining whether or not a package is present, the
global configuration header file can also be used to find out the
specific version of a package that is being used. This can be useful
if a more recent version exports additional functionality. It may also
be necessary to adapt to incompatible changes in the exported
interface or to changes in behaviour. For each package the
configuration system will typically <literal>#define</literal> three
symbols, for example for a V1.3.1 release:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
#define CYGNUM_NET_VERSION_MAJOR 1
#define CYGNUM_NET_VERSION_MINOR 3
#define CYGNUM_NET_VERSION_RELEASE 1
</programlisting>
<para>
There are a number of problems associated with such version
<literal>#define's</literal>. The first restriction is that the
package must follow the standard naming conventions, so the package
name must be of the form <literal>xxxPKG_yyy</literal>. The three
characters immediately preceding the first underscore must be
<literal>PKG</literal>, and will be replaced with
<literal>NUM</literal> when generating the version
<literal>#define's</literal>. If a package does not follow the naming
convention then no version <literal>#define's</literal> will be
generated. 
</para>
<para>
Assuming the package does follow the naming conventions, the
configuration tools will always generate three version
<literal>#define's</literal> for the major, minor, and release
numbers. The symbol names are obtained from the package name by
replacing <literal>PKG</literal> with <literal>NUM</literal> and
appending <literal>_VERSION_MAJOR</literal>,
<literal>_VERSION_MINOR</literal> and
<literal>_VERSION_RELEASE</literal>. It is assumed that the resulting
symbols will not clash with any configuration option names. The values
for the <literal>#define's</literal> are determined by searching the
version string for sequences of digits, optionally preceded by a minus
sign. It is possible that some or all of the numbers are absent in any
given version string, in which case <literal>-1</literal> will be used
in the <literal>#define</literal>. For example, given a version string
of <literal>V1.12beta</literal>, the major version number is
<literal>1</literal>, the minor number is <literal>12</literal>, and
the release number is <literal>-1</literal>. Given a version string of
<literal>beta</literal> all three numbers would be set to
<literal>-1</literal>.
</para>
<para>
There is special case code for the version <literal>current</literal>,
which typically corresponds to a development version obtained via
anonymous CVS or similar means. The configuration system has special
built-in knowledge of this version, and will assume it is more recent
than any specific release number. The global configuration header
defines a special symbol <literal>CYGNUM_VERSION_CURRENT</literal>,
and this will be used as the major version number when version
<literal>current</literal> of a package is used:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
#define CYGNUM_VERSION_CURRENT 0x7fffff00
...
#define CYGNUM_INFRA_VERSION_MAJOR CYGNUM_VERSION_CURRENT
#define CYGNUM_INFRA_VERSION_MINOR -1
#define CYGNUM_INFRA_VERSION_RELEASE -1
</programlisting>

<para>
The large number used for <literal>CYGNUM_VERSION_CURRENT</literal>
should ensure that major version comparisons work as expected, while
still allowing for a small amount of arithmetic in case that proves
useful. 
</para>
<para>
It should be noted that this implementation of version
<literal>#define's</literal> will not cope with all version number
schemes. However for many cases it should suffice.
</para>

</sect2>

</sect1>

<!-- }}} -->
<!-- {{{ The Build              -->

<sect1 id="build.make">
<title>Building eCos</title>

<!-- {{{ Introit                -->

<para>
The primary goal of an eCos build is to produce the library
<filename>libtarget.a</filename>. A typical &eCos; build will also
generate a number of other targets: <filename>extras.o</filename>,
startup code <filename>vectors.o</filename>, and a linker script. Some
packages may cause additional libraries or targets to be generated.
The basic build process involves a number of different phases with
corresponding priorities. There are a number of predefined priorities:
</para>
<informaltable frame="all" colsep=1 rowsep=1 pgwide=0>
<tgroup cols=2 colsep=1 rowsep=1>
<colspec colnum=1 align=right>
<colspec colnum=2 align=left>
<thead>
  <row>
    <entry>Priority</entry>
    <entry>Action</entry>
  </row>
</thead>
<tbody>
  <row>
    <entry>0</entry>
    <entry>Export header files</entry>
  </row>
  <row>
    <entry>100</entry>
    <entry>Process &compile; properties</entry>
  </row>
  <row>
    <entry> </entry>
    <entry>and most &make-object; custom build steps</entry>
  </row>
  <row>
    <entry>200</entry>
    <entry>Generate libraries</entry>
  </row>
  <row>
    <entry>300</entry>
    <entry>Process &make; custom build steps</entry>
  </row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>

<para>
Generation of the <filename>extras.o</filename> file, the startup code
and the linker script actually happens via &make; custom build steps,
typically defined in appropriate HAL packages. The component framework
has no special knowledge of these targets.
</para>
<para>
By default custom build steps for a &make-object; property happen
during the same phase as most compilations, but this can be changed
using a <literal>-priority</literal> option. Similarly custom build
steps for a &make; property happen at the end of a build, but this can
also be changed with a <literal>-priority</literal> option. For
example a priority of 50 can be used to run a custom build step
between the header file export phase and the main compilation phase.
Custom build steps are discussed in more detail below.
</para>
<para>
Some build systems may run several commands of the same priority in
parallel. For example files listed in &compile; properties may get
compiled in parallel, concurrently with &make-object; custom build
steps with default priorities. Since most of the time for an &eCos;
build involves processing &compile; properties, this allows builds to
be speeded up on suitable host hardware. All build steps for a given
phase will complete before the next phase is started.
</para>

