xref: /rk3399_rockchip-uboot/tools/buildman/README (revision 8ea42101d2e97bb3c357baaf815ea575eb5464c1)
1# Copyright (c) 2013 The Chromium OS Authors.
2#
3# SPDX-License-Identifier:	GPL-2.0+
4#
5
6(Please read 'How to change from MAKEALL' if you are used to that tool)
7
8What is this?
9=============
10
11This tool handles building U-Boot to check that you have not broken it
12with your patch series. It can build each individual commit and report
13which boards fail on which commits, and which errors come up. It aims
14to make full use of multi-processor machines.
15
16A key feature of buildman is its output summary, which allows warnings,
17errors or image size increases in a particular commit or board to be
18quickly identified and the offending commit pinpointed. This can be a big
19help for anyone working with >10 patches at a time.
20
21
22Caveats
23=======
24
25Buildman can be stopped and restarted, in which case it will continue
26where it left off. This should happen cleanly and without side-effects.
27If not, it is a bug, for which a patch would be welcome.
28
29Buildman gets so tied up in its work that it can ignore the outside world.
30You may need to press Ctrl-C several times to quit it. Also it will print
31out various exceptions when stopped. You may have to kill it since the
32Ctrl-C handling is somewhat broken.
33
34
35Theory of Operation
36===================
37
38(please read this section in full twice or you will be perpetually confused)
39
40Buildman is a builder. It is not make, although it runs make. It does not
41produce any useful output on the terminal while building, except for
42progress information (except with -v, see below). All the output (errors,
43warnings and binaries if you ask for them) is stored in output
44directories, which you can look at while the build is progressing, or when
45it is finished.
46
47Buildman is designed to build entire git branches, i.e. muliple commits. It
48can be run repeatedly on the same branch. In this case it will automatically
49rebuild commits which have changed (and remove its old results for that
50commit). It is possible to build a branch for one board, then later build it
51for another board. If you want buildman to re-build a commit it has already
52built (e.g. because of a toolchain update), use the -f flag.
53
54Buildman produces a concise summary of which boards succeeded and failed.
55It shows which commit introduced which board failure using a simple
56red/green colour coding. Full error information can be requested, in which
57case it is de-duped and displayed against the commit that introduced the
58error. An example workflow is below.
59
60Buildman stores image size information and can report changes in image size
61from commit to commit. An example of this is below.
62
63Buildman starts multiple threads, and each thread builds for one board at
64a time. A thread starts at the first commit, configures the source for your
65board and builds it. Then it checks out the next commit and does an
66incremental build. Eventually the thread reaches the last commit and stops.
67If errors or warnings are found along the way, the thread will reconfigure
68after every commit, and your build will be very slow. This is because a
69file that produces just a warning would not normally be rebuilt in an
70incremental build.
71
72Buildman works in an entirely separate place from your U-Boot repository.
73It creates a separate working directory for each thread, and puts the
74output files in the working directory, organised by commit name and board
75name, in a two-level hierarchy.
76
77Buildman is invoked in your U-Boot directory, the one with the .git
78directory. It clones this repository into a copy for each thread, and the
79threads do not affect the state of your git repository. Any checkouts done
80by the thread affect only the working directory for that thread.
81
82Buildman automatically selects the correct tool chain for each board. You
83must supply suitable tool chains, but buildman takes care of selecting the
84right one.
85
86Buildman generally builds a branch (with the -b flag), and in this case
87builds the upstream commit as well, for comparison. It cannot build
88individual commits at present, unless (maybe) you point it at an empty
89branch. Put all your commits in a branch, set the branch's upstream to a
90valid value, and all will be well. Otherwise buildman will perform random
91actions. Use -n to check what the random actions might be.
92
93If you just want to build the current source tree, leave off the -b flag
94and add -e. This will display results and errors as they happen. You can
95still look at them later using -se. Note that buildman will assume that the
96source has changed, and will build all specified boards in this case.
97
98Buildman is optimised for building many commits at once, for many boards.
99On multi-core machines, Buildman is fast because it uses most of the
100available CPU power. When it gets to the end, or if you are building just
101a few commits or boards, it will be pretty slow. As a tip, if you don't
102plan to use your machine for anything else, you can use -T to increase the
103number of threads beyond the default.
104
105Buildman lets you build all boards, or a subset. Specify the subset by passing
106command-line arguments that list the desired board name, architecture name,
107SOC name, or anything else in the boards.cfg file. Multiple arguments are
108allowed. Each argument will be interpreted as a regular expression, so
109behaviour is a superset of exact or substring matching. Examples are:
110
111* 'tegra20'      All boards with a Tegra20 SoC
112* 'tegra'        All boards with any Tegra Soc (Tegra20, Tegra30, Tegra114...)
113* '^tegra[23]0$' All boards with either Tegra20 or Tegra30 SoC
114* 'powerpc'      All PowerPC boards
115
116While the default is to OR the terms together, you can also make use of
117the '&' operator to limit the selection:
118
119* 'freescale & arm sandbox'  All Freescale boards with ARM architecture,
120                             plus sandbox
121
122You can also use -x to specifically exclude some boards. For example:
123
124 buildmand arm -x nvidia,freescale,.*ball$
125
126means to build all arm boards except nvidia, freescale and anything ending
127with 'ball'.
128
129It is convenient to use the -n option to see what will be built based on
130the subset given.
131
132Buildman does not store intermediate object files. It optionally copies
133the binary output into a directory when a build is successful. Size
134information is always recorded. It needs a fair bit of disk space to work,
135typically 250MB per thread.
136
137
138Setting up
139==========
140
1411. Get the U-Boot source. You probably already have it, but if not these
142steps should get you started with a repo and some commits for testing.
143
144$ cd /path/to/u-boot
145$ git clone git://git.denx.de/u-boot.git .
