micro-builder

Build Environment for Microcontroller Projects

Quickstart

1. git clone the micro-builder repository: git clone https://github.com/zorxx/micro-builder.git
2. Configure desired target architecture/board/variant/sdk by setting the environment variable MB_TARGET. Run make variants at the top level to see a list of all supported architectures and variants.
3. Execute make in the root of the micro-builder source tree. This will build the base prerequisites for the selected architecture.
4. Navigate to the examples directory to build an application. Each application should automatically build their required dependencies (i.e. libraries). 4a. Create your own application by creating a directory under the user directory and follow the Makefile pattern shown by the example applications.

Configuration

The environment variable MB_TARGET provides information to the build system about the target architecture, device, and other build dependencies such as an SDK or operating system. The format of the MB_TARGET is: <architecture>/<variant>. A list of all supported architectures and their variants can be found by executing make variants at the root of the micro-builder source tree.

Example

The following sequence of commands will configure the build for an ESP8266 NodeMCU device using the ESP8266 SDK, build all prerequisites, then build a hello world application and write it to flash:

export MB_TARGET=xtensa_nodemcu
make
cd app/esp8266/hello_world
make
make flash

Note: this assumes that the first command is executed in the root of the micro-builder source tree and the target device is connected to the serial port /dev/ttyUSB0.

Build System Prerequisites

The build environment relies on the existence of the following packages. All other dependencies (i.e. target libraries and packages) are downloaded automatically during the build process.

• git
• mercurial
• subversion
• unzip
• python 2.7
• libusb-dev
• libusb-1.0.0-dev
• gperf
• texinfo
• help2man
• flex
• bison

Not all build targets require all prerequisites, so it may be possible to perform successful builds without the availability of all the items above.

On Debian-based systems, the following command line can be used to install all prerequisites:

sudo apt install git mercurial subversion unzip python libusb-dev libusb-1.0.0-dev gperf texinfo help2man flex bison

micro-builder Design

Goals:

• Simple, flexible environment for building applications for microcontrollers
• Make use of existing projects (don't re-invent wheels)

Build Environment:

• Rely only on GNU make. Never assume any particular shell exists (e.g. bash). This makes portability of the build environment among platforms (e.g. Windows and Linux) possible.
• Never rely on absolute paths. The micro-builder root directory can exist anywhere.
• make can be executed from any directory in the build source tree (e.g. to build individual example applications or all example applications)

Packages: The packages directory contains recipes for downloading and optionally building packages from external projects. Examples of packages are: toolchains, target flashing and debugging tools, libraries, applications, etc. The two major components of a package are

• Makefile This contains all of the information for downloading and building the package
• package.inc When the package is defined as a prerequisite of any component, this file is included in the build environment. This allows the package to provide things to the build environment, such as include file directories (for library packages) or toolchain binary locations (for toolchain packages).

Libraries: Some libraries exist directly within the micro-builder source tree. Eventually, these libraries may be split into separate git projects (and be included as packages in micro-builder).

Examples: Some example applications exist directly within the micro-builder source tree. Eventually, these applications may be split into separate git projects (and be included as packages in micro-builder).

Notes: Some aspects of micro-builder are similar to Buildroot, however there are some key differences:

• micro-builder is designed to allow for development of applications.
• Selected packages determine the build environment. Adding a new package can change the way all applications/libraries are built.

Windows Build

The Windows build environment is not actively maintained. Use at your own peril (or volunteer to help maintain it).

1. MinGW a. Download and run installer http://www.mingw.org/download/installer b. Install all necessary packages mingw-get install msys-bzip2 msys-gzip msys-make msys-patch msys-sed msys-tar msys-unzip msys-wget msys-xz c. Add packages to the windows system path setx path "%PATH%;C:\MinGW\msys\1.0\bin" /M
2. Git a. Download and run installer https://git-scm.com/download/win
3. Mercurial a. Download and run installer https://www.mercurial-scm.org/wiki/Download b. Add Mercurial to the windows system path setx path "%PATH%;C:\Program Files\TortoiseHg" /M
4. Python a. Download and run installer https://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.14/python-2.7.14.amd64.msi b. Add Python to the windows system path setx path "%PATH%;C:\Python27" /M