xref: /openbmc/u-boot/tools/buildman/README (revision e11ef3d2)
1# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+
2# Copyright (c) 2013 The Chromium OS Authors.
3
4(Please read 'How to change from MAKEALL' if you are used to that tool)
5
6Quick-start
7===========
8
9If you just want to quickly set up buildman so you can build something (for
10example Raspberry Pi 2):
11
12   cd /path/to/u-boot
13   PATH=$PATH:`pwd`/tools/buildman
14   buildman --fetch-arch arm
15   buildman -k rpi_2
16   ls ../current/rpi_2
17   # u-boot.bin is the output image
18
19
20What is this?
21=============
22
23This tool handles building U-Boot to check that you have not broken it
24with your patch series. It can build each individual commit and report
25which boards fail on which commits, and which errors come up. It aims
26to make full use of multi-processor machines.
27
28A key feature of buildman is its output summary, which allows warnings,
29errors or image size increases in a particular commit or board to be
30quickly identified and the offending commit pinpointed. This can be a big
31help for anyone working with >10 patches at a time.
32
33
34Caveats
35=======
36
37Buildman can be stopped and restarted, in which case it will continue
38where it left off. This should happen cleanly and without side-effects.
39If not, it is a bug, for which a patch would be welcome.
40
41Buildman gets so tied up in its work that it can ignore the outside world.
42You may need to press Ctrl-C several times to quit it. Also it will print
43out various exceptions when stopped. You may have to kill it since the
44Ctrl-C handling is somewhat broken.
45
46
47Theory of Operation
48===================
49
50(please read this section in full twice or you will be perpetually confused)
51
52Buildman is a builder. It is not make, although it runs make. It does not
53produce any useful output on the terminal while building, except for
54progress information (except with -v, see below). All the output (errors,
55warnings and binaries if you ask for them) is stored in output
56directories, which you can look at while the build is progressing, or when
57it is finished.
58
59Buildman is designed to build entire git branches, i.e. muliple commits. It
60can be run repeatedly on the same branch. In this case it will automatically
61rebuild commits which have changed (and remove its old results for that
62commit). It is possible to build a branch for one board, then later build it
63for another board. If you want buildman to re-build a commit it has already
64built (e.g. because of a toolchain update), use the -f flag.
65
66Buildman produces a concise summary of which boards succeeded and failed.
67It shows which commit introduced which board failure using a simple
68red/green colour coding. Full error information can be requested, in which
69case it is de-duped and displayed against the commit that introduced the
70error. An example workflow is below.
71
72Buildman stores image size information and can report changes in image size
73from commit to commit. An example of this is below.
74
75Buildman starts multiple threads, and each thread builds for one board at
76a time. A thread starts at the first commit, configures the source for your
77board and builds it. Then it checks out the next commit and does an
78incremental build. Eventually the thread reaches the last commit and stops.
79If errors or warnings are found along the way, the thread will reconfigure
80after every commit, and your build will be very slow. This is because a
81file that produces just a warning would not normally be rebuilt in an
82incremental build.
83
84Buildman works in an entirely separate place from your U-Boot repository.
85It creates a separate working directory for each thread, and puts the
86output files in the working directory, organised by commit name and board
87name, in a two-level hierarchy.
88
89Buildman is invoked in your U-Boot directory, the one with the .git
90directory. It clones this repository into a copy for each thread, and the
91threads do not affect the state of your git repository. Any checkouts done
92by the thread affect only the working directory for that thread.
93
94Buildman automatically selects the correct tool chain for each board. You
95must supply suitable tool chains, but buildman takes care of selecting the
96right one.
97
98Buildman generally builds a branch (with the -b flag), and in this case
99builds the upstream commit as well, for comparison. It cannot build
100individual commits at present, unless (maybe) you point it at an empty
101branch. Put all your commits in a branch, set the branch's upstream to a
102valid value, and all will be well. Otherwise buildman will perform random
103actions. Use -n to check what the random actions might be.
104
105If you just want to build the current source tree, leave off the -b flag
106and add -e. This will display results and errors as they happen. You can
107still look at them later using -se. Note that buildman will assume that the
108source has changed, and will build all specified boards in this case.
109
110Buildman is optimised for building many commits at once, for many boards.
111On multi-core machines, Buildman is fast because it uses most of the
112available CPU power. When it gets to the end, or if you are building just
113a few commits or boards, it will be pretty slow. As a tip, if you don't
114plan to use your machine for anything else, you can use -T to increase the
115number of threads beyond the default.
116
117
118Selecting which boards to build
119===============================
120
121Buildman lets you build all boards, or a subset. Specify the subset by passing
122command-line arguments that list the desired board name, architecture name,
123SOC name, or anything else in the boards.cfg file. Multiple arguments are
124allowed. Each argument will be interpreted as a regular expression, so
125behaviour is a superset of exact or substring matching. Examples are:
126
127* 'tegra20'      All boards with a Tegra20 SoC
128* 'tegra'        All boards with any Tegra Soc (Tegra20, Tegra30, Tegra114...)
129* '^tegra[23]0$' All boards with either Tegra20 or Tegra30 SoC
130* 'powerpc'      All PowerPC boards
131
132While the default is to OR the terms together, you can also make use of
133the '&' operator to limit the selection:
134
135* 'freescale & arm sandbox'  All Freescale boards with ARM architecture,
136                             plus sandbox
137
138You can also use -x to specifically exclude some boards. For example:
139
140 buildmand arm -x nvidia,freescale,.*ball$
141
142means to build all arm boards except nvidia, freescale and anything ending
143with 'ball'.
144
145For building specific boards you can use the --boards option, which takes a
146comma-separated list of board target names and be used multiple times on
147the command line:
148
149   buidman --boards sandbox,snow --boards
150
151It is convenient to use the -n option to see what will be built based on
152the subset given. Use -v as well to get an actual list of boards.
153
154Buildman does not store intermediate object files. It optionally copies
155the binary output into a directory when a build is successful (-k). Size
156information is always recorded. It needs a fair bit of disk space to work,
157typically 250MB per thread.
158
159
160Setting up
161==========
162
1631. Get the U-Boot source. You probably already have it, but if not these
164steps should get you started with a repo and some commits for testing.
165
166$ cd /path/to/u-boot
167$ git clone git://git.denx.de/u-boot.git .
168$ git checkout -b my-branch origin/master
169$ # Add some commits to the branch, reading for testing
170
1712. Create ~/.buildman to tell buildman where to find tool chains (see 'The
172.buildman file' later for details). As an example:
173
174# Buildman settings file
175
176[toolchain]
177root: /
178rest: /toolchains/*
179eldk: /opt/eldk-4.2
180arm: /opt/linaro/gcc-linaro-arm-linux-gnueabihf-4.8-2013.08_linux
181aarch64: /opt/linaro/gcc-linaro-aarch64-none-elf-4.8-2013.10_linux
182
183[toolchain-alias]
184x86: i386
185blackfin: bfin
186nds32: nds32le
187openrisc: or1k
188
189
190This selects the available toolchain paths. Add the base directory for
191each of your toolchains here. Buildman will search inside these directories
192and also in any '/usr' and '/usr/bin' subdirectories.
