path: root/documentation/poky-ref-manual/development.xml

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

<chapter id="platdev">
<title>Platform Development with Poky</title>

    <section id="platdev-appdev">
    <title>Software development</title>
    <para>
        Poky supports several methods of software development. You can use the method that is 
        best for you.  This chapter describes each development method.
    </para>

        <section id="platdev-appdev-external-sdk">
        <title>External Development Using the Poky SDK</title>
        <para>
            The meta-toolchain and meta-toolchain-sdk targets build tarballs that contain toolchains and 
            libraries suitable for application development outside of Poky. 
            For information on these targets see the <ulink linkend='ref-images'>Reference: Images</ulink>
            appendix.
        </para>
        <para>
            These tarballs unpack into the 
            <filename class="directory">/opt/poky</filename> directory and contain
            a setup script (e.g. 
            <filename>/opt/poky/environment-setup-i586-poky-linux</filename>), from which 
            you can source to initialize a suitable environment. Sourcing these files adds the 
            compiler, QEMU scripts, QEMU binary, a special version of pkgconfig and other 
            useful utilities to the PATH variable. Variables to assist pkgconfig and 
            autotools are also defined so that, for example, configure can find pre-generated test 
            results for tests that need target hardware on which to run.
        </para>
        <para>
            Using the toolchain with autotool-enabled packages is straightforward - just pass the 
            appropriate host option to configure. 
            Following is an example:
            <literallayout class='monospaced'>
     $ ./configure --host=arm-poky-linux-gnueabi
            </literallayout>
            For other projects it is usually a case of ensuring the cross tools are used:
            <literallayout class='monospaced'>
     CC=arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-gcc and LD=arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-ld
            </literallayout>
        </para>
        </section>

        <section id="using-the-eclipse-and-anjuta-plug-ins">
        <title>Using the Eclipse and Anjuta Plug-ins</title>
        <para>
            Yocto Project supports both Anjuta and Eclipse IDE plug-ins to make developing software
            easier for the application developer. The plug-ins provide capability
            extensions to the graphical IDE allowing for cross compilation, 
            deployment and execution of the output in a QEMU emulation session. 
            Support of these plug-ins also allows for cross debugging and
            profiling.  Additionally, the Eclipse plug-in provides a suite of tools 
            that allows the developer to perform remote profiling, tracing, collection of 
            power data, collection of latency data and collection of performance data.
        </para>

            <section id="the-eclipse-plug-in">
            <title>The Eclipse Plug-in</title>
            <para>
                To use the Eclipse plug-in, a toolchain and SDK built by Poky is required along with 
                the Eclipse Framework (Helios 3.6.1). 
                To install the plug-in you need to be in the Eclipse IDE and select 
                the following menu:
                <literallayout class='monospaced'>
     Help -> Install New Software
                </literallayout>
                Specify the target URL as <ulink url='http://www.yoctoproject.org/downloads/eclipse-plugin/'></ulink>.
            </para>
            <para>
                If you want to download the source code for the plug-in you can find it in the Poky 
                git repository, which has a web interface, and is located at
                <ulink url="http://git.pokylinux.org/cgit.cgi/eclipse-poky"></ulink>.
            </para>
  
                <section id="installing-and-setting-up-the-eclipse-ide">
                <title>Installing and Setting up the Eclipse IDE</title>
                <para>
                    If you don't have the Eclipse IDE (Helios 3.6.1) on your system you need to 
                    download and install it from <ulink url="http://www.eclipse.org/downloads"></ulink>.
                    Choose the Eclipse Classic, which contains the Eclipse Platform, Java Development 
                    Tools (JDT), and the Plug-in Development Environment.
                </para>
                <note>
                   <para>
                    Due to the Java Virtual Machine's garbage collection (GC) process the 
                    permanent generation space (PermGen) is not cleaned up.  This space stores
                    meta-data descriptions of classes.  The default value is set too small
                    and it could trigger an out-of-memory error like the following:
                    <literallayout class='monospaced'>
     Java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space
                    </literallayout>
                    This error causes the applications to hang.  
                   </para>
                </note>
                <para>
                    To fix this issue you can use the <filename>-vmargs</filename>
                    option when you start Eclipse to increase the size of the permenant generation space:
                    <literallayout class='monospaced'>
     Eclipse -vmargs -XX:PermSize=256M
                    </literallayout>
                </para>
                </section>