146$ git checkout -b my-branch origin/master
147$ # Add some commits to the branch, reading for testing
148
1492. Create ~/.buildman to tell buildman where to find tool chains (see 'The
150.buildman file' later for details). As an example:
151
152# Buildman settings file
153
154[toolchain]
155root: /
156rest: /toolchains/*
157eldk: /opt/eldk-4.2
158arm: /opt/linaro/gcc-linaro-arm-linux-gnueabihf-4.8-2013.08_linux
159aarch64: /opt/linaro/gcc-linaro-aarch64-none-elf-4.8-2013.10_linux
160
161[toolchain-alias]
162x86: i386
163blackfin: bfin
164nds32: nds32le
165openrisc: or1k
166
167
168This selects the available toolchain paths. Add the base directory for
169each of your toolchains here. Buildman will search inside these directories
170and also in any '/usr' and '/usr/bin' subdirectories.
171
172Make sure the tags (here root: rest: and eldk:) are unique.
173
174The toolchain-alias section indicates that the i386 toolchain should be used
175to build x86 commits.
176
177Note that you can also specific exactly toolchain prefixes if you like:
178
179[toolchain-prefix]
180arm: /opt/arm-eabi-4.6/bin/arm-eabi-
181
182or even:
183
184[toolchain-prefix]
185arm: /opt/arm-eabi-4.6/bin/arm-eabi-gcc
186
187This tells buildman that you want to use this exact toolchain for the arm
188architecture. This will override any toolchains found by searching using the
189[toolchain] settings.
190
191Since the toolchain prefix is an explicit request, buildman will report an
192error if a toolchain is not found with that prefix. The current PATH will be
193searched, so it is possible to use:
194
195[toolchain-prefix]
196arm: arm-none-eabi-
197
198and buildman will find arm-none-eabi-gcc in /usr/bin if you have it installed.
199
2003. Make sure you have the require Python pre-requisites
201
202Buildman uses multiprocessing, Queue, shutil, StringIO, ConfigParser and
203urllib2. These should normally be available, but if you get an error like
204this then you will need to obtain those modules:
205
206    ImportError: No module named multiprocessing
207
208
2094. Check the available toolchains
210
211Run this check to make sure that you have a toolchain for every architecture.
212
213$ ./tools/buildman/buildman --list-tool-chains
214Scanning for tool chains
215   - scanning prefix '/opt/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/x86_64-linux/bin/x86_64-linux-'
216Tool chain test:  OK, arch='x86', priority 1
217   - scanning prefix '/opt/arm-eabi-4.6/bin/arm-eabi-'
218Tool chain test:  OK, arch='arm', priority 1
219   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/i386-linux'
220      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/i386-linux/.'
221      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/i386-linux/bin'
222         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/i386-linux/bin/i386-linux-gcc'
223      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/i386-linux/usr/bin'
224Tool chain test:  OK, arch='i386', priority 4
225   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/aarch64-linux'
226      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/aarch64-linux/.'
227      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/aarch64-linux/bin'
228         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/aarch64-linux/bin/aarch64-linux-gcc'
229      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/aarch64-linux/usr/bin'
230Tool chain test:  OK, arch='aarch64', priority 4
231   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/microblaze-linux'
232      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/microblaze-linux/.'
233      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/microblaze-linux/bin'
234         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/microblaze-linux/bin/microblaze-linux-gcc'
235      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/microblaze-linux/usr/bin'
236Tool chain test:  OK, arch='microblaze', priority 4
237   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips64-linux'
238      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips64-linux/.'
239      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips64-linux/bin'
240         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips64-linux/bin/mips64-linux-gcc'
241      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips64-linux/usr/bin'
242Tool chain test:  OK, arch='mips64', priority 4
243   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc64-linux'
244      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc64-linux/.'
245      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc64-linux/bin'
246         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc64-linux/bin/sparc64-linux-gcc'
247      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc64-linux/usr/bin'
248Tool chain test:  OK, arch='sparc64', priority 4
249   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi'
250      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi/.'
251      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi/bin'
252         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi/bin/arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi-gcc'
253      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi/usr/bin'
254Tool chain test:  OK, arch='arm', priority 3
255Toolchain '/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
256   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc-linux'
257      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc-linux/.'
258      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc-linux/bin'
259         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc-linux/bin/sparc-linux-gcc'
260      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc-linux/usr/bin'
261Tool chain test:  OK, arch='sparc', priority 4
262   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips-linux'
263      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips-linux/.'
264      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips-linux/bin'
265         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips-linux/bin/mips-linux-gcc'
266      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips-linux/usr/bin'
267Tool chain test:  OK, arch='mips', priority 4
268   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/x86_64-linux'
269      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/x86_64-linux/.'
270      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/x86_64-linux/bin'
271         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/x86_64-linux/bin/x86_64-linux-gcc'
272         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/x86_64-linux/bin/x86_64-linux-x86_64-linux-gcc'
273      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/x86_64-linux/usr/bin'
274Tool chain test:  OK, arch='x86_64', priority 4
275Tool chain test:  OK, arch='x86_64', priority 4
276Toolchain '/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
277   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/m68k-linux'
278      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/m68k-linux/.'
279      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/m68k-linux/bin'
280         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/m68k-linux/bin/m68k-linux-gcc'
281      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/m68k-linux/usr/bin'
282Tool chain test:  OK, arch='m68k', priority 4
283   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/powerpc-linux'
284      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/powerpc-linux/.'
285      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/powerpc-linux/bin'
286         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/powerpc-linux/bin/powerpc-linux-gcc'
287      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/powerpc-linux/usr/bin'
288Tool chain test:  OK, arch='powerpc', priority 4
289   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/bfin-uclinux'
290      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/bfin-uclinux/.'
291      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/bfin-uclinux/bin'
292         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/bfin-uclinux/bin/bfin-uclinux-gcc'
293      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/bfin-uclinux/usr/bin'
294Tool chain test:  OK, arch='bfin', priority 6
295   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/sparc-linux'
296      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/sparc-linux/.'
297      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/sparc-linux/bin'
298         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/sparc-linux/bin/sparc-linux-gcc'
299      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/sparc-linux/usr/bin'
300Tool chain test:  OK, arch='sparc', priority 4
301Toolchain '/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
302   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/mips-linux'
303      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/mips-linux/.'
304      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/mips-linux/bin'
305         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/mips-linux/bin/mips-linux-gcc'
306      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/mips-linux/usr/bin'
307Tool chain test:  OK, arch='mips', priority 4
308Toolchain '/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
309   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/m68k-linux'
310      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/m68k-linux/.'
