path: root/bitbake/doc/user-manual/user-manual-hello.xml

<!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd">

<chapter id='hello'>
    <title>A BitBake Hello World</title>

    <section id='bitbake-hello-world'>
        <title>BitBake Hello World</title>

        <para>
            The simplest example commonly used to demonstrate any new
            programming language or tool is the
            <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello_world_program">Hello World</ulink>
            example.
            This chapter demonstrates, in tutorial form, Hello
            World within the context of BitBake.
            This tutorial describes how to create a new Project
            and the applicable metadata files necessary to allow
            BitBake to build it.
        </para>
    </section>

    <section id='obtaining-bitbake'>
        <title>Obtaining BitBake</title>

        <para>
            Please refer to Chapter 1 Section 1.7 for the various methods to
            obtain BitBake.
            Once the source code is on your machine the BitBake directory will
            appear as follows:
            <literallayout class='monospaced'>
     $ ls -al
     total 100
     drwxrwxr-x. 9 wmat wmat  4096 Jan 31 13:44 .
     drwxrwxr-x. 3 wmat wmat  4096 Feb  4 10:45 ..
     -rw-rw-r--. 1 wmat wmat   365 Nov 26 04:55 AUTHORS
     drwxrwxr-x. 2 wmat wmat  4096 Nov 26 04:55 bin
     drwxrwxr-x. 4 wmat wmat  4096 Jan 31 13:44 build
     -rw-rw-r--. 1 wmat wmat 16501 Nov 26 04:55 ChangeLog
     drwxrwxr-x. 2 wmat wmat  4096 Nov 26 04:55 classes
     drwxrwxr-x. 2 wmat wmat  4096 Nov 26 04:55 conf
     drwxrwxr-x. 3 wmat wmat  4096 Nov 26 04:55 contrib
     -rw-rw-r--. 1 wmat wmat 17987 Nov 26 04:55 COPYING
     drwxrwxr-x. 3 wmat wmat  4096 Nov 26 04:55 doc
     -rw-rw-r--. 1 wmat wmat    69 Nov 26 04:55 .gitignore
     -rw-rw-r--. 1 wmat wmat   849 Nov 26 04:55 HEADER
     drwxrwxr-x. 5 wmat wmat  4096 Jan 31 13:44 lib
     -rw-rw-r--. 1 wmat wmat   195 Nov 26 04:55 MANIFEST.in
     -rwxrwxr-x. 1 wmat wmat  3195 Jan 31 11:57 setup.py
     -rw-rw-r--. 1 wmat wmat  2887 Nov 26 04:55 TODO
            </literallayout>
        </para>

        <para>
            At this point you should have BitBake extracted or cloned to
            a directory and it should match the directory tree above.
            Please note that you'll see your username wherever
            "wmat" appears above.
        </para>
    </section>

    <section id='setting-up-the-bitbake-environment'>
        <title>Setting Up the BitBake Environment</title>

        <para>
            The recommended method to run BitBake is from a directory of your
            choice.
            The directory can be within your home directory or in
            <filename>/usr/local</filename>,
            depending on your preference.
            Let's run BitBake now to make sure it's working.
        </para>

        <para>
            From the BitBake source code directory, issue the following command:
            <literallayout class='monospaced'>
     $ ./bin/bitbake --version
     BitBake Build Tool Core version 1.19.0, bitbake version
     1.19.0
            </literallayout>
            You're now ready to use BitBake.
        </para>

        <para>
            A final step to make development easier is to add the executable
            binary to your environment <filename>PATH</filename>.
            First, have a look at your current <filename>PATH</filename> variable.
            If I check mine, I get:
            <literallayout class='monospaced'>
     $ echo $PATH
     /home/wmat/bin:/usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:
     /usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games
            </literallayout>
            Now add the directory location for the BitBake binary to the <filename>PATH</filename>
            with:
            <literallayout class='monospaced'>
     $ export PATH={path to the bitbake executable}:$PATH
            </literallayout>
            This will add the directory to the beginning of your PATH environment
            variable.
            For example, on my machine:
            <literallayout class='monospaced'>
     $ export PATH=/media/wmat/Backups/dev/bitbake/bin:$PATH
     /media/wmat/Backups/dev/bitbake/bin:/home/wmat/bin:
     /usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:
     /usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games
            </literallayout>
            Now, you should be able to simply enter the
            <filename>bitbake</filename>
            command at the command line to run bitbake.
            For a more permanent solution and assuming you are running the BASH
            shell, edit <filename>~/.bashrc</filename> and add the following to the end
            of that file:
            <literallayout class='monospaced'>
     PATH={path to the bitbake executable}:$PATH
            </literallayout>
        </para>