                <section id="installing-the-yocto-plug-in">
                <title>Installing the Yocto Plug-in</title>
                    <para>
                        Once you have the Eclipse IDE installed and configured you need to install the 
                        Yocto plug-in.  You do this similar to installing the Eclipse plug-ins in the 
                        previous section.
                    </para>
                    <para>
                        Do the following to install the Yocto plug-in into the Eclipse IDE:
                    <orderedlist>
                        <listitem>Select the "Help -> Install New Software" item.</listitem>
                        <listitem>In the "Work with:" area click "Add..." and enter the URL for 
                            the Yocto plug-in, which is 
                            <ulink url='http://www.yoctoproject.org/downloads/eclipse-plugin/'></ulink></listitem>
                        <listitem>Finish out the installation of the update similar to any other
                            Eclipse plug-in.</listitem>
                    </orderedlist>
                    </para>
                </section>
         
                <section id="configuring-yocto-eclipse-plug-in">
                <title>Configuring Yocto Eclipse plug-in</title>
                <para>
                    To configure the Yocto Eclipse plug-in you need to select the mode and the
                    architecture with which you will be working.  Start by selecting "Preferences" 
                    from the "Window" menu and then select "Yocto SDK".
                </para>
                <para>
                    If you normally will use an installed Yocto 
                    SDK (under <filename>/opt/poky</filename>) select “SDK Root Mode”.  Otherwise, if your crosstool chain 
                    and sysroot are within your poky tree, select “Poky Tree Mode”.  
                    If you are in SDK Root Mode you need to provide your poky tree path, for
                    example, <filename>$&lt;Poky_tree&gt;/build/</filename>. 
                </para>
                <para>
                    Next, you need to select the architecture. 
                    Use the drop down list and select the architecture that you’ll be primarily 
                    working against.
                    For target option, select your typical target QEMU vs External HW.  If you 
                    choose QEMU, you’ll need to specify your QEMU kernel file with full path and the 
                    rootfs mount point.  Yocto QEMU boots off user mode NFS.
                    See the <link linkend='platdev-appdev-qemu'>Developing Externally in QEMU</link> section for 
                    how to set it up.
                </para>
                <para>
                    To make your settings the defaults for every new Yocto project created using 
                    the Eclipse IDE, simply save the settings. 
                </para>
                </section>

                <section id="using-the-yocto-eclipse-plug-in">
                <title>Using the Yocto Eclipse Plug-in</title>
                <para>
                    As an example, this section shows you how to cross-compile a Yocto C project that 
                    is autotools-based, deploy the project into QEMU, and then run the debugger against it.
                    You need to configure the project, trigger the <filename> autogen.sh</filename>, build 
                    the image, start QEMU, and then debug.
                </para>
                <para>
                    The following steps show how to create a Yocto autotools-based project using a given template:
                </para>
                <orderedlist>
                    <listitem>Select "File -> New -> Project" to start the wizard.</listitem>
                    <listitem>Expand "C/C++" and select "C Project".</listitem>
                    <listitem>Click "Next" and select a template (e.g. "Hello World ANSI C Project").</listitem>
                    <listitem>Complete the steps to create the new Yocto autotools-based project using 
                        your chosen template.</listitem>
                </orderedlist>
                <para>
                    By default, the project uses the Yocto preferences settings as defined using the procedure in 
                    <link linkend="configuring-yocto-eclipse-plug-in">the previous section</link>.
                    If there are any specific setup requirements for the newly created project
                    you need to reconfigure the Yocto plug-in through the menu selection by doing the following:
                </para>
                <orderedlist>
                    <listitem>Select the "Project -> Invoke Yocto Tools -> Reconfigure Yocto" menu item.</listitem>
                    <listitem>Complete the dialogue to specify the specific toolchain and QEMU setup information.</listitem>
                </orderedlist>
                <para>
                    To build the project follow these steps:
                </para>
                <orderedlist>
                    <listitem>Select "Project -> Reconfigure Project" to trigger the 
                        <filename>autogen.sh</filename> command.</listitem>
                    <listitem>Select "Project -> Build" to build the project.</listitem>
                </orderedlist>
                <para>
                    To start QEMU follow these steps:
                </para>
                <orderedlist>
                    <listitem>Select "Run -> External Tools" and see if there is 
                        a QEMU instance for the desired target.  
                        If one exists, click on the instance to start QEMU.  
                        If your target does not exist, click "External Tools Configuration" and   
                        you should find an instance of QEMU for your architecture
                        under the entry under "Program".</listitem>
                    <listitem>Wait for the boot to complete.</listitem>
                </orderedlist>
                <para>
                    To deploy your project and start debugging follow these steps:
                </para>
                <orderedlist>
                    <listitem>Highlight your project in the project explorer.</listitem>
                    <listitem>Select "Run -> Debug Configurations" to bring up your remote debugging configuration 
                        in the right-hand window.</listitem>
                    <listitem>Expand “C/C++ Remote Application”.</listitem>
                    <listitem>Select "projectname_ gdb_target-poky-linux".  
                        You need to be sure there is an entry for the remote target.  
                        If no entry exists, click "New..." to bring up the wizard.  
                        Use the wizard to select TCF and enter the IP address of you remote target in the 
                        “Host name:” field.  
                        Back in the Remote Debug Configure window, specify in the 
                        “Remote Absolute File Path for C/C++ Application” field the absolute path for the program on 
                        the remote target. 
                        By default, the program deploys into the remote target.  
                        If you don't want this behavior then check “Skip download to target path”.</listitem>
                    <listitem>Click "Debug” to start the remote debugging session.</listitem>
                </orderedlist>
                </section>

