BUILDING(8) System Manager's Manual BUILDING(8)
NAME
BUILDING - Procedure for building NetBSD from source code.
REQUIREMENTS
NetBSD is designed to be buildable on most POSIX-compliant host systems.
The basic build procedure is the same whether compiling natively (on the
same NetBSD architecture) or cross compiling (on another architecture or
OS).
This source tree contains a special subtree, "tools", which uses the host
system to create a build toolchain for the target architecture. The host
system must have at least C and C++ compilers in order to create the
toolchain (make is not required); all other tools are created as part of
the NetBSD build process. (See the environment variables section below
if you need to override or manually select your compilers.)
FILES
Source tree layout
doc/BUILDING.mdoc
This document (in -mdoc troff format; the original copy).
BUILDING This document (in plaintext).
tools/compat/README
Special notes for cross-hosting a NetBSD build on non-
NetBSD platforms.
Makefile The main Makefile for NetBSD; should only be run for
native builds with an appropriately up-to-date version of
NetBSD make(1). Intended for expert use with knowlege of
its shortcomings, it has been superseded by the build.sh
shell script as the recommended means for building NetBSD.
UPDATING Special notes for updating from an earlier revision of
NetBSD. It is important to read this file before every
build of an updated source tree.
build.sh Bourne-compatible shell script used for building the host
build tools and the NetBSD system from scratch. Can be
used for both native and cross builds, and should be used
instead of make(1) as it performs additional checks to
prevent common issues going undetected, such as building
with an outdated version of make(1).
crypto/dist/, dist/, gnu/dist/
Sources imported verbatim from third parties, without
mangling the existing build structure. Other source trees
in bin through usr.sbin use the NetBSD make(1) "reachover"
Makefile semantics when building these programs for a
native host.
external, sys/external
Sources and build infrastructure for components imported
(mostly) unchanged from upstream maintainers, sorted by
applicable license. This is (slowly) replacing the
crypto/dist, dist, and gnu/dist directories.
distrib/, etc/
Sources for items used when making a full release
snapshot, such as files installed in DESTDIR/etc on the
destination system, boot media, and release notes.
tests/, regress/
Regression test harness. Can be cross-compiled, but only
run natively. tests/ uses the atf(7) test framework;
regress/ contains older tests that have not yet been
migrated to atf(7).
sys/ NetBSD kernel sources.
tools/ "Reachover" build structure for the host build tools.
This has a special method of determining out-of-date
status.
bin/ ... usr.sbin/
Sources to the NetBSD userland (non-kernel) programs. If
any of these directories are missing, they will be skipped
during the build.
external/mit/xorg/
"Reachover" build structure for modular Xorg; the source
is in X11SRCDIR.
extsrc/ "Reachover" build structure for externally added programs
and libraries; the source is in EXTSRCSRCDIR.
Build tree layout
The NetBSD build tree is described in hier(7), and the release layout is
described in release(7).
CONFIGURATION
Environment variables
Several environment variables control the behaviour of NetBSD builds.
HOST_SH Path name to a shell available on the host system and
suitable for use during the build. The NetBSD build
system requires a modern Bourne-like shell with POSIX-
compliant features, and also requires support for the
"local" keyword to declare local variables in shell
functions (which is a widely-implemented but non-
standardised feature).
Depending on the host system, a suitable shell may be
/bin/sh, /usr/xpg4/bin/sh, /bin/ksh (provided it is a
variant of ksh that supports the "local" keyword, such
as ksh88, but not ksh93), or /usr/local/bin/bash.
Most parts of the build require HOST_SH to be an
absolute path; however, build.sh allows it to be a
simple command name, which will be converted to an
absolute path by searching the PATH.
HOST_CC Path name to C compiler used to create the toolchain.
HOST_CXX Path name to C++ compiler used to create the toolchain.
MACHINE Machine type, e.g., "macppc".
MACHINE_ARCH Machine architecture, e.g., "powerpc".
MAKE Path name to invoke make(1) as.
MAKEFLAGS Flags to invoke make(1) with. Note that build.sh
ignores the value of MAKEFLAGS passed in the
environment, but allows MAKEFLAGS to be set via the -V
option.
MAKEOBJDIR Directory to use as the .OBJDIR for the current
directory. The value is subjected to variable
expansion by make(1). Typical usage is to set this
variable to a value involving the use of
`${.CURDIR:S...}' or `${.CURDIR:C...}', to derive the
value of .OBJDIR from the value of .CURDIR. Used only
if MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX is not defined. MAKEOBJDIR can be
provided only in the environment or via the -O flag of
build.sh; it cannot usefully be set inside a Makefile,
including mk.conf or ${MAKECONF}.
MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX Top level directory of the object directory tree. The
value is subjected to variable expansion by make(1).
build.sh will create the ${MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX} directory
if necessary, but if make(1) is used without build.sh,
then rules in <bsd.obj.mk> will abort the build if the
${MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX} directory does not exist. If the
value is defined and valid, then
${MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX}/${.CURDIR} is used as the .OBJDIR
for the current directory. The current directory may
be read only. MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX can be provided only in
the environment or via the -M flag of build.sh; it
cannot usefully be set inside a Makefile, including
mk.conf or ${MAKECONF}.
"make" variables
Several variables control the behavior of NetBSD builds. Unless
otherwise specified, these variables may be set in either the process
environment or the make(1) configuration file specified by MAKECONF.
BUILDID Identifier for the build. If set, this should be a short
string that is suitable for use as part of a file or
directory name. The identifier will be appended to object
directory names, and can be consulted in the make(1)
configuration file in order to set additional build
parameters, such as compiler flags. It will also be used as
part of the kernel version string, which can be printed by
"uname -v".
Default: Unset.
BUILDINFO This may be a multi-line string containing information about
the build. This will appear in DESTDIR/etc/release, and it
will be stored in the buildinfo variable in any kernels that
are built. When such kernels are booted, the sysctl(7)
kern.buildinfo variable will report this value. The string
may contain backslash escape sequences, such as "\\"
(representing a backslash character) and "\n" (representing a
newline).
Default: Unset.
BUILDSEED GCC uses random numbers when compiling C++ code. This
variable seeds the gcc random number generator using the
-frandom-seed flag with this value. By default, it is set to
NetBSD-(majorversion). Using a fixed value causes C++
binaries to be the same when built from the same sources,
resulting in identical (reproducible) builds. Additional
information is available in the GCC documentation of
-frandom-seed.
DESTDIR Directory to contain the built NetBSD system. If set,
special options are passed to the compilation tools to
prevent their default use of the host system's /usr/include,
/usr/lib, and so forth. This pathname must be an absolute
path, and should not end with a slash (/) character. (For
installation into the system's root directory, set DESTDIR to
an empty string, not to "/"). The directory must reside on a
file system which supports long file names and hard links.
Default: Empty string if USETOOLS is "yes"; unset otherwise.
Note: build.sh will provide a default of destdir.MACHINE (in
the top-level .OBJDIR) unless run in `expert' mode.
EXTSRCSRCDIR
Directory containing sources of externally added programs and
libraries. If specified, must be an absolute path.
Default: NETBSDSRCDIR/../extsrc, if that exists; otherwise
/usr/extsrc.
MAKECONF The name of the make(1) configuration file. Only settable in
the process environment.
Default: "/etc/mk.conf"
MAKEVERBOSE
Level of verbosity of status messages. Supported values:
0 No descriptive messages or commands executed by make(1)
are shown.
1 Brief messages are shown describing what is being done,
but the actual commands executed by make(1) are not
displayed.
2 Descriptive messages are shown as above (prefixed with a
`#'), and ordinary commands performed by make(1) are
displayed.
3 In addition to the above, all commands performed by
make(1) are displayed, even if they would ordinarily
have been hidden through use of the "@" prefix in the
relevant makefile.
4 In addition to the above, commands executed by make(1)
are traced through use of the sh(1) "-x" flag.
Default: 2
MKCATPAGES Can be set to "yes" or "no". Indicates whether preformatted
plaintext manual pages will be created during a build.
Default: "no"
MKCROSSGDB Can be set to "yes" or "no". Create a cross-gdb as a host
tool.
Default: "no"
MKDEBUG Can be set to "yes" or "no". Indicates whether debug
information should be generated for all userland binaries
compiled. The result is collected as an additional debug.tgz
and xdebug.tgz set and installed in /usr/libdata/debug.
Default: "no"
MKDEBUGLIB Can be set to "yes" or "no". Indicates whether debug
information (see MKDEBUG) should also be generated for all
libraries built.
Default: "no"
MKDOC Can be set to "yes" or "no". Indicates whether system
documentation destined for DESTDIR/usr/share/doc will be
installed during a build.
Default: "yes"
MKEXTSRC Can be set to "yes" or "no". Indicates whether extsrc is
built from EXTSRCSRCDIR.
Default: "no"
MKHTML Can be set to "yes" or "no". Indicates whether preformatted
HTML manual pages will be built and installed
Default: "yes"
MKHOSTOBJ Can be set to "yes" or "no". If set to "yes", then for
programs intended to be run on the compile host, the name,
release, and architecture of the host operating system will
be suffixed to the name of the object directory created by
"make obj". (This allows multiple host systems to compile
NetBSD for a single target.) If set to "no", then programs
built to be run on the compile host will use the same object
directory names as programs built to be run on the target.