<!-- }}} -->
<!-- {{{ Update                 -->

<sect2 id="build.make.update">
<title>Updating the Build Tree</title>

<para>
Some build systems may involve a phase before the header files get
exported, to update the build and install trees automatically when
there has been a change to the configuration savefile
<filename>ecos.ecc</filename>. This is useful mainly for application
developers using the command line tools: it would allow users to
create the build tree only once, and after any subsequent
configuration changes the tree would be updated automatically by the
build system. The facility would be analogous to the
<literal>--enable-maintainer-mode</literal> option provide by the
<application class="software">autoconf</application> and <application
class="software">automake</application> programs. At present no &eCos;
build system implements this functionality, but it is likely to be
added in a future release.
</para>

</sect2>

<!-- }}} -->
<!-- {{{ Exporting headers      -->

<sect2 id="build.make.export">
<title>Exporting Public Header Files</title>

<para>
The first compulsory phase involves making sure that there is an up to
date set of header files in the install tree. Each package can contain
some number of header files defining the exported interface.
Applications should only use exported functionality. A package can
also contain some number of private header files which are only of
interest to the implementation, and which should not be visible to
application code. The various packages that go into a particular
configuration can be spread all over the component repository. In
theory it might be possible to make all the exported header files
accessible by having a lengthy <literal>-I</literal> header file
search path, but this would be inconvenient both for building eCos and
for building applications. Instead all the relevant header files are
copied to a single location, the <filename
class="directory">include</filename> subdirectory of the install tree.
The process involves the following:
</para>

<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
The install tree, for example <filename
class="directory">/usr/local/ecos/install</filename>, and its <filename
class="directory">include</filename> subdirectory <filename
class="directory">/usr/local/ecos/install/include</filename> will typically be
created when the build tree is generated or updated. At the same time
configuration header files will be written to the <filename
class="directory">pkgconf</filename> subdirectory, for example
<filename
class="directory">/usr/local/ecos/include/pkgconf</filename>, so that
the configuration data is visible to all the packages and to
application code that may wish to examine some of the configuration
options.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Each package in the configuration is examined for exported header
files. The exact order in which the packages are processed is not
defined, but should not matter.
</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
If the package has an <link
linkend="ref.include-files">&include-files;</link> property then this
lists all the exported header files:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
cdl_package &lt;some_package&gt; {
    &hellip;
    include_files header1.h header2.h
}    
</programlisting>
<para>
If no arguments are given then the package does not export any header
files.
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
cdl_package &lt;some_package&gt; {
    &hellip;
    include_files
}    
</programlisting>
<para>
The listed files may be in an <filename
class="directory">include</filename> subdirectory within the package's
hierarchy, or they may be relative to the package's toplevel
directory. The &include-files; property is intended mainly for very
simple packages. It can also be useful when converting existing code
to an &eCos; package, to avoid rearranging the sources.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
If there is no &include-files; property then the component framework
will look for an <filename class="directory">include</filename>
subdirectory in the package, as per the layout conventions. All files,
including those in subdirectories, will be treated as exported header
files. For example, the math library package contains files <filename
class="headerfile">include/math.h</filename> and <filename
class="headerfile">include/sys/ieeefp.h</filename>, both of which will
be exported to the install tree.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
As a last resort, if there is neither an &include-files; property nor
an <filename class="directory">include</filename> subdirectory, the
component framework will search the package's toplevel directory and
all of its subdirectories for files with one of the following
suffixes: <literal>.h</literal>, <literal>.hxx</literal>,
<literal>.inl</literal> or <literal>.inc</literal>. All such files
will be interpreted as exported header files.
</para>
<para>
This last resort rule could cause confusion for packages which have no
exported header files but which do contain one or more private header
files. For example a typical device driver simply implements an
existing interface rather than define a new one, so it does not need
to export a header file. However it may still have one or more private
header files. Such packages should use an &include-files; property
with no arguments.
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
If the package has one or more exported header files, the next step is
to determine where the files should end up. By default all exported
header files will just end up relative to the install tree's <filename
class="directory">include</filename> subdirectory. For example the
math library's <filename class="headerfile">math.h</filename> header
would end up as <filename>/usr/local/ecos/include/math.h</filename>,
and the <filename class="headerfile">sys/ieeefp.h</filename> header
would end up as
<filename>/usr/local/ecos/include/sys/ieeefp.h</filename>. This
behaviour is correct for packages like the C library where the
interface is defined by appropriate standards. For other packages this
behaviour can lead to file name clashes, and the <link
linkend="ref.include-dir">&include-dir;</link> property should be used
to avoid this:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
cdl_package CYGPKG_KERNEL {
    include_dir cyg/kernel
}
</programlisting>
<para>
This means that the kernel's exported header file
<filename>include/kapi.h</filename> should be copied to
<filename>/usr/local/ecos/include/cyg/kernel/kapi.h</filename>, where
it is very unlikely to clash with a header file from some other
package.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
For typical application developers there will be little or no need for
the installed header files to change after the first build. Changes
will be necessary only if packages are added to or removed from the
configuration. For component writers, the build system should detect
changes to the master copy of the header file source code and update
the installed copies automatically during the next build. The build
system is expected to perform a header file dependency analysis, so
any source files affected should get rebuilt as well.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Some build systems may provide additional support for application
developers who want to make minor changes to a package, especially for
debugging purposes. A header file could be copied from the
component repository (which for application developers is assumed to
be a read-only resource) into the build tree and edited there. The
build system would detect a more recent version of such a header file
in the build tree and install it. Care would have to be taken to
recover properly if the modified copy in the build tree is
subsequently removed, in order to revert to the original behaviour.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
When updating the install tree's <filename
class="directory">include</filename> subdirectory, the build tree may
also perform a clean-up operation. Specifically, it may check for any
files which do not correspond to known exported header files and
delete them.
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<note>
<para>
At present there is no defined support in the build system for
defining custom build steps that generate exported header files. Any
attempt to use the existing custom build step support may fall foul of
unexpected header files being deleted automatically by the build
system. This limitation will be addressed in a future release of the
component framework, and may require changing the priority for
exporting header files so that a custom build step can happen first.
</para>
</note>
</sect2>