                <section id="using-yocto-eclipse-plug-in-remote-tools-suite">
                <title>Using Yocto Eclipse plug-in Remote Tools Suite</title>
                <para>
                    Remote tools allow you to perform system profiling, kernel tracing, 
                    examine power consumption, and so forth.  To see and access the remote tools use the 
                    "Window -> YoctoTools" menu.
                </para>
                <para>
                    Once you pick a tool you need to configure it for the remote target.  Every tool 
                    needs to have the connection configured.  You must select an existing TCF-based
                    RSE connection to the remote target.  If one does not exist, click "New" to create one.
                </para>
                <para>
                    Here are some specifics about the remote tools:
                <itemizedlist>
                    <listitem>Oprofile:  Selecting this tool causes the oprofile-server on the remote
                        target to launch on the local host machine.  The oprofile-viewer
                        must be installed on the local host machine and the oprofile-server must be
                        installed on the remote target, respectively, in order to use .</listitem>
                    <listitem>lttng:  Selecting this tool runs "ustrace" on the remote target, transfers
                        the output data back to the local host machine and uses "lttv-gui" to graphically
                        display the output.  The "lttv-gui" must be installed on the 
                        local host machine to use this tool.  
                        For information on how to use "lttng" to trace an 
                        application, see <ulink url="http://lttng.org/files/ust/manual/ust.html"></ulink>.
                        <para>
                            For "Application" you must supply the absolute path name of the application to 
                            be traced by user mode lttng.  For example, typing <filename>/path/to/foo"
                            </filename> triggers "usttrace /path/to/foo" on the 
                            remote target to trace the program <filename>/path/to/foo</filename>.
                        </para>
                        <para>
                            "Argument" is passed to "usttrace" running on the remote target.
                        </para>
                    </listitem>  
                    <listitem>powertop:  Selecting this tool runs "powertop" on the 
                        remote target machine and displays the results in a new view called "powertop".
                        <para>
                            "Time to gather data(sec):" is the time passed in seconds before data is 
                            gathered from the remote target for analysis.
                        </para>
                        <para>
                            "show pids in wakeups list:" corresponds to the <filename>-p</filename>
                            argument passed to "powertop".
                        </para>
                    </listitem>
                    <listitem>latencytop and perf:  "latencytop" identifies 
                        system latency, while "perf" monitors the system's performance 
                        counter registers.  Selecting either of these tools causes an RSE
                        terminal view to appear from which you can run the tools.  Both tools refresh the 
                        entire screen to display results while they run.</listitem>
                </itemizedlist>
                </para>
                </section>
            </section>