193
194Make sure the tags (here root: rest: and eldk:) are unique.
195
196The toolchain-alias section indicates that the i386 toolchain should be used
197to build x86 commits.
198
199Note that you can also specific exactly toolchain prefixes if you like:
200
201[toolchain-prefix]
202arm: /opt/arm-eabi-4.6/bin/arm-eabi-
203
204or even:
205
206[toolchain-prefix]
207arm: /opt/arm-eabi-4.6/bin/arm-eabi-gcc
208
209This tells buildman that you want to use this exact toolchain for the arm
210architecture. This will override any toolchains found by searching using the
211[toolchain] settings.
212
213Since the toolchain prefix is an explicit request, buildman will report an
214error if a toolchain is not found with that prefix. The current PATH will be
215searched, so it is possible to use:
216
217[toolchain-prefix]
218arm: arm-none-eabi-
219
220and buildman will find arm-none-eabi-gcc in /usr/bin if you have it installed.
221
222[toolchain-wrapper]
223wrapper: ccache
224
225This tells buildman to use a compiler wrapper in front of CROSS_COMPILE. In
226this example, ccache. It doesn't affect the toolchain scan. The wrapper is
227added when CROSS_COMPILE environtal variable is set. The name in this
228section is ignored. If more than one line is provided, only the last one
229is taken.
230
2313. Make sure you have the require Python pre-requisites
232
233Buildman uses multiprocessing, Queue, shutil, StringIO, ConfigParser and
234urllib2. These should normally be available, but if you get an error like
235this then you will need to obtain those modules:
236
237    ImportError: No module named multiprocessing
238
239
2404. Check the available toolchains
241
242Run this check to make sure that you have a toolchain for every architecture.
243
244$ ./tools/buildman/buildman --list-tool-chains
245Scanning for tool chains
246   - scanning prefix '/opt/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/x86_64-linux/bin/x86_64-linux-'
247Tool chain test:  OK, arch='x86', priority 1
248   - scanning prefix '/opt/arm-eabi-4.6/bin/arm-eabi-'
249Tool chain test:  OK, arch='arm', priority 1
250   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/i386-linux'
251      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/i386-linux/.'
252      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/i386-linux/bin'
253         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/i386-linux/bin/i386-linux-gcc'
254      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/i386-linux/usr/bin'
255Tool chain test:  OK, arch='i386', priority 4
256   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/aarch64-linux'
257      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/aarch64-linux/.'
258      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/aarch64-linux/bin'
259         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/aarch64-linux/bin/aarch64-linux-gcc'
260      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/aarch64-linux/usr/bin'
261Tool chain test:  OK, arch='aarch64', priority 4
262   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/microblaze-linux'
263      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/microblaze-linux/.'
264      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/microblaze-linux/bin'
265         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/microblaze-linux/bin/microblaze-linux-gcc'
266      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/microblaze-linux/usr/bin'
267Tool chain test:  OK, arch='microblaze', priority 4
268   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips64-linux'
269      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips64-linux/.'
270      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips64-linux/bin'
271         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips64-linux/bin/mips64-linux-gcc'
272      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips64-linux/usr/bin'
273Tool chain test:  OK, arch='mips64', priority 4
274   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc64-linux'
275      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc64-linux/.'
276      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc64-linux/bin'
277         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc64-linux/bin/sparc64-linux-gcc'
278      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc64-linux/usr/bin'
279Tool chain test:  OK, arch='sparc64', priority 4
280   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi'
281      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi/.'
282      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi/bin'
283         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi/bin/arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi-gcc'
284      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi/usr/bin'
285Tool chain test:  OK, arch='arm', priority 3
286Toolchain '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi/bin/arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi-gcc' at priority 3 will be ignored because another toolchain for arch 'arm' has priority 1
287   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc-linux'
288      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc-linux/.'
289      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc-linux/bin'
290         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc-linux/bin/sparc-linux-gcc'
291      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc-linux/usr/bin'
292Tool chain test:  OK, arch='sparc', priority 4
293   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips-linux'
294      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips-linux/.'
295      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips-linux/bin'
296         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips-linux/bin/mips-linux-gcc'
297      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips-linux/usr/bin'
298Tool chain test:  OK, arch='mips', priority 4
299   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/x86_64-linux'
300      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/x86_64-linux/.'
301      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/x86_64-linux/bin'
302         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/x86_64-linux/bin/x86_64-linux-gcc'
303         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/x86_64-linux/bin/x86_64-linux-x86_64-linux-gcc'
304      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/x86_64-linux/usr/bin'
305Tool chain test:  OK, arch='x86_64', priority 4
306Tool chain test:  OK, arch='x86_64', priority 4
307Toolchain '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/x86_64-linux/bin/x86_64-linux-x86_64-linux-gcc' at priority 4 will be ignored because another toolchain for arch 'x86_64' has priority 4
308   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/m68k-linux'
309      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/m68k-linux/.'
310      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/m68k-linux/bin'
311         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/m68k-linux/bin/m68k-linux-gcc'
312      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/m68k-linux/usr/bin'
313Tool chain test:  OK, arch='m68k', priority 4
314   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/powerpc-linux'
315      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/powerpc-linux/.'
316      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/powerpc-linux/bin'
317         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/powerpc-linux/bin/powerpc-linux-gcc'
318      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/powerpc-linux/usr/bin'
319Tool chain test:  OK, arch='powerpc', priority 4
320   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/bfin-uclinux'
321      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/bfin-uclinux/.'
322      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/bfin-uclinux/bin'
323         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/bfin-uclinux/bin/bfin-uclinux-gcc'
324      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/bfin-uclinux/usr/bin'
325Tool chain test:  OK, arch='bfin', priority 6
326   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/sparc-linux'
327      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/sparc-linux/.'
328      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/sparc-linux/bin'
329         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/sparc-linux/bin/sparc-linux-gcc'
330      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/sparc-linux/usr/bin'
331Tool chain test:  OK, arch='sparc', priority 4
332Toolchain '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/sparc-linux/bin/sparc-linux-gcc' at priority 4 will be ignored because another toolchain for arch 'sparc' has priority 4
333   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/mips-linux'
334      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/mips-linux/.'
335      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/mips-linux/bin'
336         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/mips-linux/bin/mips-linux-gcc'
337      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/mips-linux/usr/bin'
338Tool chain test:  OK, arch='mips', priority 4
339Toolchain '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/mips-linux/bin/mips-linux-gcc' at priority 4 will be ignored because another toolchain for arch 'mips' has priority 4
340   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/m68k-linux'
341      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/m68k-linux/.'