311      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/m68k-linux/bin'
312         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/m68k-linux/bin/m68k-linux-gcc'
313      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/m68k-linux/usr/bin'
314Tool chain test:  OK, arch='m68k', priority 4
315Toolchain '/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
316   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/powerpc-linux'
317      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/powerpc-linux/.'
318      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/powerpc-linux/bin'
319         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/powerpc-linux/bin/powerpc-linux-gcc'
320      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/powerpc-linux/usr/bin'
321Tool chain test:  OK, arch='powerpc', priority 4
322Tool chain test:  OK, arch='or32', priority 4
323   - scanning path '/toolchains/gcc-4.2.4-nolibc/avr32-linux'
324      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.2.4-nolibc/avr32-linux/.'
325      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.2.4-nolibc/avr32-linux/bin'
326         - found '/toolchains/gcc-4.2.4-nolibc/avr32-linux/bin/avr32-linux-gcc'
327      - looking in '/toolchains/gcc-4.2.4-nolibc/avr32-linux/usr/bin'
328Tool chain test:  OK, arch='avr32', priority 4
329   - scanning path '/'
330      - looking in '/.'
331      - looking in '/bin'
332      - looking in '/usr/bin'
333         - found '/usr/bin/i586-mingw32msvc-gcc'
334         - found '/usr/bin/c89-gcc'
335         - found '/usr/bin/x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc'
336         - found '/usr/bin/gcc'
337         - found '/usr/bin/c99-gcc'
338         - found '/usr/bin/arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc'
339         - found '/usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc'
340         - found '/usr/bin/winegcc'
341         - found '/usr/bin/arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc'
342Tool chain test:  OK, arch='i586', priority 11
343Tool chain test:  OK, arch='c89', priority 11
344Tool chain test:  OK, arch='x86_64', priority 4
345Toolchain '/usr/bin/x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc' at priority 4 will be ignored because another toolchain for arch 'x86_64' has priority 4
346Tool chain test:  OK, arch='sandbox', priority 11
347Tool chain test:  OK, arch='c99', priority 11
348Tool chain test:  OK, arch='arm', priority 4
349Toolchain '/usr/bin/arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc' at priority 4 will be ignored because another toolchain for arch 'arm' has priority 1
350Tool chain test:  OK, arch='aarch64', priority 4
351Toolchain '/usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc' at priority 4 will be ignored because another toolchain for arch 'aarch64' has priority 4
352Tool chain test:  OK, arch='sandbox', priority 11
353Toolchain '/usr/bin/winegcc' at priority 11 will be ignored because another toolchain for arch 'sandbox' has priority 11
354Tool chain test:  OK, arch='arm', priority 4
355Toolchain '/usr/bin/arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc' at priority 4 will be ignored because another toolchain for arch 'arm' has priority 1
356List of available toolchains (34):
357aarch64   : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/aarch64-linux/bin/aarch64-linux-gcc
358alpha     : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/alpha-linux/bin/alpha-linux-gcc
359am33_2.0  : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/am33_2.0-linux/bin/am33_2.0-linux-gcc
360arm       : /opt/arm-eabi-4.6/bin/arm-eabi-gcc
361avr32     : /toolchains/gcc-4.2.4-nolibc/avr32-linux/bin/avr32-linux-gcc
362bfin      : /toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/bfin-uclinux/bin/bfin-uclinux-gcc
363c89       : /usr/bin/c89-gcc
364c99       : /usr/bin/c99-gcc
365frv       : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/frv-linux/bin/frv-linux-gcc
366h8300     : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/h8300-elf/bin/h8300-elf-gcc
367hppa      : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/hppa-linux/bin/hppa-linux-gcc
368hppa64    : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/hppa64-linux/bin/hppa64-linux-gcc
369i386      : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/i386-linux/bin/i386-linux-gcc
370i586      : /usr/bin/i586-mingw32msvc-gcc
371ia64      : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/ia64-linux/bin/ia64-linux-gcc
372m32r      : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/m32r-linux/bin/m32r-linux-gcc
373m68k      : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/m68k-linux/bin/m68k-linux-gcc
374microblaze: /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/microblaze-linux/bin/microblaze-linux-gcc
375mips      : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips-linux/bin/mips-linux-gcc
376mips64    : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/mips64-linux/bin/mips64-linux-gcc
377or32      : /toolchains/gcc-4.5.1-nolibc/or32-linux/bin/or32-linux-gcc
378powerpc   : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/powerpc-linux/bin/powerpc-linux-gcc
379powerpc64 : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/powerpc64-linux/bin/powerpc64-linux-gcc
380ppc64le   : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/ppc64le-linux/bin/ppc64le-linux-gcc
381s390x     : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/s390x-linux/bin/s390x-linux-gcc
382sandbox   : /usr/bin/gcc
383sh4       : /toolchains/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/sh4-linux/bin/sh4-linux-gcc
384sparc     : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc-linux/bin/sparc-linux-gcc
385sparc64   : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/sparc64-linux/bin/sparc64-linux-gcc
386tilegx    : /toolchains/gcc-4.6.2-nolibc/tilegx-linux/bin/tilegx-linux-gcc
387x86       : /opt/gcc-4.6.3-nolibc/x86_64-linux/bin/x86_64-linux-gcc
388x86_64    : /toolchains/gcc-4.9.0-nolibc/x86_64-linux/bin/x86_64-linux-gcc
389
390
391You can see that everything is covered, even some strange ones that won't
392be used (c88 and c99). This is a feature.
393
394
3955. Install new toolchains if needed
396
397You can download toolchains and update the [toolchain] section of the
398settings file to find them.