<!-- }}} -->
<!-- {{{ Compiling              -->

<sect2 id="build.make.compiles">
<title>Compiling</title>

<para>
Once there are up to date copies of all the exported header files in
the build tree, the main build can proceed. Most of this involves
compiling source files listed in &compile; properties in the &CDL;
scripts for the various packages, for example:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
cdl_package CYGPKG_ERROR {
    display       "Common error code support"
    compile       strerror.cxx
    &hellip;
}
</programlisting>
<para>
&compile; properties may appear in the body of a &cdl-package;,
&cdl-component;, &cdl-option; or &cdl-interface;. If the option or
other &CDL; entity is active and enabled, the property takes effect.
If the option is inactive or disabled the property is ignored. It is
possible for a &compile; property to list multiple source files, and
it is also possible for a given &CDL; entity to contain multiple
&compile; properties. The following three examples are equivalent:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
cdl_option &lt;some_option&gt; {
    &hellip;
    compile file1.c file2.c file3.c
}

cdl_option &lt;some_option&gt; {
    &hellip;
    compile file1.c
    compile file2.c
    compile file3.c
}

cdl_option &lt;some_option&gt; {
    &hellip;
    compile file1.c file2.c
    compile file3.c
}
</programlisting>
<para>
Packages that follow the directory layout conventions should have a
subdirectory <filename class="directory">src</filename>, and the
component framework will first look for the specified files there.
Failing that it will look for the specified files relative to the
package's root directory. For example if a package contains a source
file <filename>strerror.cxx</filename> then the following two lines
are equivalent:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
    compile strerror.cxx
    compile src/strerror.cxx
</programlisting>
<para>
In the first case the component framework will find the file
immediately in the packages <filename class="directory">src</filename>
subdirectory. In the second case the framework will first look for a
file <filename>src/src/strerror.cxx</filename>, and then for
<filename>str/strerror.cxx</filename> relative to the package's root
directory. The result is the same.
</para>
<para>
The file names may be relative paths, allowing the source code to be
split over multiple directories. For example if a package contains a
file <filename>src/sync/mutex.cxx</filename> then the corresponding
&CDL; entry would be:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
    compile sync/mutex.cxx
</programlisting>
<para>
All the source files relevant to the current configuration will be
identified when the build tree is generated or updated, and added to
the appropriate makefile (or its equivalent for other build systems).
The actual build will involve a rule of the form:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
&lt;object file&gt; : &lt;source file&gt;
        $(CC) -c $(INCLUDE_PATH) $(CFLAGS) -o $@ $<
</programlisting>

<para>
The component framework has built-in knowledge for processing source
files written in C, C++ or assembler. These should have a
<literal>.c</literal>, <literal>.cxx</literal> and
<literal>.S</literal> suffix respectively. The current implementation
has no simple mechanism for extending this with support for other
languages or for alternative suffixes, but this should be addressed in
a future release.
</para>
<para>
The compiler command that will be used is something like
<literal>arm-elf-gcc</literal>. This consists of a command prefix, in
this case <literal>arm-elf</literal>, and a specific command such as
<literal>gcc</literal>. The command prefix will depend on the target
architecture and is controlled by a configuration option in the
appropriate HAL package. It will have a sensible default value for the
current architecture, but users can modify this option when necessary.
The command prefix cannot be changed on a per-package basis, since
it is usually essential that all packages are built with a consistent
set of tools.
</para>
<para>
The <literal>$(INCLUDE_PATH)</literal> header file search path
consists of at least the following:
</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
The <filename class="directory">include</filename> directory in the
install tree. This allows source files to access the various header
files exported by all the packages in the configuration, and also the
configuration header files.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The current package's root directory. This ensures that all files in
the package are accessible at build time.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The current package's <filename class="directory">src</filename>
subdirectory, if it is present. Generally all files to be compiled are
located in or below this directory. Typically this is used to access
private header files containing implementation details only.
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>
The compiler flags <literal>$(CFLAGS)</literal> are determined in two
steps. First the appropriate HAL package will provide a configuration
option defining the global flags. Typically this includes flags that
are needed for the target processor, for example
<literal>-mcpu=arm9</literal>, various flags related to warnings,
debugging and optimization, and flags such as
<literal>-finit-priority</literal> which are needed by &eCos; itself.
Users can modify the global flags option as required. In addition it
is possible for existing flags to be removed from and new flags to be
added to the current set on a per-package basis, again by means of
user-modifiable configuration options. More details are given below.
</para>
<para>
Component writers can assume that the build system will perform full
header file dependency analysis, including dependencies on
configuration headers, but the exact means by which this happens is
implementation-defined. Typical application developers are unlikely to
modify exported or private header files, but configuration headers are
likely to change as the configuration is changed to better meet the
needs of the application. Full header file dependency analysis also
makes things easier for the component writers themselves.
</para>
<para>
The current directory used during a compilation is an implementation
detail of the build system. However it can be assumed that each
package will have its own directory somewhere in the build tree, to
prevent file name clashes, that this will be the current directory,
and that intermediate object files will end up here.
</para>