342      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/m68k-linux/bin'
343         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/m68k-linux/bin/m68k-linux-gcc'
344      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/m68k-linux/usr/bin'
345Tool chain test:  OK, arch='m68k', priority 4
346Toolchain '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/m68k-linux/bin/m68k-linux-gcc' at priority 4 will be ignored because another toolchain for arch 'm68k' has priority 4
347   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/powerpc-linux'
348      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/powerpc-linux/.'
349      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/powerpc-linux/bin'
350         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/powerpc-linux/bin/powerpc-linux-gcc'
351      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/powerpc-linux/usr/bin'
352Tool chain test:  OK, arch='powerpc', priority 4
353Tool chain test:  OK, arch='or32', priority 4
354   - scanning path '/'
355      - looking in '/.'
356      - looking in '/bin'
357      - looking in '/usr/bin'
358         - found '/usr/bin/i586-mingw32msvc-gcc'
359         - found '/usr/bin/c89-gcc'
360         - found '/usr/bin/x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc'
361         - found '/usr/bin/gcc'
362         - found '/usr/bin/c99-gcc'
363         - found '/usr/bin/arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc'
364         - found '/usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc'
365         - found '/usr/bin/winegcc'
366         - found '/usr/bin/arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc'
367Tool chain test:  OK, arch='i586', priority 11
368Tool chain test:  OK, arch='c89', priority 11
369Tool chain test:  OK, arch='x86_64', priority 4
370Toolchain '/usr/bin/x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc' at priority 4 will be ignored because another toolchain for arch 'x86_64' has priority 4
371Tool chain test:  OK, arch='sandbox', priority 11
372Tool chain test:  OK, arch='c99', priority 11
373Tool chain test:  OK, arch='arm', priority 4
374Toolchain '/usr/bin/arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc' at priority 4 will be ignored because another toolchain for arch 'arm' has priority 1
375Tool chain test:  OK, arch='aarch64', priority 4
376Toolchain '/usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc' at priority 4 will be ignored because another toolchain for arch 'aarch64' has priority 4
377Tool chain test:  OK, arch='sandbox', priority 11
378Toolchain '/usr/bin/winegcc' at priority 11 will be ignored because another toolchain for arch 'sandbox' has priority 11
379Tool chain test:  OK, arch='arm', priority 4
380Toolchain '/usr/bin/arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc' at priority 4 will be ignored because another toolchain for arch 'arm' has priority 1
381List of available toolchains (34):
382aarch64   : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/aarch64-linux/bin/aarch64-linux-gcc
383alpha     : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/alpha-linux/bin/alpha-linux-gcc
384am33_2.0  : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/am33_2.0-linux/bin/am33_2.0-linux-gcc
385arm       : /opt/arm-eabi-4.6/bin/arm-eabi-gcc
386bfin      : /toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/bfin-uclinux/bin/bfin-uclinux-gcc
387c89       : /usr/bin/c89-gcc
388c99       : /usr/bin/c99-gcc
389frv       : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/frv-linux/bin/frv-linux-gcc
390h8300     : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/h8300-elf/bin/h8300-elf-gcc
391hppa      : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/hppa-linux/bin/hppa-linux-gcc
392hppa64    : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/hppa64-linux/bin/hppa64-linux-gcc
393i386      : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/i386-linux/bin/i386-linux-gcc
394i586      : /usr/bin/i586-mingw32msvc-gcc
395ia64      : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/ia64-linux/bin/ia64-linux-gcc
396m32r      : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/m32r-linux/bin/m32r-linux-gcc
397m68k      : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/m68k-linux/bin/m68k-linux-gcc
398microblaze: /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/microblaze-linux/bin/microblaze-linux-gcc
399mips      : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips-linux/bin/mips-linux-gcc
400mips64    : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips64-linux/bin/mips64-linux-gcc
401or32      : /toolchains/gcc-4.5.1-nolibc/or32-linux/bin/or32-linux-gcc
402powerpc   : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/powerpc-linux/bin/powerpc-linux-gcc
403powerpc64 : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/powerpc64-linux/bin/powerpc64-linux-gcc
404ppc64le   : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/ppc64le-linux/bin/ppc64le-linux-gcc
405s390x     : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/s390x-linux/bin/s390x-linux-gcc
406sandbox   : /usr/bin/gcc
407sh4       : /toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/sh4-linux/bin/sh4-linux-gcc
408sparc     : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc-linux/bin/sparc-linux-gcc
409sparc64   : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc64-linux/bin/sparc64-linux-gcc
410tilegx    : /toolchains/gcc-4.6.2-nolibc/tilegx-linux/bin/tilegx-linux-gcc
411x86       : /opt/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/x86_64-linux/bin/x86_64-linux-gcc
412x86_64    : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/x86_64-linux/bin/x86_64-linux-gcc
413
414
415You can see that everything is covered, even some strange ones that won't
416be used (c88 and c99). This is a feature.
417
418
4195. Install new toolchains if needed
420
421You can download toolchains and update the [toolchain] section of the
422settings file to find them.
423
424To make this easier, buildman can automatically download and install
425toolchains from kernel.org. First list the available architectures:
426
427$ ./tools/buildman/buildman --fetch-arch list
428Checking: https://www.kernel.org/pub/tools/crosstool/files/bin/x86_64/4.6.3/
429Checking: https://www.kernel.org/pub/tools/crosstool/files/bin/x86_64/4.6.2/
430Checking: https://www.kernel.org/pub/tools/crosstool/files/bin/x86_64/4.5.1/
431Checking: https://www.kernel.org/pub/tools/crosstool/files/bin/x86_64/4.2.4/
432Available architectures: alpha am33_2.0 arm bfin cris crisv32 frv h8300
433hppa hppa64 i386 ia64 m32r m68k mips mips64 or32 powerpc powerpc64 s390x sh4
434sparc sparc64 tilegx x86_64 xtensa
435
436Then pick one and download it:
437
438$ ./tools/buildman/buildman --fetch-arch or32
439Checking: https://www.kernel.org/pub/tools/crosstool/files/bin/x86_64/4.6.3/
440Checking: https://www.kernel.org/pub/tools/crosstool/files/bin/x86_64/4.6.2/
441Checking: https://www.kernel.org/pub/tools/crosstool/files/bin/x86_64/4.5.1/
442Downloading: https://www.kernel.org/pub/tools/crosstool/files/bin/x86_64/4.5.1//x86_64-gcc-4.5.1-nolibc_or32-linux.tar.xz
443Unpacking to: /home/sjg/.buildman-toolchains
444Testing
445      - looking in '/home/sjg/.buildman-toolchains/gcc-4.5.1-nolibc/or32-linux/.'