            <section id="the-anjuta-plug-in">
            <title>The Anjuta Plug-in</title>
            <note>
                <para>
                    Support for the Anjuta plug-in ends after Yocto project 0.9 release.  
                    However, the source code can be downloaded from the git repository listed later in 
                    this section.
                    The community is free to continue supporting it post 0.9 release.
                </para>
            </note>
            <para>
                An Anjuta IDE plugin exists to make developing software within the Poky framework
                easier for the application developer familiar with that environment. 
                The plug-in presents a graphical IDE that allows you to cross-compile, cross-debug, 
                profile, deploy, and execute an application.
            </para>
            <para>
                To use the plugin, a toolchain and SDK built by Poky, Anjuta, it's development headers and the Anjuta
                Plug-in are all required. 
                The Poky Anjuta Plug-in is available to download as a tarball at the OpenedHand 
                labs <ulink url="http://labs.o-hand.com/anjuta-poky-sdk-plugin/"></ulink> page or 
                directly from the Poky Git repository located at 
                <ulink url="git://git.pokylinux.org/anjuta-poky"></ulink>.
                You can also access a web interface to the repository at
                <ulink url="http://git.pokylinux.org/?p=anjuta-poky.git;a=summary"></ulink>.
             </para>
             <para>
                See the README file contained in the project for more information on 
                Anjuta dependencies and building the plug-in. 
                If you want to disable remote gdb debugging, pass the "--diable-gdb-integration" switch when 
                you configure the plug-in.
            </para>
                <section id="setting-up-the-anjuta-plugin">
                <title>Setting Up the Anjuta Plug-in</title>
                <para>
                    Follow these steps to set up the plug-in:
                    <orderedlist>
                        <listitem>Extract the tarball for the toolchain into / as root. 
                        The toolchain will be installed into <filename>/opt/poky</filename>.</listitem>
                        <listitem>To use the plug-in, first open or create an existing project. 
                        If you are creating a new project, the "C GTK+"
                        project type will allow itself to be cross-compiled. 
                        However, you should be aware that this type uses "glade" for the UI.</listitem>
                        <listitem>To activate the plug-in, select "Edit -> Preferences" and then choose
                        "General" from the left hand side. 
                        Choose the "Installed plug-ins" tab, scroll down to "Poky SDK" and 
                        check the box.</listitem>
                    </orderedlist>
                    The plug-in is now activated but not configured.  
                </para>
                </section>
                <section id="configuring-the-anjuta-plugin">
                <title>Configuring the Anjuta Plugin</title>
                <para>
                    You can find the configuration options for the SDK by choosing the Poky 
                    SDK icon from the left hand side. 
                    You need to define the following options:
                    <itemizedlist>
                        <listitem>SDK root: If you use an external toolchain you need to set 
                        SDK root, which is the root directory of the SDK's sysroot. 
                        For an i586 SDK directory is <filename>/opt/poky/</filename>. 
                        This directory will contain "bin", "include", "var" and so forth under your 
                        selected target architecture subdirectory 
                        <filename>/opt/poky/sysroot/i586-poky-linux/</filename>. 
                        The cross-compile tools you need are in 
                        <filename>/opt/poky/sysroot/i586-pokysdk-linux/</filename>.</listitem>
                        <listitem>Poky root: If you have a local Poky build tree, you need to 
                        set the Poky root, which is the root directory of the poky build tree.
                        If you build your i586 target architecture under the subdirectory of 
                        <filename>build_x86</filename> within your Poky tree, the Poky root directory
                        should be <filename>$&lt;poky_tree&gt;/build_x86/</filename>.</listitem>
                        <listitem>Target Architecture: This is the cross compile triplet, 
                        for example, "i586-poky-linux". 
                        This target triplet is the prefix extracted from the set up script file's name. 
                        For example, if the script file name is 
                        <filename>/opt/poky/environment-setup-i586-poky-linux</filename> then the extracted target 
                        triplet is "i586-poky-linux".</listitem>
                        <listitem>Kernel: Use the file chooser to select the kernel used with QEMU.</listitem>
                        <listitem>Root filesystem: Use the file chooser to select the root 
                        filesystem directory.  This directory is where you use "poky-extract-sdk" to extract the 
                        poky-image-sdk tarball.</listitem>
                     </itemizedlist>
                </para>
                </section>
                <section id="using-the-anjuta-plug-in">
                <title>Using the Anjuta Plug-in</title>
                <para>
                    The steps in this section show how to cross-compile a project, deploy it into
                    QEMU, run a debugger against it and then perform a system-wide profile.
                <orderedlist>
                    <listitem>Choose "Build -> Run Configure" or "Build -> Run Autogenerate" to run
                    "configure" or "autogen", respectively for the project. 
                    Either command passes command-line arguments to instruct the 
                    cross-compile.</listitem>
                    <listitem>Choose "Build -> Build Project" to build and compile the project. 
                    If you have previously built the project in the same tree without using 
                    the cross-compiler you might find that your project fails to link. 
                    If this is the case, simply select "Build -> Clean Project" to remove the 
                    old binaries. 
                    After you clean the project you can then try building it again.</listitem>
                    <listitem>Choose "Tools -> Start QEMU" to start QEMU.  
                    After QEMU starts any error messages will appear in the message view. 
                    Once Poky has fully booted within QEMU you can deploy the project 
                    into it.</listitem>
                    <listitem>Once the project is built and you have QEMU running choose 
                    "Tools -> Deploy" to install the package into a temporary
                    directory and then copy it using "rsync" over SSH into the target. 
                    A progress bar and appropriate messages appear in the message view.</listitem>
                    <listitem>To debug a program installed onto the target choose 
                    "Tools -> Debug remote". 
                    Choosing this menu item causes prompts to appear to define the local binary 
                    for debugging and also for the command line used to run on the target. 
                    When you provide the command line be sure to include the full path to the to binary 
                    installed in the target. 
                    When the command line runs a "gdbserver" over SSH is started on the target and 
                    an instance of "cross-gdb" starts in a local terminal. 
                    The instance of "cross-gdb" will be preloaded to connect to the server and use the SDK root to 
                    find symbols. 
                    It also connects to the target and loads in various libraries as well as the 
                    target program. 
                    You should define any breakpoints or watchpoints at this point in the process since you might not 
                    be able to interrupt the execution later. 
                    To stop the debugger on the target choose "Tools -> Stop debugger".</listitem>
                    <listitem>It is also possible to execute a command in the target over SSH.
                    Doing so causes the appropriate environment to be established for execution. 
                    To execute a command choose "Choose Tools -> Run remote". 
                    This selection opens a terminal with the SSH command inside.</listitem>
                    <listitem>To perform a system-wide profile against the system running in QEMU choose 
                    "Tools -> Profile remote". 
                    This choice starts up "OProfileUI" with the appropriate parameters to 
                    connect to the server running inside QEMU and also supplies the path 
                    for debug information necessary to get a useful profile.</listitem>
                </orderedlist>
                </para>
                </section>
            </section>
        </section>