Default: "no"
MKINFO Can be set to "yes" or "no". Indicates whether GNU Info
files will be created and installed during a build. GNU Info
files are used for providing documentation by most of the
compilation tools.
Default: "yes"
MKKDEBUG Can be set to "yes" or "no". Force generation of full-debug
symbol versions of all kernels compiled. Alongside of the
netbsd kernel file, an unstripped version netbsd.gdb is
created. This is useful if a cross-gdb is built as well (see
MKCROSSGDB).
Default: "no"
MKKMOD Can be set to "yes" or "no". Indicates whether kernel
modules are built and installed.
Default: "yes"
MKLINT Can be set to "yes" or "no". Indicates whether lint(1) will
be run against portions of the NetBSD source code during the
build, and whether lint libraries will be installed into
DESTDIR/usr/libdata/lint.
Default: "yes"
MKMAN Can be set to "yes" or "no". Indicates whether manual pages
will be installed during a build.
Default: "yes"
MKNLS Can be set to "yes" or "no". Indicates whether Native
Language System locale zone files will be compiled and
installed during a build.
Default: "yes"
MKOBJ Can be set to "yes" or "no". Indicates whether object
directories will be created when running "make obj". If set
to "no", then all built files will be located inside the
regular source tree.
Default: "yes"
Note that setting MKOBJ to "no" is not recommended and may
cause problems when updating the tree with cvs(1).
MKPIC Can be set to "yes" or "no". Indicates whether shared
objects and libraries will be created and installed during a
build. If set to "no", the entire built system will be
statically linked.
Default: Platform dependent. As of this writing, all
platforms except m68000 default to "yes".
MKPICINSTALL
Can be set to "yes" or "no". Indicates whether the ar(1)
format libraries (lib*_pic.a), used to generate shared
libraries, are installed during a build.
Default: "yes"
MKPROFILE Can be set to "yes" or "no". Indicates whether profiled
libraries (lib*_p.a) will be built and installed during a
build.
Default: "yes"; however, some platforms turn off MKPROFILE by
default at times due to toolchain problems with profiled
code.
MKREPRO Can be set to "yes" or "no". Create reproducible builds.
This enables different switches to make two builds from the
same source tree result in the same build results.
Default: "no" This may be set to "yes" by giving build.sh the
-P option.
MKREPRO_TIMESTAMP
Unix timestamp. When MKREPRO is set, the timestamp of all
files in the sets will be set to this value.
Default: Unset. This may be set automatically to the latest
source tree timestamp using cvslatest(1) by giving build.sh
the -P option.
MKSHARE Can be set to "yes" or "no". Indicates whether files
destined to reside in DESTDIR/usr/share will be built and
installed during a build. If set to "no", then all of
MKCATPAGES, MKDOC, MKINFO, MKMAN, and MKNLS will be set to
"no" unconditionally.
Default: "yes"
MKSTRIPIDENT
Can be set to "yes" or "no". Indicates whether RCS IDs, for
use with ident(1), should be stripped from program binaries
and shared libraries.
Default: "no"
MKSTRIPSYM Can be set to "yes" or "no". Indicates whether all local
symbols should be stripped from shared libraries. If "yes",
strip all local symbols from shared libraries; the affect is
equivalent to the -x option of ld(1). If "no", strip only
temporary local symbols; the affect is equivalent to the -X
option of ld(1). Keeping non-temporary local symbols such as
static function names is useful on using DTrace for userland
libraries and getting a backtrace from a rump kernel loading
shared libraries.
Default: "yes"
MKUNPRIVED Can be set to "yes" or "no". Indicates whether an
unprivileged install will occur. The user, group,
permissions, and file flags, will not be set on the installed
items; instead the information will be appended to a file
called METALOG in DESTDIR. The contents of METALOG are used
during the generation of the distribution tar files to ensure
that the appropriate file ownership is stored.
Default: "no"
MKUPDATE Can be set to "yes" or "no". Indicates whether all install
operations intended to write to DESTDIR will compare file
timestamps before installing, and skip the install phase if
the destination files are up-to-date. This also has
implications on full builds (see next subsection).
Default: "no"
MKX11 Can be set to "yes" or "no". Indicates whether X11 is built
from X11SRCDIR.
Default: "no"
TOOLDIR Directory to hold the host tools, once built. If specified,
must be an absolute path. This directory should be unique to
a given host system and NetBSD source tree. (However,
multiple targets may share the same TOOLDIR; the target-
dependent files have unique names.) If unset, a default
based on the uname(1) information of the host platform will
be created in the .OBJDIR of src.