446      - looking in '/home/sjg/.buildman-toolchains/gcc-4.5.1-nolibc/or32-linux/bin'
447         - found '/home/sjg/.buildman-toolchains/gcc-4.5.1-nolibc/or32-linux/bin/or32-linux-gcc'
448Tool chain test:  OK
449
450Or download them all from kernel.org and move them to /toolchains directory,
451
452$ ./tools/buildman/buildman --fetch-arch all
453$ sudo mkdir -p /toolchains
454$ sudo mv ~/.buildman-toolchains/*/* /toolchains/
455
456For those not available from kernel.org, download from the following links.
457
458arc: https://github.com/foss-for-synopsys-dwc-arc-processors/toolchain/releases/
459    download/arc-2016.09-release/arc_gnu_2016.09_prebuilt_uclibc_le_archs_linux_install.tar.gz
460blackfin: http://sourceforge.net/projects/adi-toolchain/files/
461    blackfin-toolchain-elf-gcc-4.5-2014R1_45-RC2.x86_64.tar.bz2
462nds32: http://osdk.andestech.com/packages/
463    nds32le-linux-glibc-v1.tgz
464nios2: http://sourcery.mentor.com/public/gnu_toolchain/nios2-linux-gnu/
465    sourceryg++-2015.11-27-nios2-linux-gnu-i686-pc-linux-gnu.tar.bz2
466sh: http://sourcery.mentor.com/public/gnu_toolchain/sh-linux-gnu/
467    renesas-4.4-200-sh-linux-gnu-i686-pc-linux-gnu.tar.bz2
468
469Note openrisc kernel.org toolchain is out of date. Download the latest one from
470http://opencores.org/or1k/OpenRISC_GNU_tool_chain#Prebuilt_versions - eg:
471ftp://ocuser:ocuser@openrisc.opencores.org/toolchain/gcc-or1k-elf-4.8.1-x86.tar.bz2.
472
473Buildman should now be set up to use your new toolchain.
474
475At the time of writing, U-Boot has these architectures:
476
477   arc, arm, blackfin, m68k, microblaze, mips, nds32, nios2, openrisc
478   powerpc, sandbox, sh, sparc, x86
479
480Of these, only arc and nds32 are not available at kernel.org..
481
482
483How to run it
484=============
485
486First do a dry run using the -n flag: (replace <branch> with a real, local
487branch with a valid upstream)
488
489$ ./tools/buildman/buildman -b <branch> -n
490
491If it can't detect the upstream branch, try checking out the branch, and
492doing something like 'git branch --set-upstream-to upstream/master'
493or something similar. Buildman will try to guess a suitable upstream branch
494if it can't find one (you will see a message like" Guessing upstream as ...).
495
496As an example:
497
498Dry run, so not doing much. But I would do this:
499
500Building 18 commits for 1059 boards (4 threads, 1 job per thread)
501Build directory: ../lcd9b
502    5bb3505 Merge branch 'master' of git://git.denx.de/u-boot-arm
503    c18f1b4 tegra: Use const for pinmux_config_pingroup/table()
504    2f043ae tegra: Add display support to funcmux
505    e349900 tegra: fdt: Add pwm binding and node
506    424a5f0 tegra: fdt: Add LCD definitions for Tegra
507    0636ccf tegra: Add support for PWM
508    a994fe7 tegra: Add SOC support for display/lcd
509    fcd7350 tegra: Add LCD driver
510    4d46e9d tegra: Add LCD support to Nvidia boards
511    991bd48 arm: Add control over cachability of memory regions
512    54e8019 lcd: Add CONFIG_LCD_ALIGNMENT to select frame buffer alignment
513    d92aff7 lcd: Add support for flushing LCD fb from dcache after update
514    dbd0677 tegra: Align LCD frame buffer to section boundary
515    0cff9b8 tegra: Support control of cache settings for LCD
516    9c56900 tegra: fdt: Add LCD definitions for Seaboard
517    5cc29db lcd: Add CONFIG_CONSOLE_SCROLL_LINES option to speed console
518    cac5a23 tegra: Enable display/lcd support on Seaboard
519    49ff541 wip
520
521Total boards to build for each commit: 1059
522
523This shows that it will build all 1059 boards, using 4 threads (because
524we have a 4-core CPU). Each thread will run with -j1, meaning that each
525make job will use a single CPU. The list of commits to be built helps you
526confirm that things look about right. Notice that buildman has chosen a
527'base' directory for you, immediately above your source tree.
528
529Buildman works entirely inside the base directory, here ../lcd9b,
530creating a working directory for each thread, and creating output
531directories for each commit and board.
532
533
534Suggested Workflow
535==================
536
537To run the build for real, take off the -n:
538
539$ ./tools/buildman/buildman -b <branch>
540
541Buildman will set up some working directories, and get started. After a
542minute or so it will settle down to a steady pace, with a display like this:
543
544Building 18 commits for 1059 boards (4 threads, 1 job per thread)
545  528   36  124 /19062  1:13:30  : SIMPC8313_SP
546
547This means that it is building 19062 board/commit combinations. So far it
548has managed to successfully build 528. Another 36 have built with warnings,
549and 124 more didn't build at all. Buildman expects to complete the process
550in around an hour and a quarter. Use this time to buy a faster computer.
551
552
553To find out how the build went, ask for a summary with -s. You can do this
554either before the build completes (presumably in another terminal) or
555afterwards. Let's work through an example of how this is used:
556
557$ ./tools/buildman/buildman -b lcd9b -s
558...
55901: Merge branch 'master' of git://git.denx.de/u-boot-arm
560   powerpc:   + galaxy5200_LOWBOOT
56102: tegra: Use const for pinmux_config_pingroup/table()
56203: tegra: Add display support to funcmux
56304: tegra: fdt: Add pwm binding and node
56405: tegra: fdt: Add LCD definitions for Tegra
56506: tegra: Add support for PWM
56607: tegra: Add SOC support for display/lcd
56708: tegra: Add LCD driver
56809: tegra: Add LCD support to Nvidia boards
56910: arm: Add control over cachability of memory regions
57011: lcd: Add CONFIG_LCD_ALIGNMENT to select frame buffer alignment
57112: lcd: Add support for flushing LCD fb from dcache after update
572       arm:   + lubbock
57313: tegra: Align LCD frame buffer to section boundary
57414: tegra: Support control of cache settings for LCD
57515: tegra: fdt: Add LCD definitions for Seaboard
57616: lcd: Add CONFIG_CONSOLE_SCROLL_LINES option to speed console
57717: tegra: Enable display/lcd support on Seaboard
57818: wip
579
580This shows which commits have succeeded and which have failed. In this case
581the build is still in progress so many boards are not built yet (use -u to
582see which ones). But still we can see a few failures. The galaxy5200_LOWBOOT
583never builds correctly. This could be a problem with our toolchain, or it
584could be a bug in the upstream. The good news is that we probably don't need
585to blame our commits. The bad news is that our commits are not tested on that
586board.