</sect2>

<!-- }}} -->
<!-- {{{ Library Generation     -->

<sect2 id="build.make.libraries">
<title>Generating the Libraries</title>

<para>
Once all the &compile; and &make-object; properties have been
processed and the required object files have been built or rebuilt,
these can be collected together in one or more libraries. The archiver
will be the <application class="software">ar</application> command
corresponding to the current architecture, for example <application
class="software">powerpc-eabi-ar</application>. By default al of the
object files will end up in a single library
<filename>libtarget.a</filename>. This can be changed on a per-package
basis using the <link linkend="ref.library">&library</link> property
in the body of the corresponding &cdl-package; command, for example:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
cdl_package &lt;SOME_PACKAGE&gt; {
    &hellip;
    library  libSomePackage.a
}
</programlisting>

<para>
However using different libraries for each package should be avoided.
It makes things more difficult for application developers since they
now have to link the application code with more libraries, and
possibly even change this set of libraries when packages are added to
or removed from the configuration. The use of a single library
<filename>libtarget.a</filename> avoids any complications.
</para>
<para>
It is also possible to change the target library for individual files,
using a <literal>-library</literal> option with the corresponding
&compile; or &make-object; property. For example:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
    compile -library=libSomePackage.a hello.c
    make_object -library=libSomePackage.a {
        &hellip;
    }
</programlisting>
<para>
Again this should be avoided because it makes application development
more difficult. There is one special library which can be used freely,
<filename>libextras.a</filename>, which is used to generate the
<filename>extras.o</filename> file as described below.
</para>
<para>
The order in which object files end up in a library is not defined.
Typically each library will be created directly in the install tree,
since there is little point in generating a file in the build tree and
then immediately copying it to the install tree.
</para>

</sect2>

<!-- }}} -->
<!-- {{{ extras.o               -->

<sect2 id="build.extras">
<title>The <filename>extras.o</filename> file</title>

<para>
Package sources files normally get compiled and then added to a
library, by default <filename>libtarget.a</filename>, which is then
linked with the application code. Because of the usual rules for
linking with libraries, augmented by the use of link-time garbage
collection, this means that code will only end up in the final
executable if there is a direct or indirect reference to it in the
application. Usually this is the desired behaviour: if the application
does not make any use of say kernel message boxes, directly or
indirectly, then that code should not end up in the final executable
taking up valuable memory space.
</para>
<para>
In a few cases it is desirable for package code to end up in the final
executable even if there are no direct or indirect references. For
example, device driver functions are often not called directly.
Instead the application will access the device via the string
<literal>"/dev/xyzzy"</literal> and call the device functions
indirectly. This will be impossible if the functions have been
removed at link-time.
</para>
<para>
Another example involves static C++ objects. It is possible to have a
static C++ object, preferably with a suitable constructor priority,
where all of the interesting work happens as a side effect of running
the constructor. For example a package might include a monitoring
thread or a garbage collection thread created from inside such a
constructor. Without a reference by the application to the static
object the latter will never get linked in, and the package will not
function as expected.
</para>
<para>
A third example would be copyright messages. A package vendor may want
to insist that all products shipped using that package include a
particular message in memory, even though many users of that package
will object to such a restriction.
</para>
<para>
To meet requirements such as these the build system provides support
for a file <filename>extras.o</filename>, which always gets linked
with the application code via the linker script. Because it is an
object file rather than a library everything in the file will be
linked in. The <filename>extras.o</filename> file is generated at the
end of a build from a library <filename>libextras.a</filename>, so
packages can put functions and variables in suitable source files and
add them to that library explicitly:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
    compile -library=libextras.a xyzzy.c
    compile xyzzy_support.c
</programlisting>
<para>
In this example <filename>xyzzy.o</filename> will end up in
<filename>libextras.a</filename>, and hence in
<filename>extras.o</filename> and in the final executable.
<filename>xyzzy_support.o</filename> will end up in
<filename>libtarget.a</filename> as usual, and is subject to linker
garbage collection.
</para>

</sect2>

<!-- }}} -->
<!-- {{{ Compilers and flags    -->

<sect2 id="build.flags">
<title>Compilers and Flags</title>

<caution>
<para>
Some of the details of compiler selection and compiler flags described
below are subject to change in future revisions of the component
framework, although every reasonable attempt will be made to avoid
breaking backwards compatibility.
</para>
</caution>

<para>
The build system needs to know what compiler to use, what compiler
flags should be used for different stages of the build and so on. Much
of this information will vary from target to target, although users
should be able to override this when appropriate. There may also be a
need for some packages to modify the compiler flags. All platform HAL
packages should define a number of options with well-known names,
along the following lines (any existing platform HAL package can be
consulted for a complete example):
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
cdl_component CYGBLD_GLOBAL_OPTIONS {
    flavor  none
    parent  CYGPKG_NONE
    &hellip;

    cdl_option CYGBLD_GLOBAL_COMMAND_PREFIX {
        flavor  data
        default_value { "arm-elf" }
        &hellip;
    }
    cdl_option CYGBLD_GLOBAL_CFLAGS {
        flavor  data
        default_value "-Wall -g -O2 &hellip;"
        &hellip;
    }