Default: Unset.
USETOOLS Indicates whether the tools specified by TOOLDIR should be
used as part of a build in progress. Must be set to "yes" if
cross-compiling.
yes Use the tools from TOOLDIR.
no Do not use the tools from TOOLDIR, but refuse to build
native compilation tool components that are version-
specific for that tool.
never Do not use the tools from TOOLDIR, even when building
native tool components. This is similar to the
traditional NetBSD build method, but does not verify
that the compilation tools in use are up-to-date
enough in order to build the tree successfully. This
may cause build or runtime problems when building the
whole NetBSD source tree.
Default: "yes", unless TOOLCHAIN_MISSING is set to "yes".
USETOOLS is also set to "no" when using <bsd.*.mk> outside
the NetBSD source tree.
X11SRCDIR Directory containing the modular Xorg source. If specified,
must be an absolute path. The main modular Xorg source is
found in X11SRCDIR/external/mit.
Default: NETBSDSRCDIR/../xsrc, if that exists; otherwise
/usr/xsrc.
"make" variables for full builds
These variables only affect the top level "Makefile" and do not affect
manually building subtrees of the NetBSD source code.
INSTALLWORLDDIR Location for the "make installworld" target to install
to. If specified, must be an absolute path.
Default: "/"
MKOBJDIRS Can be set to "yes" or "no". Indicates whether object
directories will be created automatically (via a "make
obj" pass) at the start of a build.
Default: "no"
If using build.sh, the default is "yes". This may be
set back to "no" by giving build.sh the -o option.
MKUPDATE Can be set to "yes" or "no". If set, then in addition
to the effects described for MKUPDATE=yes above, this
implies the effects of NOCLEANDIR (i.e., "make cleandir"
is avoided).
Default: "no"
If using build.sh, this may be set by giving the -u
option.
NBUILDJOBS Now obsolete. Use the make(1) option -j, instead. See
below.
Default: Unset.
NOCLEANDIR If set, avoids the "make cleandir" phase of a full
build. This has the effect of allowing only changed
files in a source tree to be recompiled. This can speed
up builds when updating only a few files in the tree.
Default: Unset.
See also MKUPDATE.
NODISTRIBDIRS If set, avoids the "make distrib-dirs" phase of a full
build. This skips running mtree(8) on DESTDIR, useful
on systems where building as an unprivileged user, or
where it is known that the system-wide mtree files have
not changed.
Default: Unset.
NOINCLUDES If set, avoids the "make includes" phase of a full
build. This has the effect of preventing make(1) from
thinking that some programs are out-of-date simply
because the system include files have changed. However,
this option should not be used when updating the entire
NetBSD source tree arbitrarily; it is suggested to use
MKUPDATE=yes instead in that case.
Default: Unset.
RELEASEDIR If set, specifies the directory to which a release(7)
layout will be written at the end of a "make release".
If specified, must be an absolute path.
Default: Unset.
Note: build.sh will provide a default of releasedir (in
the top-level .OBJDIR) unless run in `expert' mode.
BUILDING
"make" command line options
This is not a summary of all the options available to make(1); only the
options used most frequently with NetBSD builds are listed here.
-j njob Run up to njob make(1) subjobs in parallel. Makefiles should
use .WAIT or have explicit dependencies as necessary to
enforce build ordering.
-m dir Specify the default directory for searching for system
Makefile segments, mainly the <bsd.*.mk> files. When building
any full NetBSD source tree, this should be set to the
"share/mk" directory in the source tree. This is set
automatically when building from the top level, or when using
build.sh.
-n Display the commands that would have been executed, but do not
actually execute them. This will still cause recursion to
take place.
-V var Print make(1)'s idea of the value of var. Does not build any
targets.
var=value Set the variable var to value, overriding any setting
specified by the process environment, the MAKECONF
configuration file, or the system Makefile segments.
"make" targets
These default targets may be built by running make(1) in any subtree of
the NetBSD source code. It is recommended that none of these be used
from the top level Makefile; as a specific exception, "make obj" and
"make cleandir" are useful in that context.
all Build programs, libraries, and preformatted documentation.
clean Remove program and library object code files.
cleandir Same as clean, but also remove preformatted documentation,
dependency files generated by "make depend", and any other
files known to be created at build time.
depend Create dependency files (.depend) containing more detailed
information about the dependencies of source code on header
files. Allows programs to be recompiled automatically when a
dependency changes.
dependall Does a "make depend" immediately followed by a "make all".