399
400To make this easier, buildman can automatically download and install
401toolchains from kernel.org. First list the available architectures:
402
403$ ./tools/buildman/buildman --fetch-arch list
404Checking: https://www.kernel.org/pub/tools/crosstool/files/bin/x86_64/4.6.3/
405Checking: https://www.kernel.org/pub/tools/crosstool/files/bin/x86_64/4.6.2/
406Checking: https://www.kernel.org/pub/tools/crosstool/files/bin/x86_64/4.5.1/
407Checking: https://www.kernel.org/pub/tools/crosstool/files/bin/x86_64/4.2.4/
408Available architectures: alpha am33_2.0 arm avr32 bfin cris crisv32 frv h8300
409hppa hppa64 i386 ia64 m32r m68k mips mips64 or32 powerpc powerpc64 s390x sh4
410sparc sparc64 tilegx x86_64 xtensa
411
412Then pick one and download it:
413
414$ ./tools/buildman/buildman --fetch-arch or32
415Checking: https://www.kernel.org/pub/tools/crosstool/files/bin/x86_64/4.6.3/
416Checking: https://www.kernel.org/pub/tools/crosstool/files/bin/x86_64/4.6.2/
417Checking: https://www.kernel.org/pub/tools/crosstool/files/bin/x86_64/4.5.1/
418Downloading: 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
419Unpacking to: /home/sjg/.buildman-toolchains
420Testing
421      - looking in '/home/sjg/.buildman-toolchains/gcc-4.5.1-nolibc/or32-linux/.'
422      - looking in '/home/sjg/.buildman-toolchains/gcc-4.5.1-nolibc/or32-linux/bin'
423         - found '/home/sjg/.buildman-toolchains/gcc-4.5.1-nolibc/or32-linux/bin/or32-linux-gcc'
424Tool chain test:  OK
425
426Or download them all from kernel.org and move them to /toolchains directory,
427
428$ ./tools/buildman/buildman --fetch-arch all
429$ sudo mkdir -p /toolchains
430$ sudo mv ~/.buildman-toolchains/*/* /toolchains/
431
432For those not available from kernel.org, download from the following links.
433
434arc: https://github.com/foss-for-synopsys-dwc-arc-processors/toolchain/releases/
435    arc_gnu_2015.06_prebuilt_uclibc_le_archs_linux_install.tar.gz
436blackfin: http://sourceforge.net/projects/adi-toolchain/files/
437    blackfin-toolchain-elf-gcc-4.5-2014R1_45-RC2.x86_64.tar.bz2
438nds32: http://osdk.andestech.com/packages/
439    nds32le-linux-glibc-v1.tgz
440nios2: http://sourcery.mentor.com/public/gnu_toolchain/nios2-linux-gnu/
441    sourceryg++-2015.11-27-nios2-linux-gnu-i686-pc-linux-gnu.tar.bz2
442sh: http://sourcery.mentor.com/public/gnu_toolchain/sh-linux-gnu/
443    renesas-4.4-200-sh-linux-gnu-i686-pc-linux-gnu.tar.bz2
444
445Note openrisc kernel.org toolchain is out of date. Download the latest one from
446http://opencores.org/or1k/OpenRISC_GNU_tool_chain#Prebuilt_versions - eg:
447ftp://ocuser:ocuser@openrisc.opencores.org/toolchain/gcc-or1k-elf-4.8.1-x86.tar.bz2.
448
449Buildman should now be set up to use your new toolchain.
450
451At the time of writing, U-Boot has these architectures:
452
453   arc, arm, avr32, blackfin, m68k, microblaze, mips, nds32, nios2, openrisc
454   powerpc, sandbox, sh, sparc, x86
455
456Of these, only arc and nds32 are not available at kernel.org..
457
458
459How to run it
460=============
461
462First do a dry run using the -n flag: (replace <branch> with a real, local
463branch with a valid upstream)
464
465$ ./tools/buildman/buildman -b <branch> -n
466
467If it can't detect the upstream branch, try checking out the branch, and
468doing something like 'git branch --set-upstream-to upstream/master'
469or something similar. Buildman will try to guess a suitable upstream branch
470if it can't find one (you will see a message like" Guessing upstream as ...).
471
472As an example:
473
474Dry run, so not doing much. But I would do this:
475
476Building 18 commits for 1059 boards (4 threads, 1 job per thread)
477Build directory: ../lcd9b
478    5bb3505 Merge branch 'master' of git://git.denx.de/u-boot-arm
479    c18f1b4 tegra: Use const for pinmux_config_pingroup/table()
480    2f043ae tegra: Add display support to funcmux
481    e349900 tegra: fdt: Add pwm binding and node
482    424a5f0 tegra: fdt: Add LCD definitions for Tegra
483    0636ccf tegra: Add support for PWM
484    a994fe7 tegra: Add SOC support for display/lcd
485    fcd7350 tegra: Add LCD driver
486    4d46e9d tegra: Add LCD support to Nvidia boards
487    991bd48 arm: Add control over cachability of memory regions
488    54e8019 lcd: Add CONFIG_LCD_ALIGNMENT to select frame buffer alignment
489    d92aff7 lcd: Add support for flushing LCD fb from dcache after update
490    dbd0677 tegra: Align LCD frame buffer to section boundary
491    0cff9b8 tegra: Support control of cache settings for LCD
492    9c56900 tegra: fdt: Add LCD definitions for Seaboard
493    5cc29db lcd: Add CONFIG_CONSOLE_SCROLL_LINES option to speed console
494    cac5a23 tegra: Enable display/lcd support on Seaboard
495    49ff541 wip
496
497Total boards to build for each commit: 1059
498
499This shows that it will build all 1059 boards, using 4 threads (because
500we have a 4-core CPU). Each thread will run with -j1, meaning that each
501make job will use a single CPU. The list of commits to be built helps you
502confirm that things look about right. Notice that buildman has chosen a
503'base' directory for you, immediately above your source tree.
504
505Buildman works entirely inside the base directory, here ../lcd9b,
506creating a working directory for each thread, and creating output
507directories for each commit and board.
508
509
510Suggested Workflow
511==================
512
513To run the build for real, take off the -n:
514
515$ ./tools/buildman/buildman -b <branch>
516
517Buildman will set up some working directories, and get started. After a
518minute or so it will settle down to a steady pace, with a display like this:
519
520Building 18 commits for 1059 boards (4 threads, 1 job per thread)
521  528   36  124 /19062  1:13:30  : SIMPC8313_SP
522
523This means that it is building 19062 board/commit combinations. So far it
524has managed to successfully build 528. Another 36 have built with warnings,
525and 124 more didn't build at all. Buildman expects to complete the process
526in around an hour and a quarter. Use this time to buy a faster computer.