    cdl_option CYGBLD_GLOBAL_LDFLAGS {
        flavor  data
        default_value "-g -nostdlib -Wl,--gc-sections &hellip;"
        &hellip;
    }
}
</programlisting>
<para>
The <varname>CYGBLD_GLOBAL_OPTIONS</varname> component serves to
collect together all global build-related options. It has the flavor
<literal>none</literal> since disabling all of these options would
make it impossible to build anything and hence is not useful. It is
parented immediately below the root of the configuration hierarchy,
thus making sure that it is readily accessible in the graphical
configuration tool and, for command line users, in the
<filename>ecos.ecc</filename> save file.
</para>
<note>
<para>
Currently the &parent; property lists a parent of
<varname>CYGPKG_NONE</varname>, rather than an empty string. This
could be unfortunate if there was ever a package with that name. The
issue will be addressed in a future release of the component
framework.
</para>
</note>
<para>
The option <varname>CYGBLD_GLOBAL_COMMAND_PREFIX</varname> defines
which tools should be used for the current target. Typically this is
determined by the processor on the target hardware. In some cases a
given target board may be able to support several different
processors, in which case the &default-value; expression could select
a different toolchain depending on some other option that is used to
control which particular processor.
<varname>CYGBLD_GLOBAL_COMMAND_PREFIX</varname> is modifiable rather
than calculated, so users can override this when necessary.
</para>
<para>
Given a command prefix such as <literal>arm-elf</literal>, all C
source files will be compiled with <literal>arm-elf-gcc</literal>, all
C++ sources will be built using <literal>arm-elf-g++</literal>,
and <literal>arm-elf-ar</literal> will be used to generate the
library. This is in accordance with the usual naming conventions for
GNU cross-compilers and similar tools. For the purposes of custom
build steps, tokens such as <literal>$(CC)</literal> will be set to
<literal>arm-elf-gcc</literal>.
</para>
<para>
The next option, <varname>CYGBLD_GLOBAL_CFLAGS</varname>, is used to
provide the initial value of <literal>$(CFLAGS)</literal>. Some
compiler flags such as <literal>-Wall</literal> and
<literal>-g</literal> are likely to be used on all targets. Other
flags such as <literal>-mcpu=arm7tdmi</literal> will be
target-specific. Again this is a modifiable option, so the user can
switch from say <literal>-O2</literal> to <literal>-Os</literal> if
desired. The option <varname>CYGBLD_GLOBAL_LDFLAGS</varname> serves
the same purpose for <literal>$(LDFLAGS)</literal> and linking. It is
used primarily when building test cases or possibly for some custom
build steps, since building eCos itself generally involves building
one or more libraries rather than executables.
</para>
<para>
Some packages may wish to add certain flags to the global set, or
possibly remove some flags. This can be achieved by having
appropriately named options in the package, for example:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
cdl_component CYGPKG_KERNEL_OPTIONS {
    display "Kernel build options"
    flavor  none
    &hellip;

    cdl_option CYGPKG_KERNEL_CFLAGS_ADD {
        display "Additional compiler flags"
        flavor  data
        default_value { "" }
        &hellip;
    }

    cdl_option CYGPKG_KERNEL_CFLAGS_REMOVE {
        display "Suppressed compiler flags"
        flavor  data
        default_value { "" }
        &hellip;
    }

    cdl_option CYGPKG_KERNEL_LDFLAGS_ADD {
        display "Additional linker flags"
        flavor  data
        default_value { "" }
        &hellip;
    }

    cdl_option CYGPKG_KERNEL_LDFLAGS_REMOVE {
        display "Suppressed linker flags"
        flavor  data
        default_value { "" }
        &hellip;
    }
}
</programlisting>
<para>
In this example the kernel does not modify the global compiler flags
by default, but it is possible for the users to modify the options if
desired. The value of <literal>$(CFLAGS)</literal> that is used for
the compilations and custom build steps in a given package is
determined as follows:
</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Start with the global settings from
<varname>CYGBLD_GLOBAL_CFLAGS</varname>, for example
<literal>-g&nbsp;-O2</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Remove any flags specified in the per-package
<literal>CFLAGS_REMOVE</literal> option, if any. For example
if <literal>-O2</literal> should be removed for this package then
<literal>$(CFLAGS)</literal> would now have a value of just
<literal>-g</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Then concatenate the flags specified by the per-package
<literal>CFLAGS_ADD</literal> option, if any. For example if
<literal>-Os</literal> should be added for the current package then
the final value of <literal>$(CFLAGS)</literal> will be
<literal>-g&nbsp;-Os</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>
<literal>$(LDFLAGS)</literal> is determined in much the same way.
</para>

<note>
<para>
The way compiler flags are handled at present has numerous limitations
that need to be addressed in a future release, although it should
suffice for nearly all cases. For the time being custom build steps
and in particular the &make-object; property can be used to work
around the limitations.
</para>
<para>
Amongst the issues, there is a specific problem with package
encapsulation. For example the math library imposes some stringent
requirements on the compiler in order to guarantee exact IEEE
behavior, and may need special flags on a per-architecture basis. One
way of handling this is to have
<varname>CYGPKG_LIBM_CFLAGS_ADD</varname> and
<varname>CYGPKG_LIBM_CFLAGS_REMOVE</varname> &default-value;
expressions which depend on the target architecture, but such
expressions may have to updated for each new architecture. An
alternative approach would allow the architectural HAL package to
modify the &default-value; expressions for the math library, but this
breaks encapsulation. A third approach would allow some architectural
HAL packages to define one or more special options with well-known
names, and the math library could check if these options were defined
and adjust the default values appropriately. Other packages with
floating point requirements could do the same. This approach also has
scalability issues, in particular how many such categories of options
would be needed? It is not yet clear how best to resolve such issues.
</para>
</note>

<note>
<para>
When generating a build tree it would be desirable for the component
framework to output details of the tools and compiler flags in a
format that can be re-used for application builds, for example a
makefile fragment. This would make it easier for application
developers to use the same set of flags as were used for building eCos
itself, thus avoiding some potential problems with incompatible
compiler flags.
</para>
</note>