This improves cache locality of the build since both passes
read the source files in their entirety.
distclean Synonym for cleandir.
includes Build and install system header files. Typically needed
before any system libraries or programs can be built.
install Install programs, libraries, and documentation into DESTDIR.
Few files will be installed to DESTDIR/dev, DESTDIR/etc,
DESTDIR/root or DESTDIR/var in order to prevent user supplied
configuration data from being overwritten.
lint Run lint(1) against the C source code, where appropriate, and
generate system-installed lint libraries.
obj Create object directories to be used for built files, instead
of building directly in the source tree.
tags Create ctags(1) searchable function lists usable by the ex(1)
and vi(1) text editors.
"make" targets for the top level
Additional make(1) targets are usable specifically from the top source
level to facilitate building the entire NetBSD source tree.
build Build the entire NetBSD system (except the kernel). This
orders portions of the source tree such that prerequisites
will be built in the proper order.
distribution Do a "make build", and then install a full distribution
(which does not include a kernel) into DESTDIR, including
files in DESTDIR/dev, DESTDIR/etc, DESTDIR/root and
DESTDIR/var.
buildworld As per "make distribution", except that it ensures that
DESTDIR is not the root directory.
installworld Install the distribution from DESTDIR to INSTALLWORLDDIR,
which defaults to the root directory. Ensures that
INSTALLWORLDDIR is not the root directory if cross
compiling.
The INSTALLSETS environment variable may be set to a space-
separated list of distribution sets to be installed. By
default, all sets except "etc" and "xetc" are installed, so
most files in INSTALLWORLDDIR/etc will not be installed or
modified.
Note: Before performing this operation with
INSTALLWORLDDIR=/, it is highly recommended that you
upgrade your kernel and reboot. After performing this
operation, it is recommended that you use etcupdate(8) to
update files in INSTALLWORLDDIR/etc, and postinstall(8) to
check for or fix inconsistencies.
sets Create distribution sets from DESTDIR into
RELEASEDIR/RELEASEMACHINEDIR/binary/sets. Should be run
after "make distribution", as "make build" alone does not
install all of the required files.
sourcesets Create source sets of the source tree into
RELEASEDIR/source/sets.
syspkgs Create syspkgs from DESTDIR into
RELEASEDIR/RELEASEMACHINEDIR/binary/syspkgs. Should be run
after "make distribution", as "make build" alone does not
install all of the required files.
release Do a "make distribution", build kernels, distribution
media, and install sets (this as per "make sets"), and then
package the system into a standard release layout as
described by release(7). This requires that RELEASEDIR be
set (see above).
iso-image Create a NetBSD installation CD-ROM image in the
RELEASEDIR/images directory. The CD-ROM file system will
have a layout as described in release(7).
For most machine types, the CD-ROM will be bootable, and
will automatically run the sysinst(8) menu-based
installation program, which can be used to install or
upgrade a NetBSD system. Bootable CD-ROMs also contain
tools that may be useful in repairing a damaged NetBSD
installation.
Before "make iso-image" is attempted, RELEASEDIR must be
populated by "make release" or equivalent.
Note that other, smaller, CD-ROM images may be created in
the RELEASEDIR/RELEASEMACHINEDIR/installation/cdrom
directory by "make release". These smaller images usually
contain the same tools as the larger images in
RELEASEDIR/images, but do not contain additional content
such as the distribution sets.
Note that the mac68k port still uses an older method of
creating CD-ROM images. This requires the mkisofs(1)
utility, which is not part of NetBSD, but which can be
installed from pkgsrc/sysutils/cdrtools.
iso-image-source
Create a NetBSD installation CD-ROM image in the
RELEASEDIR/images directory. The CD-ROM file system will
have a layout as described in release(7). It will have top
level directories for the machine type and source.
For most machine types, the CD-ROM will be bootable, and
will automatically run the sysinst(8) menu-based
installation program, which can be used to install or
upgrade a NetBSD system. Bootable CD-ROMs also contain
tools that may be useful in repairing a damaged NetBSD
installation.
Before "make iso-image-source" is attempted, RELEASEDIR
must be populated by "make sourcesets release" or
equivalent.
Note that other, smaller, CD-ROM images may be created in
the RELEASEDIR/RELEASEMACHINEDIR/installation/cdrom
directory by "make release". These smaller images usually
contain the same tools as the larger images in
RELEASEDIR/images, but do not contain additional content
such as the distribution sets.
Note that the mac68k port still uses an older method of
creating CD-ROM images. This requires the mkisofs(1)
utility, which is not part of NetBSD, but which can be
installed from pkgsrc/sysutils/cdrtools.
install-image
Create a bootable NetBSD installation disk image in the
RELEASEDIR/images directory. The installation disk image
is suitable for copying to bootable USB flash memory
sticks, etc., for machines which are able to boot from such
devices. The file system in the bootable disk image will
have a layout as described in release(7).