587
588Commit 12 broke lubbock. That's what the '+ lubbock' means. The failure
589is never fixed by a later commit, or you would see lubbock again, in green,
590without the +.
591
592To see the actual error:
593
594$ ./tools/buildman/buildman -b <branch> -se lubbock
595...
59612: lcd: Add support for flushing LCD fb from dcache after update
597       arm:   + lubbock
598+common/libcommon.o: In function `lcd_sync':
599+/u-boot/lcd9b/.bm-work/00/common/lcd.c:120: undefined reference to `flush_dcache_range'
600+arm-none-linux-gnueabi-ld: BFD (Sourcery G++ Lite 2010q1-202) 2.19.51.20090709 assertion fail /scratch/julian/2010q1-release-linux-lite/obj/binutils-src-2010q1-202-arm-none-linux-gnueabi-i686-pc-linux-gnu/bfd/elf32-arm.c:12572
601+make: *** [/u-boot/lcd9b/.bm-work/00/build/u-boot] Error 139
60213: tegra: Align LCD frame buffer to section boundary
60314: tegra: Support control of cache settings for LCD
60415: tegra: fdt: Add LCD definitions for Seaboard
60516: lcd: Add CONFIG_CONSOLE_SCROLL_LINES option to speed console
606-/u-boot/lcd9b/.bm-work/00/common/lcd.c:120: undefined reference to `flush_dcache_range'
607+/u-boot/lcd9b/.bm-work/00/common/lcd.c:125: undefined reference to `flush_dcache_range'
60817: tegra: Enable display/lcd support on Seaboard
60918: wip
610
611So the problem is in lcd.c, due to missing cache operations. This information
612should be enough to work out what that commit is doing to break these
613boards. (In this case pxa did not have cache operations defined).
614
615If you see error lines marked with '-', that means that the errors were fixed
616by that commit. Sometimes commits can be in the wrong order, so that a
617breakage is introduced for a few commits and fixed by later commits. This
618shows up clearly with buildman. You can then reorder the commits and try
619again.
620
621At commit 16, the error moves: you can see that the old error at line 120
622is fixed, but there is a new one at line 126. This is probably only because
623we added some code and moved the broken line further down the file.
624
625If many boards have the same error, then -e will display the error only
626once. This makes the output as concise as possible. To see which boards have
627each error, use -l. So it is safe to omit the board name - you will not get
628lots of repeated output for every board.
629
630Buildman tries to distinguish warnings from errors, and shows warning lines
631separately with a 'w' prefix.
632
633The full build output in this case is available in:
634
635../lcd9b/12_of_18_gd92aff7_lcd--Add-support-for/lubbock/
636
637   done: Indicates the build was done, and holds the return code from make.
638         This is 0 for a good build, typically 2 for a failure.
639
640   err:  Output from stderr, if any. Errors and warnings appear here.
641
642   log:  Output from stdout. Normally there isn't any since buildman runs
643         in silent mode. Use -V to force a verbose build (this passes V=1
644         to 'make')
645
646   toolchain: Shows information about the toolchain used for the build.
647
648   sizes: Shows image size information.
649
650It is possible to get the build binary output there also. Use the -k option
651for this. In that case you will also see some output files, like:
652
653   System.map  toolchain  u-boot  u-boot.bin  u-boot.map  autoconf.mk
654   (also SPL versions u-boot-spl and u-boot-spl.bin if available)
655
656
657Checking Image Sizes
658====================
659
660A key requirement for U-Boot is that you keep code/data size to a minimum.
661Where a new feature increases this noticeably it should normally be put
662behind a CONFIG flag so that boards can leave it disabled and keep the image
663size more or less the same with each new release.
664
665To check the impact of your commits on image size, use -S. For example:
666
667$ ./tools/buildman/buildman -b us-x86 -sS
668Summary of 10 commits for 1066 boards (4 threads, 1 job per thread)
66901: MAKEALL: add support for per architecture toolchains
67002: x86: Add function to get top of usable ram
671       x86: (for 1/3 boards)  text -272.0  rodata +41.0
67203: x86: Add basic cache operations
67304: x86: Permit bootstage and timer data to be used prior to relocation
674       x86: (for 1/3 boards)  data +16.0
67505: x86: Add an __end symbol to signal the end of the U-Boot binary
676       x86: (for 1/3 boards)  text +76.0
67706: x86: Rearrange the output input to remove BSS
678       x86: (for 1/3 boards)  bss -2140.0
67907: x86: Support relocation of FDT on start-up
680       x86: +   coreboot-x86
68108: x86: Add error checking to x86 relocation code
68209: x86: Adjust link device tree include file
68310: x86: Enable CONFIG_OF_CONTROL on coreboot
684
685
686You can see that image size only changed on x86, which is good because this
687series is not supposed to change any other board. From commit 7 onwards the
688build fails so we don't get code size numbers. The numbers are fractional
689because they are an average of all boards for that architecture. The
690intention is to allow you to quickly find image size problems introduced by
691your commits.
692
693Note that the 'text' region and 'rodata' are split out. You should add the
694two together to get the total read-only size (reported as the first column
695in the output from binutil's 'size' utility).
696
697A useful option is --step which lets you skip some commits. For example
698--step 2 will show the image sizes for only every 2nd commit (so it will
699compare the image sizes of the 1st, 3rd, 5th... commits). You can also use
700--step 0 which will compare only the first and last commits. This is useful
701for an overview of how your entire series affects code size. It will build
702only the upstream commit and your final branch commit.
703
704You can also use -d to see a detailed size breakdown for each board. This
705list is sorted in order from largest growth to largest reduction.
706
707It is even possible to go a little further with the -B option (--bloat). This
708shows where U-Boot has bloated, breaking the size change down to the function
709level. Example output is below:
710
711$ ./tools/buildman/buildman -b us-mem4 -sSdB
712...