527
528
529To find out how the build went, ask for a summary with -s. You can do this
530either before the build completes (presumably in another terminal) or
531afterwards. Let's work through an example of how this is used:
532
533$ ./tools/buildman/buildman -b lcd9b -s
534...
53501: Merge branch 'master' of git://git.denx.de/u-boot-arm
536   powerpc:   + galaxy5200_LOWBOOT
53702: tegra: Use const for pinmux_config_pingroup/table()
53803: tegra: Add display support to funcmux
53904: tegra: fdt: Add pwm binding and node
54005: tegra: fdt: Add LCD definitions for Tegra
54106: tegra: Add support for PWM
54207: tegra: Add SOC support for display/lcd
54308: tegra: Add LCD driver
54409: tegra: Add LCD support to Nvidia boards
54510: arm: Add control over cachability of memory regions
54611: lcd: Add CONFIG_LCD_ALIGNMENT to select frame buffer alignment
54712: lcd: Add support for flushing LCD fb from dcache after update
548       arm:   + lubbock
54913: tegra: Align LCD frame buffer to section boundary
55014: tegra: Support control of cache settings for LCD
55115: tegra: fdt: Add LCD definitions for Seaboard
55216: lcd: Add CONFIG_CONSOLE_SCROLL_LINES option to speed console
55317: tegra: Enable display/lcd support on Seaboard
55418: wip
555
556This shows which commits have succeeded and which have failed. In this case
557the build is still in progress so many boards are not built yet (use -u to
558see which ones). But still we can see a few failures. The galaxy5200_LOWBOOT
559never builds correctly. This could be a problem with our toolchain, or it
560could be a bug in the upstream. The good news is that we probably don't need
561to blame our commits. The bad news is that our commits are not tested on that
562board.
563
564Commit 12 broke lubbock. That's what the '+ lubbock' means. The failure
565is never fixed by a later commit, or you would see lubbock again, in green,
566without the +.
567
568To see the actual error:
569
570$ ./tools/buildman/buildman -b <branch> -se lubbock
571...
57212: lcd: Add support for flushing LCD fb from dcache after update
573       arm:   + lubbock
574+common/libcommon.o: In function `lcd_sync':
575+/u-boot/lcd9b/.bm-work/00/common/lcd.c:120: undefined reference to `flush_dcache_range'
576+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
577+make: *** [/u-boot/lcd9b/.bm-work/00/build/u-boot] Error 139
57813: tegra: Align LCD frame buffer to section boundary
57914: tegra: Support control of cache settings for LCD
58015: tegra: fdt: Add LCD definitions for Seaboard
58116: lcd: Add CONFIG_CONSOLE_SCROLL_LINES option to speed console
582-/u-boot/lcd9b/.bm-work/00/common/lcd.c:120: undefined reference to `flush_dcache_range'
583+/u-boot/lcd9b/.bm-work/00/common/lcd.c:125: undefined reference to `flush_dcache_range'
58417: tegra: Enable display/lcd support on Seaboard
58518: wip
586
587So the problem is in lcd.c, due to missing cache operations. This information
588should be enough to work out what that commit is doing to break these
589boards. (In this case pxa did not have cache operations defined).
590
591If you see error lines marked with '-', that means that the errors were fixed
592by that commit. Sometimes commits can be in the wrong order, so that a
593breakage is introduced for a few commits and fixed by later commits. This
594shows up clearly with buildman. You can then reorder the commits and try
595again.
596
597At commit 16, the error moves: you can see that the old error at line 120
598is fixed, but there is a new one at line 126. This is probably only because
599we added some code and moved the broken line further down the file.
600
601If many boards have the same error, then -e will display the error only
602once. This makes the output as concise as possible. To see which boards have
603each error, use -l. So it is safe to omit the board name - you will not get
604lots of repeated output for every board.
605
606Buildman tries to distinguish warnings from errors, and shows warning lines
607separately with a 'w' prefix.
608
609The full build output in this case is available in:
610
611../lcd9b/12_of_18_gd92aff7_lcd--Add-support-for/lubbock/
612
613   done: Indicates the build was done, and holds the return code from make.
614         This is 0 for a good build, typically 2 for a failure.
615
616   err:  Output from stderr, if any. Errors and warnings appear here.
617
618   log:  Output from stdout. Normally there isn't any since buildman runs
619         in silent mode. Use -V to force a verbose build (this passes V=1
620         to 'make')
621
622   toolchain: Shows information about the toolchain used for the build.
623
624   sizes: Shows image size information.
625
626It is possible to get the build binary output there also. Use the -k option
627for this. In that case you will also see some output files, like:
628
629   System.map  toolchain  u-boot  u-boot.bin  u-boot.map  autoconf.mk
630   (also SPL versions u-boot-spl and u-boot-spl.bin if available)
631
632
633Checking Image Sizes
634====================
635
636A key requirement for U-Boot is that you keep code/data size to a minimum.
637Where a new feature increases this noticeably it should normally be put
638behind a CONFIG flag so that boards can leave it disabled and keep the image
639size more or less the same with each new release.
640
641To check the impact of your commits on image size, use -S. For example:
642
643$ ./tools/buildman/buildman -b us-x86 -sS
644Summary of 10 commits for 1066 boards (4 threads, 1 job per thread)
64501: MAKEALL: add support for per architecture toolchains
64602: x86: Add function to get top of usable ram
647       x86: (for 1/3 boards)  text -272.0  rodata +41.0
64803: x86: Add basic cache operations
64904: x86: Permit bootstage and timer data to be used prior to relocation
650       x86: (for 1/3 boards)  data +16.0
65105: x86: Add an __end symbol to signal the end of the U-Boot binary
652       x86: (for 1/3 boards)  text +76.0
65306: x86: Rearrange the output input to remove BSS
654       x86: (for 1/3 boards)  bss -2140.0
65507: x86: Support relocation of FDT on start-up
656       x86: +   coreboot-x86
65708: x86: Add error checking to x86 relocation code
65809: x86: Adjust link device tree include file
65910: x86: Enable CONFIG_OF_CONTROL on coreboot
660
661
662You can see that image size only changed on x86, which is good because this
663series is not supposed to change any other board. From commit 7 onwards the
664build fails so we don't get code size numbers. The numbers are fractional
665because they are an average of all boards for that architecture. The
666intention is to allow you to quickly find image size problems introduced by
667your commits.