</sect2>

<!-- }}} -->
<!-- {{{ Custom build steps     -->

<sect2 id="build.custom">
<title>Custom Build Steps</title>

<caution>
<para>
Some of the details of custom build steps as described below are
subject to change in future revisions of the component framework,
although every reasonable attempt will be made to avoid breaking
backwards compatibility.
</para>
</caution>

<para>
For most packages simply listing one or more source files in a
&compile; property is sufficient. These files will get built using the
appropriate compiler and compiler flags and added to a library, which
then gets linked with application code. A package that can be built in
this way is likely to be more portable to different targets and build
environments, since it avoids build-time dependencies. However some
packages have special needs, and the component framework supports
custom build steps to allow for these needs. There are two properties
related to this, &make; and &make-object;, and both take the following
form:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
    make {
        &lt;target_filepath&gt; : &lt;dependency_filepath&gt; &hellip;
            &lt;command&gt;
            ...
    }
</programlisting>
<para>
Although this may look like makefile syntax, and although some build
environments will indeed involve generating makefiles and running
<application class="software">make</application>, this is not
guaranteed. It is possible for the component framework to be
integrated with some other build system, and custom build steps should
be written with that possibility in mind. Each custom build step
involves a target, some number of dependency files, and some number of
commands. If the target is not up to date with respect to one or more
of the dependencies then the commands need to be executed.
</para>

<orderedlist numeration="Loweralpha">

<listitem>
<para>
Only one target can be specified. For a &make-object; property this
target must be an object file. For a &make; property it can be any
file. In both cases it must refer to a physical file, the use of
phony targets is not supported. The target should not be an absolute
path name. If the generated file needs to end up in the install tree
then this can be achieved using a <literal>&lt;PREFIX&gt;</literal>
token, for example:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
    make {
        &lt;PREFIX&gt;/lib/mytarget : &hellip;
            ...
    }
</programlisting>
<para>
When the build tree is generated and the custom build step is added to
the makefile (or whatever build system is used)
<literal>&lt;PREFIX&gt;</literal> will be replaced with the absolute
path to the install tree. 
</para>
</listitem>

<listitem>
<para>
All the dependencies must also refer to physical files, not to phony
targets. These files may be in the source tree. The
<literal>&lt;PACKAGE&gt;</literal> token can be used to indicate this:
when the build tree is generated this token will be replaced with the
absolute path to the package's root directory in the component
repository, for example:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
    make_object {
        xyzzy.o : &lt;PACKAGE&gt;/src/xyzzy.c
            &hellip;
</programlisting>
<para>
If the component repository was installed in <filename
class="directory">/usr/local/ecos</filename> and this custom build
step existed in version 1_5 of the kernel,
<literal>&lt;PACKAGE&gt;</literal> would be replaced with
<filename>/usr/local/ecos/packages/kernel/v1_5</filename>.
</para>
<para>
Alternatively the dependencies may refer to files that are generated
during the build. These may be object files resulting from &compile;
properties or other &make-object; properties, or they may be other
files resulting from a &make; property, for example:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
    compile plugh.c
    make_object {
        xyzzy.o : plugh.o
            &hellip;
    }
</programlisting>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
No other token or makefile variables may be used in the target or
dependency file names. Also conditionals such as
<literal>ifneq</literal> and similar makefile functionality must not
be used.
</para>
</listitem>

<listitem>
<para> 
Similarly the list of commands must not use any makefile conditionals
or similar functionality. A number of tokens can be used to provide
access to target-specific or environmental data. Note that these
tokens look like makefile variables, unlike the 
<literal>&lt;PREFIX&gt;</literal> and
<literal>&lt;PACKAGE&gt;</literal> tokens mentioned earlier:
</para>

<informaltable frame="all" colsep=1 rowsep=1 pgwide=0 tocentry=0>
<tgroup cols=3 colsep=1 rowsep=1 align=left>
<thead>
  <row>
    <entry>Token</entry>
    <entry>Purpose</entry>
    <entry>Example value</entry>
  </row>
</thead>
<tbody>
  <row>
    <entry><literal>$(AR)</literal></entry>
    <entry>the GNU archiver</entry>
    <entry><literal>mips-tx39-elf-ar</literal></entry>
  </row>
  <row>
    <entry><literal>$(CC)</literal></entry>
    <entry>the GNU compiler</entry>
    <entry><literal>sh-elf-gcc</literal></entry>
  </row>
  <row>
    <entry><literal>$(CFLAGS)</literal></entry>
    <entry>compiler flags</entry>
    <entry><literal>-O2 -Wall</literal></entry>
  </row>
  <row>
    <entry><literal>$(COMMAND_PREFIX)</literal></entry>
    <entry>the triplet prefix</entry>
    <entry><literal>mn10300-elf-</literal></entry>
  </row>
  <row>
    <entry><literal>$(INCLUDE_PATH></literal></entry>
    <entry>header file search path</entry>
    <entry><literal>-I. -Isrc/misc</literal></entry>
  </row>
  <row>
    <entry><literal>$(LDFLAGS)</literal></entry>
    <entry>linker flags</entry>
    <entry><literal>-nostdlib -Wl,-static</literal></entry>
  </row>
  <row>
    <entry><literal>$(OBJCOPY)</literal></entry>
    <entry>the objcopy utility</entry>
    <entry><literal>arm-elf-objcopy</literal></entry>
  </row>
  <row>
    <entry><literal>$(PREFIX)</literal></entry>
    <entry>location of the install tree</entry>
    <entry><filename class="directory">/home/fred/ecos-install</filename></entry>
  </row>
  <row>
    <entry><literal>$(REPOSITORY)</literal></entry>
    <entry>location of the component repository</entry>
    <entry><filename class="directory">/home/fred/ecos/packages</filename></entry>
  </row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>