The installation image is bootable, and will automatically
run the sysinst(8) menu-based installation program, which
can be used to install or upgrade a NetBSD system. The
image also contains tools that may be useful in repairing a
damaged NetBSD installation.
Before "make install-image" is attempted, RELEASEDIR must
be populated by "make release" or equivalent. The build
must have been performed with MKUNPRIVED=yes because "make
install-image" relies on information in DESTDIR/METALOG.
live-image Create NetBSD live images in the RELEASEDIR/images
directory. The live image contains all necessary files to
boot NetBSD up to multi-user mode, including all files
which should be extracted during installation, NetBSD
disklabel, bootloaders, etc.
The live image is suitable for use as a disk image in
virtual machine environments such as QEMU, and also useful
to boot NetBSD from a USB flash memory stick on a real
machine, without the need for installation.
Before "make live-image" is attempted, RELEASEDIR must be
populated by "make release" or equivalent. The build must
have been performed with MKUNPRIVED=yes because "make
install-image" relies on information in DESTDIR/METALOG.
regression-tests
Can only be run after building the regression tests in the
directory "regress". Runs those compiled regression tests
on the local host. Note that most tests are now managed
instead using atf(7); this target should probably run those
as well but currently does not.
The "build.sh" script
This script file is a shell script designed to build the entire NetBSD
system on any host with a suitable modern shell and some common
utilities. The required shell features are described under the HOST_SH
variable.
If a host system's default shell does support the required features, then
we suggest that you explicitly specify a suitable shell using a command
like
/path/to/suitable/shell build.sh [options]
The above command will usually enable build.sh to automatically set
HOST_SH=/path/to/suitable/shell, but if that fails, then the following
set of commands may be used instead:
HOST_SH=/path/to/suitable/shell
export HOST_SH
${HOST_SH} build.sh [options]
If build.sh detects that it is being executed under an unsuitable shell,
it attempts to exec a suitable shell instead, or prints an error message.
If HOST_SH is not set explicitly, then build.sh sets a default using
heuristics dependent on the host platform, or from the shell under which
build.sh is executed (if that can be determined), or using the first copy
of sh found in PATH.
All cross-compile builds, and most native builds, of the entire system
should make use of build.sh rather than just running "make". This way,
the make(1) program will be bootstrapped properly, in case the host
system has an older or incompatible "make" program.
When compiling the entire system via build.sh, many make(1) variables are
set for you in order to help encapsulate the build process. In the list
of options below, variables that are automatically set by build.sh are
noted where applicable.
The following operations are supported by build.sh:
build Build the system as per "make build". Before the main part
of the build commences, this command runs the obj operation
(unless the -o option is given), "make cleandir" (unless
the -u option is given), and the tools operation.
distribution Build a full distribution as per "make distribution". This
command first runs the build operation.
release Build a full release as per "make release". This command
first runs the distribution operation.
makewrapper Create the nbmake-MACHINE wrapper. This operation is
automatically performed for any of the other operations.
cleandir Perform "make cleandir".
obj Perform "make obj".
tools Build and install the host tools from src/tools. This
command will first run "make obj" and "make cleandir" in
the tools subdirectory unless the -o or -u options
(respectively) are given.
install=idir Install the contents of DESTDIR to idir, using "make
installworld". Note that files that are part of the "etc"
or "xetc" sets will not be installed, unless overridden by
the INSTALLSETS environment variable.
kernel=kconf Build a new kernel. The kconf argument is the name of a
configuration file suitable for use by config(1). If kconf
does not contain any `/' characters, the configuration file
is expected to be found in the KERNCONFDIR directory, which
is typically sys/arch/MACHINE/conf. The new kernel will be
built in a subdirectory of KERNOBJDIR, which is typically
sys/arch/MACHINE/compile or an associated object directory.
This command does not imply the tools command; run the
tools command first unless it is certain that the tools
already exist and are up to date.
This command will run "make cleandir" on the kernel in
question first unless the -u option is given.
kernel.gdb=kconf
Build a new kernel with debug information. Similar to the
above kernel=kconf operation, but creates a netbsd.gdb file
alongside of the kernel netbsd, which contains a full
symbol table and can be used for debugging (for example
with a cross-gdb built by MKCROSSGDB).
kernels This command will build all kernels defined in port
specific release build procedure.
