--- /dev/null
+// -*- mode:doc; -*-
+// vim: set syntax=asciidoc:
+
+== Buildroot quick start
+
+*Important*: you can and should *build everything as a normal user*. There
+is no need to be root to configure and use Buildroot. By running all
+commands as a regular user, you protect your system against packages
+behaving badly during compilation and installation.
+
+The first step when using Buildroot is to create a configuration.
+Buildroot has a nice configuration tool similar to the one you can
+find in the http://www.kernel.org/[Linux kernel] or in
+http://www.busybox.net/[BusyBox].
+
+From the buildroot directory, run
+
+--------------------
+ $ make menuconfig
+--------------------
+
+for the original curses-based configurator, or
+
+--------------------
+ $ make nconfig
+--------------------
+
+for the new curses-based configurator, or
+
+--------------------
+ $ make xconfig
+--------------------
+
+for the Qt-based configurator, or
+
+--------------------
+ $ make gconfig
+--------------------
+
+for the GTK-based configurator.
+
+All of these "make" commands will need to build a configuration
+utility (including the interface), so you may need to install
+"development" packages for relevant libraries used by the
+configuration utilities. Refer to xref:requirement[] for more details,
+specifically the xref:requirement-optional[optional requirements]
+to get the dependencies of your favorite interface.
+
+For each menu entry in the configuration tool, you can find associated
+help that describes the purpose of the entry. Refer to xref:configure[]
+for details on some specific configuration aspects.
+
+Once everything is configured, the configuration tool generates a
++.config+ file that contains the entire configuration. This file will be
+read by the top-level Makefile.
+
+To start the build process, simply run:
+
+--------------------
+ $ make
+--------------------
+
+You *should never* use +make -jN+ with Buildroot: top-level parallel
+make is currently not supported. Instead, use the +BR2_JLEVEL+ option
+to tell Buildroot to run the compilation of each individual package
+with +make -jN+.
+
+The `make` command will generally perform the following steps:
+
+* download source files (as required);
+* configure, build and install the cross-compilation toolchain, or
+ simply import an external toolchain;
+* configure, build and install selected target packages;
+* build a kernel image, if selected;
+* build a bootloader image, if selected;
+* create a root filesystem in selected formats.
+
+Buildroot output is stored in a single directory, +output/+.
+This directory contains several subdirectories:
+
+* +images/+ where all the images (kernel image, bootloader and root
+ filesystem images) are stored. These are the files you need to put
+ on your target system.
+
+* +build/+ where all the components are built (this includes tools
+ needed by Buildroot on the host and packages compiled for the
+ target). This directory contains one subdirectory for each of these
+ components.
+
+* +staging/+ which contains a hierarchy similar to a root filesystem
+ hierarchy. This directory contains the headers and libraries of the
+ cross-compilation toolchain and all the userspace packages selected
+ for the target. However, this directory is 'not' intended to be
+ the root filesystem for the target: it contains a lot of development
+ files, unstripped binaries and libraries that make it far too big
+ for an embedded system. These development files are used to compile
+ libraries and applications for the target that depend on other
+ libraries.
+
+* +target/+ which contains 'almost' the complete root filesystem for
+ the target: everything needed is present except the device files in
+ +/dev/+ (Buildroot can't create them because Buildroot doesn't run
+ as root and doesn't want to run as root). Also, it doesn't have the correct
+ permissions (e.g. setuid for the busybox binary). Therefore, this directory
+ *should not be used on your target*. Instead, you should use one of
+ the images built in the +images/+ directory. If you need an
+ extracted image of the root filesystem for booting over NFS, then
+ use the tarball image generated in +images/+ and extract it as
+ root. Compared to +staging/+, +target/+ contains only the files and
+ libraries needed to run the selected target applications: the
+ development files (headers, etc.) are not present, the binaries are
+ stripped.
+
+* +host/+ contains the installation of tools compiled for the host
+ that are needed for the proper execution of Buildroot, including the
+ cross-compilation toolchain.
+
+These commands, +make menuconfig|nconfig|gconfig|xconfig+ and +make+, are the
+basic ones that allow to easily and quickly generate images fitting
+your needs, with all the features and applications you enabled.
+
+More details about the "make" command usage are given in
+xref:make-tips[].
Code Review / packages / trusty / cirros-testvm.git / blobdiff