<para>
In addition commands in a custom build step may refer to the target
and the dependencies using <literal>$@</literal>,
<literal>$<</literal>, <literal>$^</literal> and
<literal>$*</literal>, all of which behave as per GNU make syntax. The
commands will execute in a suitable directory in the build tree.
</para>
</listitem>

<listitem>
<para>
The current directory used during a custom build step is an
implementation detail of the build system. However it can be assumed
that each package will have its own directory somewhere in the build
tree, to prevent file name clashes, and that this will be the current
directory. In addition any object files generated as a result of
&compile properties will be located here as well, which is useful for
custom build steps that depend on a <literal>.o</literal> file
previously generated.
</para>
<para>
Any temporary files created by a custom build step should be generated
in the build tree (in or under the current directory). Such files
should be given a <filename>.tmp</filename> file extension to ensure
that they are deleted during a <literal>make&nbsp;clean</literal> or
equivalent operation.
</para>
<para>
If a package contains multiple custom build steps with the same
priority, it is possible that these build steps will be run
concurrently. Therefore these custom build steps must not accidentally
use the same file names for intermediate files.
</para>
</listitem>

<listitem>
<para>
Care has to be taken to make sure that the commands in a custom build
step will run on all host platforms, including Windows NT as well as
Linux and other Unix systems. For example, all file paths should use
forward slashes as the directory separator. It can be assumed that
Windows users will have a full set of CygWin tools installed and
available on the path. The <ulink
url="http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards.html">GNU coding
standards</ulink> provide some useful guidelines for writing portable
build rules.
</para>
</listitem>

<listitem>
<para>
A custom build step must not make any assumptions concerning the
version of another package. This enforces package encapsulation,
preventing one package from accessing the internals of another.
</para>
</listitem>

<listitem>
<para>
No assumptions should be made about the target platform, unless the
package is inherently specific to that platform. Even then it is
better to use the various tokens whenever possible, rather than
hard-coding in details such as the compiler. For example, given a
custom build step such as:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
    arm-elf-gcc -c -mcpu=arm7di -o $@ $&lt;
</programlisting>
<para>
Even if this build step will only be invoked on ARM targets, it could
cause problems. For example the toolchain may have been installed
using a prefix other than <literal>arm-elf</literal>. Also, if the
user changes the compiler flags then this would not be reflected in
the build step. The correct way to write this rule would be:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
    $(CC) -c $(CFLAGS) -o $@ $&lt;
</programlisting>
<para>
Some commands such as the compiler, the archiver, and objcopy are
required sufficiently often to warrant their own tokens, for example
<literal>$(CC)</literal> and <literal>$(OBJCOPY)</literal>. Other
target-specific commands are needed only rarely and the
<literal>$(COMMAND_PREFIX)</literal> token can be used to construct
the appropriate command name, for example:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>

    $(COMMAND_PREFIX)size $&lt; &gt; $@
</programlisting>
</listitem>

<listitem>
<para>
Custom build steps should not be used to build host-side executables,
even if those executables are needed to build parts of the target side
code. Support for building host-side executables will be added in a
future version of the component framework, although it will not
necessarily involve these custom build steps.
</para>
</listitem>

</orderedlist>

<para>
By default custom build steps defined in a &make-object; property
have a priority of 100, which means that they will be executed 
in the same phase as compilations resulting from a &compile; property.
It is possible to change the priority using a property option, for
example:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
    make_object -priority 50 {
        &hellip;
    }
</programlisting>
<para>
Specifying a priority smaller than a 100 means that the custom build
step happens before the normal compilations. Priorities between 100
and 200 happen after normal compilations but before the libraries are
archived together. &make-object; properties should not specify a
priority of 200 or later. 
</para>
<para>
Custom build steps defined in a &make; property have a default
priority of 300, and so they will happen after the libraries have been
built. Again this can be changed using a <literal>-priority</literal>
property option.
</para>

</sect2>

<!-- }}} -->
<!-- {{{ Startup Code           -->

<sect2 id="build.startup">
<title>Startup Code</title>

<para>
Linking an application requires the application code, a linker script,
the eCos library or libraries, the <literal>extras.o</literal> file,
and some startup code. Depending on the target hardware and how the
application gets booted, this startup code may do little more than
branching to <literal>main()</literal>, or it may have to perform a
considerable amount of hardware initialization. The startup code
generally lives in a file <literal>vectors.o</literal> which is
created by a custom build step in a HAL package. As far as application
developers are concered the existence of this file is largely
transparent, since the linker script ensures that the file is part of
the final executable.
</para>
<para>
This startup code is not generally of interest to component writers,
only to HAL developers who are referred to one of the existing HAL
packages for specific details. Other packages are not expected to
modify the startup in any way. If a package needs some work performed
early on during system initialization, before the application's main
entry point gets invoked, this can be achieved using a static object
with a suitable constructor priority.
</para>

<note>
<para>
It is possible that the <literal>extras.o</literal> support, in
conjunction with appropriate linker script directives, could be used
to eliminate the need for a special startup file. The details are not
yet clear.
</para>
</note>

</sect2>

<!-- }}} -->
<!-- {{{ The Linker Script      -->

<sect2 id="build.linkerscript">
<title>The Linker Script</title>

<caution>
<para>
This section is not finished, and the details are subject to change in
a future release. Arguably linker script issues should be documented
in the HAL documentation rather than in this guide.
</para>
</caution>

