The Nest Labs Build - GNU Autotools (nlbuild-autotools) provides a customized, turnkey build system framework, based on GNU autotools, for standalone Nest Labs software packages that need to support not only building on and targeting against standalone build host systems but also embedded target systems using GCC-based or -compatible toolchains.
This project is typically subtreed into a target project repository and serves as the seed for that project's build system.
Assuming that you already have a project repository established in git, perform the following in your project repository:
> 1. % git remote add nlbuild-autotools ssh://<PATH_TO_REPOSITORY>/nlbuild-autotools.git > 2. % git fetch nlbuild-autotools
You can place the nlbuild-autotools package anywhere in your project; however, by convention, “third_party/nlbuild-autotools/repo” is recommended:
> 3. % mkdir third_party > 4. % git subtree add --prefix=third_party/nlbuild-autotools/repo --squash --message="Add subtree mirror of repository 'ssh://<PATH_TO_REPOSITORY>/nlbuild-autotools.git' branch 'master' at commit 'HEAD'." nlbuild-autotools HEAD
At this point, you now have the nlbuild-autotools package integrated into your project. The next step is using the nlbuild-autotools-provided examples as templates. To do this, a convenience script has been provided that will get you started. You can tune and customize the results, as needed, for your project. From the top level of your project tree:
> 5. % third_party/nlbuild-autotools/repo/scripts/mkskeleton -I third_party/nlbuild-autotools/repo --package-description "My Fantastic Package" --package-name "mfp"
The nlbuild-autotools system supports the following POSIX-based build host systems:
Support for these systems includes a set of pre-built, qualified versions of GNU autotools along with integration and automation scripts to run them.
If support is required for a new POSIX-compatible build host system, use the ‘build’ script in ‘tools/packages’ to unarchive, build, and install the tools for your system.
Please see the FAQ section for more background on why this package provides these pre-built tools.
The nlbuild-autotools package is laid out as follows:
| Directory | Description |
|---|---|
| autoconf/ | GNU autoconf infrastructure provided by nlbuild-autotools. |
| autoconf/m4/ | GNU m4 macros for configure.ac provided by nlbuild-autotools. |
| automake/ | GNU automake Makefile.am header and footer infrastructure provided by nlbuild-autotools. |
| automake/post/ | GNU automake Makefile.am footers. |
| automake/post.am | GNU automake Makefile.am footer included by every makefile. |
| automake/pre/ | GNU automake Makefile.am headers. |
| automake/pre.am | GNU automake Makefile.am header included by every makefile. |
| examples/ | Example template files for starting your own nlbuild-autotools-based project. |
| scripts/ | Automation scripts for regenerating the build system and for managing package versions. |
| tools/ | Qualified packages of and pre-built instances of GNU autotools. |
| tools/host/ | Pre-built instances of GNU autotools. |
| tools/host/i686-pc-cygwin/ | Pre-built instances of GNU autotools for 32-bit Cygwin. |
| tools/host/i686-pc-linux-gnu/ | Pre-built instances of GNU autotools for 32-bit Linux. |
| tools/host/x86_64-apple-darwin/ | Pre-built instances of GNU autotools for 64-bit Mac OS X. |
| tools/host/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/ | Pre-built instances of GNU autotools for 64-bit Linux. |
| tools/packages/ | Qualified packages for GNU autotools. |
Q: Why does nlbuild-autotools have its own built versions of GNU autotools rather than leveraging whatever versions exist on the build host system?
A: Some build host systems such as Mac OS X may not have GNU autotools at all. Other build host systems, such as Linux, may have different distributions or different versions of those distributions in which the versions of GNU autotools are apt to be different.
This differences lead to different primary and secondary autotools output and, as a consequence, a divergent user and support experience. To avoid this, this package provides a pre-built, qualified set of GNU autotools along with a comprehensive, standalone set of scripts to drive them without reliance on those versions of the tools on the build host system.