71319: Roll crc32 into hash infrastructure
714       arm: (for 10/10 boards)  all -143.4  bss +1.2  data -4.8  rodata -48.2 text -91.6
715            paz00          :  all +23  bss -4  rodata -29  text +56
716               u-boot: add: 1/0, grow: 3/-2 bytes: 168/-104 (64)
717                 function                                   old     new   delta
718                 hash_command                                80     160     +80
719                 crc32_wd_buf                                 -      56     +56
720                 ext4fs_read_file                           540     568     +28
721                 insert_var_value_sub                       688     692      +4
722                 run_list_real                             1996    1992      -4
723                 do_mem_crc                                 168      68    -100
724            trimslice      :  all -9  bss +16  rodata -29  text +4
725               u-boot: add: 1/0, grow: 1/-3 bytes: 136/-124 (12)
726                 function                                   old     new   delta
727                 hash_command                                80     160     +80
728                 crc32_wd_buf                                 -      56     +56
729                 ext4fs_iterate_dir                         672     668      -4
730                 ext4fs_read_file                           568     548     -20
731                 do_mem_crc                                 168      68    -100
732            whistler       :  all -9  bss +16  rodata -29  text +4
733               u-boot: add: 1/0, grow: 1/-3 bytes: 136/-124 (12)
734                 function                                   old     new   delta
735                 hash_command                                80     160     +80
736                 crc32_wd_buf                                 -      56     +56
737                 ext4fs_iterate_dir                         672     668      -4
738                 ext4fs_read_file                           568     548     -20
739                 do_mem_crc                                 168      68    -100
740            seaboard       :  all -9  bss -28  rodata -29  text +48
741               u-boot: add: 1/0, grow: 3/-2 bytes: 160/-104 (56)
742                 function                                   old     new   delta
743                 hash_command                                80     160     +80
744                 crc32_wd_buf                                 -      56     +56
745                 ext4fs_read_file                           548     568     +20
746                 run_list_real                             1996    2000      +4
747                 do_nandboot                                760     756      -4
748                 do_mem_crc                                 168      68    -100
749            colibri_t20    :  all -9  rodata -29  text +20
750               u-boot: add: 1/0, grow: 2/-3 bytes: 140/-112 (28)
751                 function                                   old     new   delta
752                 hash_command                                80     160     +80
753                 crc32_wd_buf                                 -      56     +56
754                 read_abs_bbt                               204     208      +4
755                 do_nandboot                                760     756      -4
756                 ext4fs_read_file                           576     568      -8
757                 do_mem_crc                                 168      68    -100
758            ventana        :  all -37  bss -12  rodata -29  text +4
759               u-boot: add: 1/0, grow: 1/-3 bytes: 136/-124 (12)
760                 function                                   old     new   delta
761                 hash_command                                80     160     +80
762                 crc32_wd_buf                                 -      56     +56
763                 ext4fs_iterate_dir                         672     668      -4
764                 ext4fs_read_file                           568     548     -20
765                 do_mem_crc                                 168      68    -100
766            harmony        :  all -37  bss -16  rodata -29  text +8
767               u-boot: add: 1/0, grow: 2/-3 bytes: 140/-124 (16)
768                 function                                   old     new   delta
769                 hash_command                                80     160     +80
770                 crc32_wd_buf                                 -      56     +56
771                 nand_write_oob_syndrome                    428     432      +4
772                 ext4fs_iterate_dir                         672     668      -4
773                 ext4fs_read_file                           568     548     -20
774                 do_mem_crc                                 168      68    -100
775            medcom-wide    :  all -417  bss +28  data -16  rodata -93  text -336
776               u-boot: add: 1/-1, grow: 1/-2 bytes: 88/-376 (-288)
777                 function                                   old     new   delta
778                 crc32_wd_buf                                 -      56     +56
779                 do_fat_read_at                            2872    2904     +32
780                 hash_algo                                   16       -     -16
781                 do_mem_crc                                 168      68    -100
782                 hash_command                               420     160    -260
783            tec            :  all -449  bss -4  data -16  rodata -93  text -336
784               u-boot: add: 1/-1, grow: 1/-2 bytes: 88/-376 (-288)
785                 function                                   old     new   delta
786                 crc32_wd_buf                                 -      56     +56
787                 do_fat_read_at                            2872    2904     +32
788                 hash_algo                                   16       -     -16
789                 do_mem_crc                                 168      68    -100
790                 hash_command                               420     160    -260
791            plutux         :  all -481  bss +16  data -16  rodata -93  text -388
792               u-boot: add: 1/-1, grow: 1/-3 bytes: 68/-408 (-340)
793                 function                                   old     new   delta
794                 crc32_wd_buf                                 -      56     +56
795                 do_load_serial_bin                        1688    1700     +12
796                 hash_algo                                   16       -     -16
797                 do_fat_read_at                            2904    2872     -32
798                 do_mem_crc                                 168      68    -100
799                 hash_command                               420     160    -260
800   powerpc: (for 5/5 boards)  all +37.4  data -3.2  rodata -41.8  text +82.4
801            MPC8610HPCD    :  all +55  rodata -29  text +84
802               u-boot: add: 1/0, grow: 0/-1 bytes: 176/-96 (80)
803                 function                                   old     new   delta
804                 hash_command                                 -     176    +176
805                 do_mem_crc                                 184      88     -96
806            MPC8641HPCN    :  all +55  rodata -29  text +84
807               u-boot: add: 1/0, grow: 0/-1 bytes: 176/-96 (80)
808                 function                                   old     new   delta
809                 hash_command                                 -     176    +176
810                 do_mem_crc                                 184      88     -96
811            MPC8641HPCN_36BIT:  all +55  rodata -29  text +84
812               u-boot: add: 1/0, grow: 0/-1 bytes: 176/-96 (80)
813                 function                                   old     new   delta
814                 hash_command                                 -     176    +176
815                 do_mem_crc                                 184      88     -96
816            sbc8641d       :  all +55  rodata -29  text +84
817               u-boot: add: 1/0, grow: 0/-1 bytes: 176/-96 (80)
818                 function                                   old     new   delta
819                 hash_command                                 -     176    +176
820                 do_mem_crc                                 184      88     -96
821            xpedite517x    :  all -33  data -16  rodata -93  text +76
822               u-boot: add: 1/-1, grow: 0/-1 bytes: 176/-112 (64)
823                 function                                   old     new   delta
824                 hash_command                                 -     176    +176
825                 hash_algo                                   16       -     -16
826                 do_mem_crc                                 184      88     -96
827...
828
829
830This shows that commit 19 has reduced codesize for arm slightly and increased
831it for powerpc. This increase was offset in by reductions in rodata and
832data/bss.
833
834Shown below the summary lines are the sizes for each board. Below each board
835are the sizes for each function. This information starts with:
836
837   add - number of functions added / removed
838   grow - number of functions which grew / shrunk
839   bytes - number of bytes of code added to / removed from all functions,
840            plus the total byte change in brackets
841
842The change seems to be that hash_command() has increased by more than the
843do_mem_crc() function has decreased. The function sizes typically add up to
844roughly the text area size, but note that every read-only section except
845rodata is included in 'text', so the function total does not exactly
846correspond.
847
848It is common when refactoring code for the rodata to decrease as the text size
849increases, and vice versa.
850
851
852The .buildman file
853==================
854
855The .buildman file provides information about the available toolchains and
856also allows build flags to be passed to 'make'. It consists of several
857sections, with the section name in square brackets. Within each section are
858a set of (tag, value) pairs.
859
860'[toolchain]' section
861
862    This lists the available toolchains. The tag here doesn't matter, but
863    make sure it is unique. The value is the path to the toolchain. Buildman
864    will look in that path for a file ending in 'gcc'. It will then execute
865    it to check that it is a C compiler, passing only the --version flag to
866    it. If the return code is 0, buildman assumes that it is a valid C
867    compiler. It uses the first part of the name as the architecture and
868    strips off the last part when setting the CROSS_COMPILE environment
869    variable (parts are delimited with a hyphen).
