Legacy libevl build

The information contained in this document only applies to libevl prior to release #29 (r29), with a build system based on mere Makefiles. These days, the meson build system is used instead, as described in this document.

The generic command for building libevl prior to release 29 was:

$ make [-C $SRCDIR] [ARCH=$cpu_arch] [CROSS_COMPILE=$toolchain] UAPI=$uapi_dir [OTHER_BUILD_VARS] [goal...]

Main build variables

Variable Description
$SRCDIR Path to this source tree
$cpu_arch CPU architecture you build for (‘arm’, ‘arm64’, ‘x86’)
$toolchain Optional prefix of the binutils filename (e.g. ‘arm-linux-gnueabihf-’, ‘aarch64-linux-gnu-’)

Other build variables

Variable Description Default
D={0|1} Disable or enable debug build, i.e. -g -O0 vs -O2 0
O=$output_dir Generate binary output files into $output_dir .
V={0|1} Set build verbosity level, 0 is terse 0
DESTDIR=$install_dir Install library and binaries into $install_dir /usr/evl

Make goals

Goal Action
all generate all binaries (library, utilities and tests)
clean remove the build files
install do all, copying the generated system binaries to $DESTDIR in the process
install_all install, copying all the generated binaries including the tidbits

Cross-compiling EVL

Let’s say the library source code is located at ~/git/libevl, and the kernel sources featuring the EVL core is located at ~/git/linux-evl.

Cross-compiling EVL and installing the resulting library and utilities to a staging directory located at /nfsroot/<machine>/usr/evl would amount to this:

Cross-compiling from a separate build directory

# First create a build directory the where output files should go
$ mkdir /tmp/build-imx6q && cd /tmp/build-imx6q
# Then start the build+install process
$ make -C ~/git/libevl O=$PWD ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- UAPI=~/git/linux-evl DESTDIR=/nfsroot/imx6q/usr/evl install

or,

Cross-compiling from the EVL library source tree

$ mkdir /tmp/build-hikey
$ cd ~/git/libevl
$ make O=/tmp/build-hikey ARCH=arm64 CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu- UAPI=~/git/linux-evl DESTDIR=/nfsroot/hikey/usr/evl install

This is good practice to always generate the build output files to a separate build directory using the O= directive on the make command line, not to clutter your source tree with those. Generating output to a separate directory also creates convenience Makefiles on the fly in the output tree, which you can use to run subsequent builds without having to mention the whole series of variables and options on the make command line again.

Native EVL build

Conversely, you may want to build EVL natively on the target system. Installing the resulting library and utilities directly to their final home located at e.g. /usr/evl can be done as follows:

Building natively from a build directory

$ mkdir /tmp/build-native && cd /tmp/build-native
$ make -C ~/git/libevl O=$PWD UAPI=~/git/linux-evl DESTDIR=/usr/evl install

or,

Building natively from the EVL library source tree

$ mkdir /tmp/build-native
$ cd ~/git/libevl
$ make O=/tmp/build-native UAPI=~/git/linux-evl DESTDIR=/usr/evl install

Last modified: Fri, 04 Aug 2023 11:25:12 +0200