668
669Note that the 'text' region and 'rodata' are split out. You should add the
670two together to get the total read-only size (reported as the first column
671in the output from binutil's 'size' utility).
672
673A useful option is --step which lets you skip some commits. For example
674--step 2 will show the image sizes for only every 2nd commit (so it will
675compare the image sizes of the 1st, 3rd, 5th... commits). You can also use
676--step 0 which will compare only the first and last commits. This is useful
677for an overview of how your entire series affects code size. It will build
678only the upstream commit and your final branch commit.
679
680You can also use -d to see a detailed size breakdown for each board. This
681list is sorted in order from largest growth to largest reduction.
682
683It is even possible to go a little further with the -B option (--bloat). This
684shows where U-Boot has bloated, breaking the size change down to the function
685level. Example output is below:
686
687$ ./tools/buildman/buildman -b us-mem4 -sSdB
688...
68919: Roll crc32 into hash infrastructure
690       arm: (for 10/10 boards)  all -143.4  bss +1.2  data -4.8  rodata -48.2 text -91.6
691            paz00          :  all +23  bss -4  rodata -29  text +56
692               u-boot: add: 1/0, grow: 3/-2 bytes: 168/-104 (64)
693                 function                                   old     new   delta
694                 hash_command                                80     160     +80
695                 crc32_wd_buf                                 -      56     +56
696                 ext4fs_read_file                           540     568     +28
697                 insert_var_value_sub                       688     692      +4
698                 run_list_real                             1996    1992      -4
699                 do_mem_crc                                 168      68    -100
700            trimslice      :  all -9  bss +16  rodata -29  text +4
701               u-boot: add: 1/0, grow: 1/-3 bytes: 136/-124 (12)
702                 function                                   old     new   delta
703                 hash_command                                80     160     +80
704                 crc32_wd_buf                                 -      56     +56
705                 ext4fs_iterate_dir                         672     668      -4
706                 ext4fs_read_file                           568     548     -20
707                 do_mem_crc                                 168      68    -100
708            whistler       :  all -9  bss +16  rodata -29  text +4
709               u-boot: add: 1/0, grow: 1/-3 bytes: 136/-124 (12)
710                 function                                   old     new   delta
711                 hash_command                                80     160     +80
712                 crc32_wd_buf                                 -      56     +56
713                 ext4fs_iterate_dir                         672     668      -4
714                 ext4fs_read_file                           568     548     -20
715                 do_mem_crc                                 168      68    -100
716            seaboard       :  all -9  bss -28  rodata -29  text +48
717               u-boot: add: 1/0, grow: 3/-2 bytes: 160/-104 (56)
718                 function                                   old     new   delta
719                 hash_command                                80     160     +80
720                 crc32_wd_buf                                 -      56     +56
721                 ext4fs_read_file                           548     568     +20
722                 run_list_real                             1996    2000      +4
723                 do_nandboot                                760     756      -4
724                 do_mem_crc                                 168      68    -100
725            colibri_t20    :  all -9  rodata -29  text +20
726               u-boot: add: 1/0, grow: 2/-3 bytes: 140/-112 (28)
727                 function                                   old     new   delta
728                 hash_command                                80     160     +80
729                 crc32_wd_buf                                 -      56     +56
730                 read_abs_bbt                               204     208      +4
731                 do_nandboot                                760     756      -4
732                 ext4fs_read_file                           576     568      -8
733                 do_mem_crc                                 168      68    -100
734            ventana        :  all -37  bss -12  rodata -29  text +4
735               u-boot: add: 1/0, grow: 1/-3 bytes: 136/-124 (12)
736                 function                                   old     new   delta
737                 hash_command                                80     160     +80
738                 crc32_wd_buf                                 -      56     +56
739                 ext4fs_iterate_dir                         672     668      -4
740                 ext4fs_read_file                           568     548     -20
741                 do_mem_crc                                 168      68    -100
742            harmony        :  all -37  bss -16  rodata -29  text +8
743               u-boot: add: 1/0, grow: 2/-3 bytes: 140/-124 (16)
744                 function                                   old     new   delta
745                 hash_command                                80     160     +80
746                 crc32_wd_buf                                 -      56     +56
747                 nand_write_oob_syndrome                    428     432      +4
748                 ext4fs_iterate_dir                         672     668      -4
749                 ext4fs_read_file                           568     548     -20
750                 do_mem_crc                                 168      68    -100
751            medcom-wide    :  all -417  bss +28  data -16  rodata -93  text -336
752               u-boot: add: 1/-1, grow: 1/-2 bytes: 88/-376 (-288)
753                 function                                   old     new   delta
754                 crc32_wd_buf                                 -      56     +56
755                 do_fat_read_at                            2872    2904     +32
756                 hash_algo                                   16       -     -16
757                 do_mem_crc                                 168      68    -100
758                 hash_command                               420     160    -260
759            tec            :  all -449  bss -4  data -16  rodata -93  text -336
760               u-boot: add: 1/-1, grow: 1/-2 bytes: 88/-376 (-288)
761                 function                                   old     new   delta
762                 crc32_wd_buf                                 -      56     +56
763                 do_fat_read_at                            2872    2904     +32
764                 hash_algo                                   16       -     -16
765                 do_mem_crc                                 168      68    -100
766                 hash_command                               420     160    -260
767            plutux         :  all -481  bss +16  data -16  rodata -93  text -388
768               u-boot: add: 1/-1, grow: 1/-3 bytes: 68/-408 (-340)
769                 function                                   old     new   delta
770                 crc32_wd_buf                                 -      56     +56
771                 do_load_serial_bin                        1688    1700     +12
772                 hash_algo                                   16       -     -16
773                 do_fat_read_at                            2904    2872     -32
774                 do_mem_crc                                 168      68    -100
775                 hash_command                               420     160    -260
776   powerpc: (for 5/5 boards)  all +37.4  data -3.2  rodata -41.8  text +82.4
777            MPC8610HPCD    :  all +55  rodata -29  text +84
778               u-boot: add: 1/0, grow: 0/-1 bytes: 176/-96 (80)
779                 function                                   old     new   delta
780                 hash_command                                 -     176    +176
781                 do_mem_crc                                 184      88     -96
782            MPC8641HPCN    :  all +55  rodata -29  text +84
783               u-boot: add: 1/0, grow: 0/-1 bytes: 176/-96 (80)
784                 function                                   old     new   delta
785                 hash_command                                 -     176    +176
786                 do_mem_crc                                 184      88     -96
787            MPC8641HPCN_36BIT:  all +55  rodata -29  text +84
788               u-boot: add: 1/0, grow: 0/-1 bytes: 176/-96 (80)
789                 function                                   old     new   delta
790                 hash_command                                 -     176    +176
791                 do_mem_crc                                 184      88     -96
792            sbc8641d       :  all +55  rodata -29  text +84
793               u-boot: add: 1/0, grow: 0/-1 bytes: 176/-96 (80)
794                 function                                   old     new   delta
795                 hash_command                                 -     176    +176
796                 do_mem_crc                                 184      88     -96
797            xpedite517x    :  all -33  data -16  rodata -93  text +76
798               u-boot: add: 1/-1, grow: 0/-1 bytes: 176/-112 (64)
799                 function                                   old     new   delta
800                 hash_command                                 -     176    +176
801                 hash_algo                                   16       -     -16
802                 do_mem_crc                                 184      88     -96
803...