        <section id="platdev-appdev-qemu">
        <title>Developing Externally in QEMU</title>
        <para>
            Running Poky QEMU images is covered in the 
            <ulink url="http://www.yoctoproject.org/docs/yocto-quick-start/yocto-project-qs.html">
            Yocto Project Quick Start</ulink> in the "A Quick Test Run" section.
        </para>
        <para>
            Poky's QEMU images contain a complete native toolchain. This means 
            you can develop applications within QEMU similar to the way you would in a normal system. 
            Using qemux86 on an x86 machine is fast since the 
            guest and host architectures match.
            On the other hand, using qemuarm can be slower but gives 
            faithful emulation of ARM-specific issues. To speed things up, these 
            images support using "distcc" to call a cross-compiler outside the 
            emulated system. If "runqemu" was used to start
            QEMU, and "distccd" is present on the host system, any Bitbake cross-compiling 
            toolchain available from the build system is automatically
            used from within QEMU simply by calling "distcc".  You can accomplish this by defining the 
            cross-compiler variable (e.g. <filename>export CC="distcc"</filename>).
            Alterntatively, if a suitable SDK/toolchain is present in 
            <filename>/opt/poky</filename> it is also
            automatically be used.
        </para>

        <para>
            There are several options for connecting into the emulated system. 
            QEMU provides a framebuffer interface that has standard consoles 
            available. There is also a serial connection available that has a 
            console to the system running on it and uses standard IP networking. 
            The images have a dropbear ssh server running with the root password 
            disabled to allow standard ssh and scp commands to work. The images
            also contain an NFS server that exports the guest's root filesystem, which 
            allows it to be made available to the host.
        </para>
        </section>              

        <section id="platdev-appdev-insitu">
        <title>Developing in Poky Directly</title>
        <para>
            Working directly in Poky is a fast and effective development technique.
            The idea is that you can directly edit files in 
            <glossterm><link linkend='var-WORKDIR'>WORKDIR</link></glossterm> 
            or the source directory <glossterm><link linkend='var-S'>S</link></glossterm> 
            and then force specific tasks to rerun in order to test the changes. 
            An example session working on the matchbox-desktop package might 
            look like this:
        </para>

        <para>
            <literallayout class='monospaced'>
     $ bitbake matchbox-desktop
     $ sh
     $ cd tmp/work/armv5te-poky-linux-gnueabi/matchbox-desktop-2.0+svnr1708-r0/
     $ cd matchbox-desktop-2
     $ vi src/main.c
     $ exit
     $ bitbake matchbox-desktop -c compile -f
     $ bitbake matchbox-desktop
            </literallayout>
        </para>