870
871    For example powerpc-linux-gcc will be noted as a toolchain for 'powerpc'
872    and CROSS_COMPILE will be set to powerpc-linux- when using it.
873
874'[toolchain-alias]' section
875
876    This converts toolchain architecture names to U-Boot names. For example,
877    if an x86 toolchains is called i386-linux-gcc it will not normally be
878    used for architecture 'x86'. Adding 'x86: i386 x86_64' to this section
879    will tell buildman that the i386 and x86_64 toolchains can be used for
880    the x86 architecture.
881
882'[make-flags]' section
883
884    U-Boot's build system supports a few flags (such as BUILD_TAG) which
885    affect the build product. These flags can be specified in the buildman
886    settings file. They can also be useful when building U-Boot against other
887    open source software.
888
889    [make-flags]
890    at91-boards=ENABLE_AT91_TEST=1
891    snapper9260=${at91-boards} BUILD_TAG=442
892    snapper9g45=${at91-boards} BUILD_TAG=443
893
894    This will use 'make ENABLE_AT91_TEST=1 BUILD_TAG=442' for snapper9260
895    and 'make ENABLE_AT91_TEST=1 BUILD_TAG=443' for snapper9g45. A special
896    variable ${target} is available to access the target name (snapper9260
897    and snapper9g20 in this case). Variables are resolved recursively. Note
898    that variables can only contain the characters A-Z, a-z, 0-9, hyphen (-)
899    and underscore (_).
900
901    It is expected that any variables added are dealt with in U-Boot's
902    config.mk file and documented in the README.
903
904    Note that you can pass ad-hoc options to the build using environment
905    variables, for example:
906
907       SOME_OPTION=1234 ./tools/buildman/buildman my_board
908
909
910Quick Sanity Check
911==================
912
913If you have made changes and want to do a quick sanity check of the
914currently checked-out source, run buildman without the -b flag. This will
915build the selected boards and display build status as it runs (i.e. -v is
916enabled automatically). Use -e to see errors/warnings as well.
917
918
919Building Ranges
920===============
921
922You can build a range of commits by specifying a range instead of a branch
923when using the -b flag. For example:
924
925    upstream/master..us-buildman
926
927will build commits in us-buildman that are not in upstream/master.
928
929
930Building Faster
931===============
932
933By default, buildman executes 'make mrproper' prior to building the first
934commit for each board. This causes everything to be built from scratch. If you
935trust the build system's incremental build capabilities, you can pass the -I
936flag to skip the 'make mproper' invocation, which will reduce the amount of
937work 'make' does, and hence speed up the build. This flag will speed up any
938buildman invocation, since it reduces the amount of work done on any build.
939
940One possible application of buildman is as part of a continual edit, build,
941edit, build, ... cycle; repeatedly applying buildman to the same change or
942series of changes while making small incremental modifications to the source
943each time. This provides quick feedback regarding the correctness of recent
944modifications. In this scenario, buildman's default choice of build directory
945causes more build work to be performed than strictly necessary.
946
947By default, each buildman thread uses a single directory for all builds. When a
948thread builds multiple boards, the configuration built in this directory will
949cycle through various different configurations, one per board built by the
950thread. Variations in the configuration will force a rebuild of affected source
951files when a thread switches between boards. Ideally, such buildman-induced
952rebuilds would not happen, thus allowing the build to operate as efficiently as
953the build system and source changes allow. buildman's -P flag may be used to
954enable this; -P causes each board to be built in a separate (board-specific)
955directory, thus avoiding any buildman-induced configuration changes in any
956build directory.
957
958U-Boot's build system embeds information such as a build timestamp into the
959final binary. This information varies each time U-Boot is built. This causes
960various files to be rebuilt even if no source changes are made, which in turn
961requires that the final U-Boot binary be re-linked. This unnecessary work can
962be avoided by turning off the timestamp feature. This can be achieved by
963setting the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH environment variable to 0.
964
965Combining all of these options together yields the command-line shown below.
966This will provide the quickest possible feedback regarding the current content
967of the source tree, thus allowing rapid tested evolution of the code.
968
969    SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=0 ./tools/buildman/buildman -I -P tegra
970
971
972Checking configuration
973======================
974
975A common requirement when converting CONFIG options to Kconfig is to check
976that the effective configuration has not changed due to the conversion.
977Buildman supports this with the -K option, used after a build. This shows
978differences in effective configuration between one commit and the next.
979
980For example:
981
982    $ buildman -b kc4 -sK
983    ...
984    43: Convert CONFIG_SPL_USBETH_SUPPORT to Kconfig
985    arm:
986    + u-boot.cfg: CONFIG_SPL_ENV_SUPPORT=1 CONFIG_SPL_NET_SUPPORT=1
987    + u-boot-spl.cfg: CONFIG_SPL_MMC_SUPPORT=1 CONFIG_SPL_NAND_SUPPORT=1
988    + all: CONFIG_SPL_ENV_SUPPORT=1 CONFIG_SPL_MMC_SUPPORT=1 CONFIG_SPL_NAND_SUPPORT=1 CONFIG_SPL_NET_SUPPORT=1
989    am335x_evm_usbspl :
990    + u-boot.cfg: CONFIG_SPL_ENV_SUPPORT=1 CONFIG_SPL_NET_SUPPORT=1
991    + u-boot-spl.cfg: CONFIG_SPL_MMC_SUPPORT=1 CONFIG_SPL_NAND_SUPPORT=1
992    + all: CONFIG_SPL_ENV_SUPPORT=1 CONFIG_SPL_MMC_SUPPORT=1 CONFIG_SPL_NAND_SUPPORT=1 CONFIG_SPL_NET_SUPPORT=1
993    44: Convert CONFIG_SPL_USB_HOST_SUPPORT to Kconfig
994    ...
995
996This shows that commit 44 enabled three new options for the board
997am335x_evm_usbspl which were not enabled in commit 43. There is also a
998summary for 'arm' showing all the changes detected for that architecture.
999In this case there is only one board with changes, so 'arm' output is the
1000same as 'am335x_evm_usbspl'/
1001
1002The -K option uses the u-boot.cfg, spl/u-boot-spl.cfg and tpl/u-boot-tpl.cfg
1003files which are produced by a build. If all you want is to check the
1004configuration you can in fact avoid doing a full build, using -D. This tells
1005buildman to configuration U-Boot and create the .cfg files, but not actually
1006build the source. This is 5-10 times faster than doing a full build.
1007
1008By default buildman considers the follow two configuration methods
1009equivalent:
1010
1011   #define CONFIG_SOME_OPTION
1012
1013   CONFIG_SOME_OPTION=y
1014
1015The former would appear in a header filer and the latter in a defconfig
1016file. The achieve this, buildman considers 'y' to be '1' in configuration
1017variables. This avoids lots of useless output when converting a CONFIG
1018option to Kconfig. To disable this behaviour, use --squash-config-y.