804
805
806This shows that commit 19 has reduced codesize for arm slightly and increased
807it for powerpc. This increase was offset in by reductions in rodata and
808data/bss.
809
810Shown below the summary lines are the sizes for each board. Below each board
811are the sizes for each function. This information starts with:
812
813   add - number of functions added / removed
814   grow - number of functions which grew / shrunk
815   bytes - number of bytes of code added to / removed from all functions,
816            plus the total byte change in brackets
817
818The change seems to be that hash_command() has increased by more than the
819do_mem_crc() function has decreased. The function sizes typically add up to
820roughly the text area size, but note that every read-only section except
821rodata is included in 'text', so the function total does not exactly
822correspond.
823
824It is common when refactoring code for the rodata to decrease as the text size
825increases, and vice versa.
826
827
828The .buildman file
829==================
830
831The .buildman file provides information about the available toolchains and
832also allows build flags to be passed to 'make'. It consists of several
833sections, with the section name in square brackets. Within each section are
834a set of (tag, value) pairs.
835
836'[toolchain]' section
837
838    This lists the available toolchains. The tag here doesn't matter, but
839    make sure it is unique. The value is the path to the toolchain. Buildman
840    will look in that path for a file ending in 'gcc'. It will then execute
841    it to check that it is a C compiler, passing only the --version flag to
842    it. If the return code is 0, buildman assumes that it is a valid C
843    compiler. It uses the first part of the name as the architecture and
844    strips off the last part when setting the CROSS_COMPILE environment
845    variable (parts are delimited with a hyphen).
846
847    For example powerpc-linux-gcc will be noted as a toolchain for 'powerpc'
848    and CROSS_COMPILE will be set to powerpc-linux- when using it.
849
850'[toolchain-alias]' section
851
852    This converts toolchain architecture names to U-Boot names. For example,
853    if an x86 toolchains is called i386-linux-gcc it will not normally be
854    used for architecture 'x86'. Adding 'x86: i386 x86_64' to this section
855    will tell buildman that the i386 and x86_64 toolchains can be used for
856    the x86 architecture.
857
858'[make-flags]' section
859
860    U-Boot's build system supports a few flags (such as BUILD_TAG) which
861    affect the build product. These flags can be specified in the buildman
862    settings file. They can also be useful when building U-Boot against other
863    open source software.
864
865    [make-flags]
866    at91-boards=ENABLE_AT91_TEST=1
867    snapper9260=${at91-boards} BUILD_TAG=442
868    snapper9g45=${at91-boards} BUILD_TAG=443
869
870    This will use 'make ENABLE_AT91_TEST=1 BUILD_TAG=442' for snapper9260
871    and 'make ENABLE_AT91_TEST=1 BUILD_TAG=443' for snapper9g45. A special
872    variable ${target} is available to access the target name (snapper9260
873    and snapper9g20 in this case). Variables are resolved recursively. Note
874    that variables can only contain the characters A-Z, a-z, 0-9, hyphen (-)
875    and underscore (_).
876
877    It is expected that any variables added are dealt with in U-Boot's
878    config.mk file and documented in the README.
879
880    Note that you can pass ad-hoc options to the build using environment
881    variables, for example:
882
883       SOME_OPTION=1234 ./tools/buildman/buildman my_board
884
885
886Quick Sanity Check
887==================
888
889If you have made changes and want to do a quick sanity check of the
890currently checked-out source, run buildman without the -b flag. This will
891build the selected boards and display build status as it runs (i.e. -v is
892enabled automatically). Use -e to see errors/warnings as well.
893
894
895Building Ranges
896===============
897
898You can build a range of commits by specifying a range instead of a branch
899when using the -b flag. For example:
900
901    upstream/master..us-buildman
902
903will build commits in us-buildman that are not in upstream/master.
904
905
906Building Faster
907===============
908
909By default, buildman executes 'make mrproper' prior to building the first
910commit for each board. This causes everything to be built from scratch. If you
911trust the build system's incremental build capabilities, you can pass the -I
912flag to skip the 'make mproper' invocation, which will reduce the amount of
913work 'make' does, and hence speed up the build. This flag will speed up any
914buildman invocation, since it reduces the amount of work done on any build.
915
916One possible application of buildman is as part of a continual edit, build,
917edit, build, ... cycle; repeatedly applying buildman to the same change or
918series of changes while making small incremental modifications to the source
919each time. This provides quick feedback regarding the correctness of recent
920modifications. In this scenario, buildman's default choice of build directory
921causes more build work to be performed than strictly necessary.