This command internally calls the kernel=kconf operation
for each found kernel configuration file.
modules This command will build kernel modules and install them
into DESTDIR.
releasekernel=kconf
Install a gzip(1)ed copy of the kernel previously built by
kernel=kconf into
RELEASEDIR/RELEASEMACHINEDIR/binary/kernel, usually as
netbsd-kconf.gz, although the "netbsd" prefix is determined
from the "config" directives in kconf.
sets Perform "make sets".
sourcesets Perform "make sourcesets".
syspkgs Perform "make syspkgs".
iso-image Perform "make iso-image".
iso-image-source
Perform "make iso-image-source".
install-image
Perform "make install-image".
live-image Perform "make live-image".
list-arch Prints a list of valid MACHINE and MACHINE_ARCH settings,
the default MACHINE_ARCH for each MACHINE, and aliases for
MACHINE/MACHINE_ARCH pairs, and then exits. The -m or -a
options (or both) may be used to specify glob patterns that
will be used to narrow the list of results; for example,
"build.sh -m 'evb*' -a '*arm*' list-arch" will list all
known MACHINE/MACHINE_ARCH values in which either MACHINE
or ALIAS matches the pattern `evb*', and MACHINE_ARCH
matches the pattern `*arm*'.
The following command line options alter the behaviour of the build.sh
operations described above:
-a arch Set the value of MACHINE_ARCH to arch. See the -m option for
more information.
-B buildid
Set the value of BUILDID to buildid. This will also append the
build identifier to the name of the "make" wrapper script so
that the resulting name is of the form
"nbmake-MACHINE-BUILDID".
-C cdextras
Append cdextras to the CDEXTRA variable, which is a space-
separated list of files or directories that will be added to
the CD-ROM image that may be create by the "iso-image" or
"iso-image-source" operations. Files will be added to the root
of the CD-ROM image, whereas directories will be copied
recursively. If relative paths are specified, they will be
converted to absolute paths before being used. Multiple paths
may be specified via multiple -C options, or via a single
option whose argument contains multiple space-separated paths.
-D dest Set the value of DESTDIR to dest. If a relative path is
specified, it will be converted to an absolute path before
being used.
-E Set `expert' mode. This overrides various sanity checks, and
allows: DESTDIR does not have to be set to a non-root path for
builds, and MKUNPRIVED=yes does not have to be set when
building as a non-root user.
Note: It is highly recommended that you know what you are doing
when you use this option.
-h Print a help message.
-j njob Run up to njob make(1) subjobs in parallel; passed through to
make(1). If you see failures for reasons other than running
out of memory while using build.sh with -j, please save
complete build logs so the failures can be analyzed.
To achieve the fastest builds, -j values between (1 + the
number of CPUs) and (2 * the number of CPUs) are recommended.
Use lower values on machines with limited memory or I/O
bandwidth.
-M obj Set MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX to obj. Unsets MAKEOBJDIR. See "-O obj"
for more information.
For instance, if the source directory is /usr/src, a setting of
"-M /usr/obj" will place build-time files under
/usr/obj/usr/src/bin, /usr/obj/usr/src/lib,
/usr/obj/usr/src/usr.bin, and so forth.
If a relative path is specified, it will be converted to an
absolute path before being used. build.sh imposes the
restriction that the argument to the -M option must not begin
with a "$" (dollar sign) character; otherwise it would be too
difficult to determine whether the value is an absolute or a
relative path. If the directory does not already exist,
build.sh will create it.
-m mach Set the value of MACHINE to mach, unless the mach argument is
an alias that refers to a MACHINE/MACHINE_ARCH pair, in which
case both MACHINE and MACHINE_ARCH are set from the alias.
Such aliases are interpreted entirely by build.sh; they are not
used by any other part of the build system. The MACHINE_ARCH
setting implied by mach will override any value of MACHINE_ARCH
in the process environment, but will not override a value set
by the -a option. All cross builds require -m, but if unset on
a NetBSD host, the host's value of MACHINE will be detected and
used automatically.
See the list-arch operation for a way to get a list of valid
MACHINE and MACHINE_ARCH settings.
-N noiselevel
Set the "noisyness" level of the build, by setting MAKEVERBOSE
to noiselevel.
-n Show the commands that would be executed by build.sh, but do
not make any changes. This is similar in concept to "make -n".
-O obj Create an appropriate transform macro for MAKEOBJDIR that will
place the built object files under obj. Unsets
MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX.
For instance, a setting of "-O /usr/obj" will place build-time
files under /usr/obj/bin, /usr/obj/lib, /usr/obj/usr.bin, and
so forth.
If a relative path is specified, it will be converted to an
absolute path before being used. build.sh imposes the
restriction that the argument to the -O option must not contain
a "$" (dollar sign) character. If the directory does not
already exist, build.sh will create it.