        <para>
            Note that if you're a Vim user, you will find useful
            Vim configuration contributions in the
            <filename>contrib/vim</filename> directory.
            Copy the files from that directory to your
            <filename>/home/yourusername/.vim</filename>
            directory.
            If it doesn't exist, create it, and restart Vim.
        </para>
    </section>

    <section id='the-hello-world-example'>
        <title>The Hello World Example</title>

        <para>
            The following example leaps directly into how BitBake
            works.
            Every attempt is made to explain what is happening,
            however, further information can be found in the
            Metadata chapter.
        </para>

        <para>
            The overall goal of this exercise is to create a Hello
            World example utilizing concepts used to
            build and construct a complete example application
            including Tasks and Layers.
            This is how modern projects such as OpenEmbedded and
            the Yocto Project utilize BitBake, therefore it
            provides an excellent starting point for understanding
            BitBake.
        </para>

        <para>
            It should be noted that this chapter was inspired by
            and draws heavily from several sources:
            <itemizedlist>
                <listitem><para>
                    <ulink href="http://www.mail-archive.com/yocto@yoctoproject.org/msg09379.html">Mailing List post - The BitBake equivalent of "Hello, World!"</ulink>
                    </para></listitem>
                <listitem><para>
                    <ulink href="http://hambedded.org/blog/2012/11/24/from-bitbake-hello-world-to-an-image/">Hambedded Linux blog post - From Bitbake Hello World to an Image</ulink>
                    </para></listitem>
            </itemizedlist>
        </para>

        <section id='a-reverse-walkthrough'>
            <title>A Reverse Walkthrough</title>

            <para>
                One of the best means to understand anything is to walk
                through the steps to where we want to be by observing first
                principles.
                BitBake allows us to do this through the -D or Debug command
               line parameter.
                We know we want to eventually compile a HelloWorld example, but
                we don't know what we need to do that.
                Remember that BitBake utilizes three types of metadata files:
                Configuration Files, Classes, and Recipes.
                But where do they go, how does BitBake find them, etc. etc.?
                Hopefully we can use BitBake's error messaging to figure this
                out and better understand exactly what's going on.
            </para>

            <para>
                First, let's begin by setting up a directory for our HelloWorld
                project.
                I'll do this in my home directory and change into that
                directory:
                <literallayout class='monospaced'>
     $ mkdir ~/dev/hello &amp;&amp; cd ~/dev/hello
                </literallayout>
                Within this new, empty directory, let's run BitBake with
                Debugging output and see what happens:
                <literallayout class='monospaced'>
     $ bitbake -DDD
     The BBPATH variable is not set
     DEBUG: Removed the following variables from the environment:
     GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID, LESSOPEN, WINDOWID,
     GNOME_KEYRING_CONTROL, DISPLAY, SSH_AGENT_PID, LANG,
     XDG_SESSION_PATH, XAUTHORITY, LANGUAGE, SESSION_MANAGER,
     SHLVL, MANDATORY_PATH, COMPIZ_CONFIG_PROFILE, TEXTDOMAIN,
     GPG_AGENT_INFO, SSH_AUTH_SOCK, XDG_RUNTIME_DIR,
     COMPIZ_BIN_PATH, GDMSESSION, DEFAULTS_PATH, TEXTDOMAINDIR,
     XDG_SEAT_PATH, XDG_CONFIG_DIRS, XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP,
     DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS, _, XDG_SESSION_COOKIE,
     DESKTOP_SESSION, LESSCLOSE, GNOME_KEYRING_PID,
     UBUNTU_MENUPROXY, OLDPWD, GTK_MODULES, XDG_DATA_DIRS,
     COLORTERM, LS_COLORS
                </literallayout>
                The majority of this output is specific to environment variables
                that are not directly relevant to BitBake.
                However, the very
                first message <filename>The BBPATH variable is not set</filename>
                is and needs to be rectified.
                So how do we set the BBPATH
                variable?
            </para>