1019
1020
1021Checking the environment
1022========================
1023
1024When converting CONFIG options which manipulate the default environment,
1025a common requirement is to check that the default environment has not
1026changed due to the conversion. Buildman supports this with the -U option,
1027used after a build. This shows differences in the default environment
1028between one commit and the next.
1029
1030For example:
1031
1032$ buildman -b squash brppt1 -sU
1033boards.cfg is up to date. Nothing to do.
1034Summary of 2 commits for 3 boards (3 threads, 3 jobs per thread)
103501: Migrate bootlimit to Kconfig
103602: Squashed commit of the following:
1037   c brppt1_mmc: altbootcmd=mmc dev 1; run mmcboot0; -> mmc dev 1; run mmcboot0
1038   c brppt1_spi: altbootcmd=mmc dev 1; run mmcboot0; -> mmc dev 1; run mmcboot0
1039   + brppt1_nand: altbootcmd=run usbscript
1040   - brppt1_nand:  altbootcmd=run usbscript
1041(no errors to report)
1042
1043This shows that commit 2 modified the value of 'altbootcmd' for 'brppt1_mmc'
1044and 'brppt1_spi', removing a trailing semicolon. 'brppt1_nand' gained an a
1045value for 'altbootcmd', but lost one for ' altbootcmd'.
1046
1047The -U option uses the u-boot.env files which are produced by a build.
1048
1049Other options
1050=============
1051
1052Buildman has various other command line options. Try --help to see them.
1053
1054When doing builds, Buildman's return code will reflect the overall result:
1055
1056    0 (success)     No errors or warnings found
1057    128             Errors found
1058    129             Warnings found
1059
1060
1061How to change from MAKEALL
1062==========================
1063
1064Buildman includes most of the features of MAKEALL and is generally faster
1065and easier to use. In particular it builds entire branches: if a particular
1066commit introduces an error in a particular board, buildman can easily show
1067you this, even if a later commit fixes that error.
1068
1069The reasons to deprecate MAKEALL are:
1070- We don't want to maintain two build systems
1071- Buildman is typically faster
1072- Buildman has a lot more features
1073
1074But still, many people will be sad to lose MAKEALL. If you are used to
1075MAKEALL, here are a few pointers.
1076
1077First you need to set up your tool chains - see the 'Setting up' section
1078for details. Once you have your required toolchain(s) detected then you are
1079ready to go.
1080
1081To build the current source tree, run buildman without a -b flag:
1082
1083   ./tools/buildman/buildman <list of things to build>
1084
1085This will build the current source tree for the given boards and display
1086the results and errors.
1087
1088However buildman usually works on entire branches, and for that you must
1089specify a board flag:
1090
1091   ./tools/buildman/buildman -b <branch_name> <list of things to build>
1092
1093followed by (afterwards, or perhaps concurrently in another terminal):
1094
1095   ./tools/buildman/buildman -b <branch_name> -s <list of things to build>
1096
1097to see the results of the build. Rather than showing you all the output,
1098buildman just shows a summary, with red indicating that a commit introduced
1099an error and green indicating that a commit fixed an error. Use the -e
1100flag to see the full errors and -l to see which boards caused which errors.
1101
1102If you really want to see build results as they happen, use -v when doing a
1103build (and -e to see the errors/warnings too).
1104
1105You don't need to stick around on that branch while buildman is running. It
1106checks out its own copy of the source code, so you can change branches,
1107add commits, etc. without affecting the build in progress.
1108
1109The <list of things to build> can include board names, architectures or the
1110like. There are no flags to disambiguate since ambiguities are rare. Using
1111the examples from MAKEALL:
1112
1113Examples:
1114  - build all Power Architecture boards:
1115      MAKEALL -a powerpc
1116      MAKEALL --arch powerpc
1117      MAKEALL powerpc
1118          ** buildman -b <branch> powerpc
1119  - build all PowerPC boards manufactured by vendor "esd":
1120      MAKEALL -a powerpc -v esd
1121          ** buildman -b <branch> esd
1122  - build all PowerPC boards manufactured either by "keymile" or "siemens":
1123      MAKEALL -a powerpc -v keymile -v siemens
1124          ** buildman -b <branch> keymile siemens
1125  - build all Freescale boards with MPC83xx CPUs, plus all 4xx boards:
1126      MAKEALL -c mpc83xx -v freescale 4xx
1127          ** buildman -b <branch> mpc83xx freescale 4xx
1128
1129Buildman automatically tries to use all the CPUs in your machine. If you
1130are building a lot of boards it will use one thread for every CPU core
1131it detects in your machine. This is like MAKEALL's BUILD_NBUILDS option.
1132You can use the -T flag to change the number of threads. If you are only
1133building a few boards, buildman will automatically run make with the -j
1134flag to increase the number of concurrent make tasks. It isn't normally
1135that helpful to fiddle with this option, but if you use the BUILD_NCPUS
1136option in MAKEALL then -j is the equivalent in buildman.
1137
1138Buildman puts its output in ../<branch_name> by default but you can change
1139this with the -o option. Buildman normally does out-of-tree builds: use -i
1140to disable that if you really want to. But be careful that once you have
1141used -i you pollute buildman's copies of the source tree, and you will need
1142to remove the build directory (normally ../<branch_name>) to run buildman
1143in normal mode (without -i).
1144
1145Buildman doesn't keep the output result normally, but use the -k option to
1146do this.
1147
1148Please read 'Theory of Operation' a few times as it will make a lot of
1149things clearer.
1150
1151Some options you might like are:
1152
1153   -B shows which functions are growing/shrinking in which commit - great
1154        for finding code bloat.
1155   -S shows image sizes for each commit (just an overall summary)
1156   -u shows boards that you haven't built yet
1157   --step 0 will build just the upstream commit and the last commit of your
1158        branch. This is often a quick sanity check that your branch doesn't
1159        break anything. But note this does not check bisectability!
1160
1161
1162TODO
1163====
1164
1165This has mostly be written in my spare time as a response to my difficulties
1166in testing large series of patches. Apart from tidying up there is quite a
1167bit of scope for improvement. Things like better error diffs and easier
1168access to log files. Also it would be nice if buildman could 'hunt' for
1169problems, perhaps by building a few boards for each arch, or checking
1170commits for changed files and building only boards which use those files.
1171
1172A specific problem to fix is that Ctrl-C does not exit buildman cleanly when
1173multiple builder threads are active.
1174
1175Credits
1176=======
1177
1178Thanks to Grant Grundler <grundler@chromium.org> for his ideas for improving
1179the build speed by building all commits for a board instead of the other
1180way around.
1181
1182
1183Simon Glass
1184sjg@chromium.org
1185Halloween 2012
1186Updated 12-12-12
1187Updated 23-02-13
1188