In normal use, exactly one of the -M or -O options should be
specified. If neither -M nor -O is specified, then a default
object directory will be chosen according to rules in
<bsd.obj.mk>. Relying on this default is not recommended
because it is determined by complex rules that are influenced
by the values of several variables and by the location of the
source directory.
Note that placing the obj directory location outside of the
default source tree hierarchy makes it easier to manually clear
out old files in the event the "make cleandir" operation is
unable to do so. (See CAVEATS below.)
Note also that use of one of -M or -O is the only means of
building multiple machine architecture userlands from the same
source tree without cleaning between builds (in which case, one
would specify distinct obj locations for each).
-o Set the value of MKOBJDIRS to "no". Otherwise, it will be
automatically set to "yes". This default is opposite to the
behaviour when not using build.sh.
-R rel Set the value of RELEASEDIR to rel. If a relative path is
specified, it will be converted to an absolute path before
being used.
-r Remove the contents of DESTDIR and TOOLDIR before building
(provides a clean starting point). This will skip deleting
DESTDIR if building on a native system to the root directory.
-S seed Change the value of BUILDSEED to seed. This should rarely be
necessary.
-T tools Set the value of TOOLDIR to tools. If a relative path is
specified, it will be converted to an absolute path before
being used. If set, the bootstrap "make" will only be rebuilt
if the source files for make(1) have changed.
-U Set MKUNPRIVED=yes.
-u Set MKUPDATE=yes.
-V var=[value]
Set the environment variable var to an optional value. This is
propagated to the nbmake wrapper.
-w wrapper
Create the nbmake wrapper script (see below) in a custom
location, specified by wrapper. This allows, for instance, to
place the wrapper in PATH automatically. Note that wrapper is
the full name of the file, not just a directory name. If a
relative path is specified, it will be converted to an absolute
path before being used.
-X x11src
Set the value of X11SRCDIR to x11src. If a relative path is
specified, it will be converted to an absolute path before
being used.
-x Set MKX11=yes.
-Y extsrcdir
Set the value of EXTSRCSRCDIR to extsrcdir. If a relative path
is specified, it will be converted to an absolute path before
being used.
-y Set MKEXTSRC=yes.
-Z var Unset ("zap") the environment variable var. This is propagated
to the nbmake wrapper.
The "nbmake-MACHINE" wrapper script
If using the build.sh script to build NetBSD, a nbmake-MACHINE script
will be created in TOOLDIR/bin upon the first build to assist in building
subtrees on a cross-compile host.
nbmake-MACHINE can be invoked in lieu of make(1), and will instead call
the up-to-date version of "nbmake" installed into TOOLDIR/bin with
several key variables pre-set, including MACHINE, MACHINE_ARCH, and
TOOLDIR. nbmake-MACHINE will also set variables specified with -V, and
unset variables specified with -Z.
This script can be symlinked into a directory listed in PATH, or called
with an absolute path.
EXAMPLES
1. % ./build.sh [options] tools kernel=GENERIC
Build a new toolchain, and use the new toolchain to configure and
build a new GENERIC kernel.
2. % ./build.sh [options] -U distribution
Using unprivileged mode, build a complete distribution to a DESTDIR
directory that build.sh selects (and will display).
3. # ./build.sh [options] -U install=/
As root, install to / the distribution that was built by example 2.
Even though this is run as root, -U is required so that the
permissions stored in DESTDIR/METALOG are correctly applied to the
files as they're copied to /.
4. % ./build.sh [options] -U -u release
Using unprivileged mode, build a complete release to DESTDIR and
RELEASEDIR directories that build.sh selects (and will display).
MKUPDATE=yes (-u) is set to prevent the "make cleandir", so that if
this is run after example 2, it doesn't need to redo that portion of
the release build.
OBSOLETE VARIABLES
NBUILDJOBS Use the make(1) option -j instead.
USE_NEW_TOOLCHAIN
The new toolchain is now the default. To disable, use
TOOLCHAIN_MISSING=yes.
SEE ALSO
make(1), hier(7), release(7), etcupdate(8), postinstall(8), sysinst(8),
pkgsrc/sysutils/cdrtools
HISTORY
The build.sh based build scheme was introduced for NetBSD 1.6 as
USE_NEW_TOOLCHAIN, and re-worked to TOOLCHAIN_MISSING after that.
CAVEATS
After significant updates to third-party components in the source tree,
the "make cleandir" operation may be insufficient to clean out old files
in object directories. Instead, one may have to manually remove the
files. Consult the UPDATING file for notices concerning this.
NetBSD July 29, 2018 NetBSD