922
923By default, each buildman thread uses a single directory for all builds. When a
924thread builds multiple boards, the configuration built in this directory will
925cycle through various different configurations, one per board built by the
926thread. Variations in the configuration will force a rebuild of affected source
927files when a thread switches between boards. Ideally, such buildman-induced
928rebuilds would not happen, thus allowing the build to operate as efficiently as
929the build system and source changes allow. buildman's -P flag may be used to
930enable this; -P causes each board to be built in a separate (board-specific)
931directory, thus avoiding any buildman-induced configuration changes in any
932build directory.
933
934U-Boot's build system embeds information such as a build timestamp into the
935final binary. This information varies each time U-Boot is built. This causes
936various files to be rebuilt even if no source changes are made, which in turn
937requires that the final U-Boot binary be re-linked. This unnecessary work can
938be avoided by turning off the timestamp feature. This can be achieved by
939setting the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH environment variable to 0.
940
941Combining all of these options together yields the command-line shown below.
942This will provide the quickest possible feedback regarding the current content
943of the source tree, thus allowing rapid tested evolution of the code.
944
945    SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=0 ./tools/buildman/buildman -I -P tegra
946
947
948Other options
949=============
950
951Buildman has various other command line options. Try --help to see them.
952
953When doing builds, Buildman's return code will reflect the overall result:
954
955    0 (success)     No errors or warnings found
956    128             Errors found
957    129             Warnings found
958
959
960How to change from MAKEALL
961==========================
962
963Buildman includes most of the features of MAKEALL and is generally faster
964and easier to use. In particular it builds entire branches: if a particular
965commit introduces an error in a particular board, buildman can easily show
966you this, even if a later commit fixes that error.
967
968The reasons to deprecate MAKEALL are:
969- We don't want to maintain two build systems
970- Buildman is typically faster
971- Buildman has a lot more features
972
973But still, many people will be sad to lose MAKEALL. If you are used to
974MAKEALL, here are a few pointers.
975
976First you need to set up your tool chains - see the 'Setting up' section
977for details. Once you have your required toolchain(s) detected then you are
978ready to go.
979
980To build the current source tree, run buildman without a -b flag:
981
982   ./tools/buildman/buildman <list of things to build>
983
984This will build the current source tree for the given boards and display
985the results and errors.
986
987However buildman usually works on entire branches, and for that you must
988specify a board flag:
989
990   ./tools/buildman/buildman -b <branch_name> <list of things to build>
991
992followed by (afterwards, or perhaps concurrently in another terminal):
993
994   ./tools/buildman/buildman -b <branch_name> -s <list of things to build>
995
996to see the results of the build. Rather than showing you all the output,
997buildman just shows a summary, with red indicating that a commit introduced
998an error and green indicating that a commit fixed an error. Use the -e
999flag to see the full errors and -l to see which boards caused which errors.
1000
1001If you really want to see build results as they happen, use -v when doing a
1002build (and -e to see the errors/warnings too).
1003
1004You don't need to stick around on that branch while buildman is running. It
1005checks out its own copy of the source code, so you can change branches,
1006add commits, etc. without affecting the build in progress.
1007
1008The <list of things to build> can include board names, architectures or the
1009like. There are no flags to disambiguate since ambiguities are rare. Using
1010the examples from MAKEALL:
1011
1012Examples:
1013  - build all Power Architecture boards:
1014      MAKEALL -a powerpc
1015      MAKEALL --arch powerpc
1016      MAKEALL powerpc
1017          ** buildman -b <branch> powerpc
1018  - build all PowerPC boards manufactured by vendor "esd":
1019      MAKEALL -a powerpc -v esd
1020          ** buildman -b <branch> esd
1021  - build all PowerPC boards manufactured either by "keymile" or "siemens":
1022      MAKEALL -a powerpc -v keymile -v siemens
1023          ** buildman -b <branch> keymile siemens
1024  - build all Freescale boards with MPC83xx CPUs, plus all 4xx boards:
1025      MAKEALL -c mpc83xx -v freescale 4xx
1026          ** buildman -b <branch> mpc83xx freescale 4xx
1027
1028Buildman automatically tries to use all the CPUs in your machine. If you
1029are building a lot of boards it will use one thread for every CPU core
1030it detects in your machine. This is like MAKEALL's BUILD_NBUILDS option.
1031You can use the -T flag to change the number of threads. If you are only
1032building a few boards, buildman will automatically run make with the -j
1033flag to increase the number of concurrent make tasks. It isn't normally
1034that helpful to fiddle with this option, but if you use the BUILD_NCPUS
1035option in MAKEALL then -j is the equivalent in buildman.
1036
1037Buildman puts its output in ../<branch_name> by default but you can change
1038this with the -o option. Buildman normally does out-of-tree builds: use -i
1039to disable that if you really want to. But be careful that once you have
1040used -i you pollute buildman's copies of the source tree, and you will need
1041to remove the build directory (normally ../<branch_name>) to run buildman
1042in normal mode (without -i).
1043
1044Buildman doesn't keep the output result normally, but use the -k option to
1045do this.
1046
1047Please read 'Theory of Operation' a few times as it will make a lot of
1048things clearer.
1049
1050Some options you might like are:
1051
1052   -B shows which functions are growing/shrinking in which commit - great
1053        for finding code bloat.
1054   -S shows image sizes for each commit (just an overall summary)
1055   -u shows boards that you haven't built yet
1056   --step 0 will build just the upstream commit and the last commit of your
1057        branch. This is often a quick sanity check that your branch doesn't
1058        break anything. But note this does not check bisectability!
1059
1060
1061TODO
1062====
1063
1064This has mostly be written in my spare time as a response to my difficulties
1065in testing large series of patches. Apart from tidying up there is quite a
1066bit of scope for improvement. Things like better error diffs and easier
1067access to log files. Also it would be nice if buildman could 'hunt' for
1068problems, perhaps by building a few boards for each arch, or checking
1069commits for changed files and building only boards which use those files.
1070
1071A specific problem to fix is that Ctrl-C does not exit buildman cleanly when
1072multiple builder threads are active.
1073
1074Credits
1075=======
1076
1077Thanks to Grant Grundler <grundler@chromium.org> for his ideas for improving
1078the build speed by building all commits for a board instead of the other
1079way around.
1080
1081
1082Simon Glass
1083sjg@chromium.org
1084Halloween 2012
1085Updated 12-12-12
1086Updated 23-02-13
1087