<para>
Generating the linker script is the responsibility of the various HAL
packages that are applicable to a given target. Developers of
components other than HAL packages need not be concerned about what is
involved. Developers of new HAL packages should use an existing HAL as
a template.
</para>

<note>
<para>
It may be desirable for some packages to have some control over the
linker script, for example to add extra alignment details for a
particular section. This can be risky because it can result in subtle
portability problems, and the current component framework has no
support for any such operations. The issue may be addressed in a
future release.
</para>
</note>

</sect2>

<!-- }}} -->

</sect1>

<!-- }}} -->
<!-- {{{ Test cases             -->

<sect1 id="build.tests">
<title>Building Test Cases</title>

<caution>
<para>
The support in the current implementation of the component framework
for building and running test cases is limited, and should be enhanced
considerably in a future version. Compatibility with the existing
mechanisms described below will be maintained if possible, but this
cannot be guaranteed.
</para>
</caution>

<para>
Whenever possible packages should be shipped with one or more test
cases. This allows users to check that all packages function correctly
in their particular configuration and on their target, which may be
custom hardware unavailable to the package developer. The component
framework needs to provide a way of building such test cases. For
example, if a makefile system is used then there could be a
<literal>make&nbsp;tests</literal> target to build the test cases, or
possibly a <literal>make&nbsp;check</literal> target to build and run
the test cases and process all the results. Unfortunately there are
various complications.
</para>
<para>
Not every test case will be applicable to every configuration. For
example if the user has disabled the C library's
<varname>CYGPKG_LIBC_STDIO</varname> component then there is no point
in building or running any of the test cases for that component. This
implies that test cases need to be associated with configuration
options somehow. It is possible for the test case to use one or more
<literal>#ifdef</literal> statements to check whether or not it is
applicable in the current configuration, and compile to a null program
when not applicable. This is inefficient because the test case will
still get built and possibly run, even though it will not provide any
useful information.
</para>
<para>
Many packages involve direct interaction with hardware, for example a
serial line or an ethernet interface. In such cases it is only
worthwhile building and running the test if there is suitable software
running at the other end of the serial line or listening on the same
ethernet segment, and that software would typically have to run on the
host. Of course the serial line in question may be hooked up to a
different piece of hardware which the application needs to talk to, so
disconnecting it and then hooking it up to the host for running some
tests may be undesirable. The decision as to whether or not to build
the test depends not just on the eCos configuration but also on the
hardware setup and the availability of suitable host software.
</para>
<para>
There are different kinds of tests, and it is not always desirable to
run all of them. For example a package may contain a number of stress
tests intended to run for long periods of time, possibly days or
longer. Such tests should certainly be distinguished somehow from
ordinary test cases so that users will not run them accidentally and
wonder how long they should wait for a <literal>pass</literal> message
before giving up. Stress tests may also have dependencies on the
hardware configuration and on host software, for example a network
stress test may require lots of ethernet packets.
</para>
<para>
In the current implementation of the component framework these issues
are not yet addressed. Instead there is only very limited support for
building test cases. Any package can define a calculated configuration
option of the form
<literal>CYGPKG_&lt;package-name&gt;_TESTS</literal>, whose value is a
list of test cases. The &calculated; property can involve an
expression so it is possible to adapt to a small number of
configuration options, but this quickly becomes unwieldy. A typical
example would be:
</para>
<programlisting width=80>
        cdl_option CYGPKG_UITRON_TESTS {
            display "uITRON tests"
            flavor  data
            no_define
            calculated { "tests/test1 tests/test2 tests/test3 \
                tests/test4 tests/test5 tests/test6 tests/test7 \
                tests/test8 tests/test9 tests/testcxx tests/testcx2 \
                tests/testcx3 tests/testcx4 tests/testcx5 \
                tests/testcx6 tests/testcx7 tests/testcx8 \
                tests/testcx9 tests/testintr" }
            description   "
This option specifies the set of tests for the uITRON compatibility layer."
        }
</programlisting>

<para>
This implies that there is a file <filename>tests/test1.c</filename>
or <filename>tests/test1.cxx</filename> in the package's directory.
The commands that will be used to build the test case will take the
form:
</para>
<programlisting width=72>
    $(CC) -c $(INCLUDE_PATH) $(CFLAGS) -o &lt;build path&gt;/test1.o \
         &lt;source path&gt;/tests/test1.c
    $(CC) $(LDFLAGS) -o &lt;install path&gt;/tests/test1 &lt;build_path&gt;/test1.o
</programlisting>
<para>
The variables <literal>$(CC)</literal> and so on are determined in the
same way as for custom build steps. The various paths and the current
directory will depend on the exact build system being used, and are
subject to change. As usual the sources in the component repository
are treated as a read-only resources, intermediate files live in the
build tree, and the desired executables should end up in the install
tree. 
</para>
<para>
Each test source file must be self-contained. It is not possible at
present to build a little per-package library that can be used by the
test cases, or to link together several object files to produce a
single test executable. In some cases it may be possible to
<literal>#include</literal> source code from a shared file in order to
avoid unnecessary code replication. There is no support for
manipulating compiler or linker flags for individual test cases: the
flags that will be used for all files are <literal>$(CFLAGS)</literal>
and <literal>$(LDFLAGS)</literal>, as per custom build steps. Note
that it is possible for a package to define options of the form
<varname>CYGPKG_&lt;PACKAGE-NAME&gt;_LDFLAGS_ADD</varname> and
<varname>CYGPKG_&lt;PACKAGE-NAME&gt;_LDFLAGS_REMOVE</varname>. These
will affect test cases, but in the absence of custom build steps they
will have no other effect on the build.
</para>

</sect1>

<!-- }}} -->

</chapter>