            <para>
                When BitBake is run it begins looking for metadata files.
                The BBPATH variable is what tells BitBake where to look.
                It is possible to set BBPATH as an environment variable as you
                did above for the BitBake exexcutable's PATH.
                However, it's much more flexible to set the BBPATH variable for
                each project, as this allows for greater flexibility.
            </para>

            <para>
                Without BBPATH Bitbake will not find any <filename>.conf</filename>
                files or recipe files at all.
                It will also not find <filename>bitbake.conf</filename>.
                Note the reference to <filename>conf/</filename>.
                It is standard practice to organize the project's directory tree
                to include a <filename>conf/</filename> and a
                <filename>classes/</filename> directory.
                Add those now to your project directory:
                <literallayout class='monospaced'>
     $ mkdir conf classes
                </literallayout>
                Now let's copy the sample configuration files provided in the
                BitBake source tree to their appropriate conf and classes
                directory.
                Change to the BitBake source tree directory and:
                <literallayout class='monospaced'>
     cp conf/bitbake.conf ~/dev/hello/conf/
     cp classes/base.bbclass ~/dev/hello/classes/
                </literallayout>
                At this point your project directory structure should look like
                the following:
               <literallayout class='monospaced'>
     ~/dev/hello$ tree
     .
     ├── classes
     │   └── base.bbclass
     └── conf
     └── bitbake.conf
                </literallayout>
            </para>

            <para>
                But what about BBPATH, we still haven't set it?
            </para>

            <para>
                The first configuration file that BitBake looks for is always
                <filename>bblayers.conf</filename>.
                With this knowledge we know that to resolve our BBPATH error we
                can add a <filename>conf/bblayers.conf</filename> file to our
                project source tree and populate it with the BBPATH variable
                declaration.
                From your project source tree:
                <literallayout class='monospaced'>
     $ vim conf/bblayers.conf
                </literallayout>
                Add the following to the empty bblayers.conf file:
                <literallayout class='monospaced'>
     BBPATH := "${TOPDIR}"
                </literallayout>
            </para>

            <para>
                Now from the root of our project directory, let's run BitBake
                again and see what happens:
                <literallayout class='monospaced'>
     $ bitbake -DDD
     Nothing to do.  Use 'bitbake world' to build everything, or run
     'bitbake --help' for usage information.
     DEBUG: Removed the following variables from the environment:
     GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID, LESSOPEN, WINDOWID,
     GNOME_KEYRING_CONTROL, DISPLAY, SSH_AGENT_PID, LANG,
     XDG_SESSION_PATH, XAUTHORITY, LANGUAGE, SESSION_MANAGER,
     SHLVL, MANDATORY_PATH, COMPIZ_CONFIG_PROFILE, TEXTDOMAIN,
     GPG_AGENT_INFO, SSH_AUTH_SOCK, XDG_RUNTIME_DIR,
     COMPIZ_BIN_PATH, GDMSESSION, DEFAULTS_PATH, TEXTDOMAINDIR,
     XDG_SEAT_PATH, XDG_CONFIG_DIRS, XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP,
     DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS, _, XDG_SESSION_COOKIE,
     DESKTOP_SESSION, LESSCLOSE, GNOME_KEYRING_PID, UBUNTU_MENUPROXY,
     OLDPWD, GTK_MODULES, XDG_DATA_DIRS, COLORTERM, LS_COLORS
     DEBUG: Found bblayers.conf (/home/wmat/dev/hello/conf/
     bblayers.conf)
     DEBUG: LOAD /home/wmat/dev/hello/conf/bblayers.conf
     DEBUG: LOAD /home/wmat/dev/hello/conf/bitbake.conf
     DEBUG: BB configuration INHERITs:0: inheriting /home/wmat/dev/
     hello/classes/base.bbclass
     DEBUG: BB /home/wmat/dev/hello/classes/base.bbclass: handle
     (data, include)
     DEBUG: LOAD /home/wmat/dev/hello/classes/base.bbclass
     DEBUG: Clearing SRCREV cache due to cache policy of: clear
     DEBUG: Using cache in '/home/wmat/dev/hello/tmp/cache/
     local_file_checksum_cache.dat'
     DEBUG: Using cache in '/home/wmat/dev/hello/tmp/cache/
     bb_codeparser.dat'
                </literallayout>
                <note>
                    From this point forward, the environment variable
                    removal messages will be ignored and omitted.
                    Let's examine the relevant DEBUG messages:
                </note>
            </para>
        </section>
    </section>
</chapter>