        <para>
            This example builds the package, changes into the work directory for the package,
            changes a file, then recompiles the package. Instead of using "sh" as it is in the example,
            you can also use two different terminals. However, the risk of using two terminals 
            is that a command like "unpack" could destroy the changes you've made to the
            work directory.  Consequently, you need to work carefully.
        </para>

        <para>
            It is useful when making changes directly to the work directory files to do
            so using "quilt" as detailed in the <link linkend='usingpoky-modifying-packages-quilt'> 
            modifying packages with quilt</link> section. You can copy the resulting patches  
            into the recipe directory and use them directly in the <glossterm><link 
            linkend='var-SRC_URI'>SRC_URI</link></glossterm>.
        </para>
        <para>
            For a review of the skills used in this section see the <link
            linkend="usingpoky-components-bitbake">Bitbake</link> and <link 
            linkend="usingpoky-debugging-taskrunning">Running Specific Tasks</link> Sections.
        </para>
        </section>

        <section id="platdev-appdev-devshell">
        <title>Developing with 'devshell'</title>

        <para>
            When debugging certain commands or even when just editing packages, the
            'devshell' can be a useful tool. 
            Use a command like the following to start this tool.
        </para>

        <para>
            <literallayout class='monospaced'>
     $ bitbake matchbox-desktop -c devshell
            </literallayout>
        </para>

        <para>
            This command opens a terminal with a shell prompt within the Poky 
            environment. Consequently, the following occurs:
            <itemizedlist>
                <listitem>The PATH variable includes the cross toolchain.</listitem>
                <listitem>The pkgconfig variables find the correct <filename>.pc</filename> files.</listitem>
                <listitem>"configure" finds the Poky site files as well as any other necessary files.</listitem>
            </itemizedlist>
            Within this environment, you can run "configure" or "compile" commands as if they 
            were being run by Poky itself. 
            The working directory also automatically changes to the (<glossterm><link linkend='var-S'>S</link></glossterm>) 
            directory. 
            When you are finished, you just exit the shell or close the terminal window.
        </para>

        <para>
            The default shell used by "devshell" is the gnome-terminal. 
            You can use other forms of terminal can by setting the <glossterm>
            <link linkend='var-TERMCMD'>TERMCMD</link></glossterm> and <glossterm>
            <link linkend='var-TERMCMDRUN'>TERMCMDRUN</link></glossterm> variables 
            in <filename>local.conf</filename>. 
            For examples of the other options available, see 
            <filename>meta/conf/bitbake.conf</filename>. 
        </para>
        <para>
            An external shell is launched rather than opening directly into the original terminal 
            window.
            This allows easier interaction with Bitbake's multiple threads as well as 
            for a future client/server split.
            Note that "devshell" will still work over X11 forwarding or similar situations.
        </para>

        <para>
            It is worth remembering that inside "devshell" you need to use the full
            compiler name such as <filename>arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-gcc</filename> 
            instead of just <filename>gcc</filename>.
            The same applies to other applications such as gcc, bintuils, libtool and so forth.
            Poky will have setup environmental variables such as CC to assist applications, such as make,
            find the correct tools.
        </para>
        </section>

        <section id="platdev-appdev-srcrev">
        <title>Developing within Poky with an External SCM-based Package</title>

        <para>
            If you're working on a recipe that pulls from an external SCM it 
            is possible to have Poky notice new changes added to the 
            SCM and then build the latest version using them. 
            This only works for SCMs from which it is possible to get a sensible revision number for changes.
            Currently it works for svn, git and bzr repositories.
        </para>

        <para>
            To enable this behavior simply add <glossterm>
            <link linkend='var-SRCREV'>SRCREV</link></glossterm>_pn-<glossterm>
            <link linkend='var-PN'>PN</link></glossterm> = "${AUTOREV}" to 
            <filename>local.conf</filename>, where <glossterm><link linkend='var-PN'>PN</link></glossterm> 
            is the name of the package for which you want to enable automatic source 
            revision updating.
        </para>
        </section>
    </section>

<section id="platdev-gdb-remotedebug">
    <title>Debugging with GDB Remotely</title>

    <para>
        <ulink url="http://sourceware.org/gdb/">GDB</ulink> (The GNU Project Debugger)
        allows you to examine running programs to understand and fix problems and
        also to perform postmortem style analsys of program crashes. It is available
        as a package within poky and installed by default in sdk images. It works best
        when -dbg packages for the application being debugged are installed as the 
        extra symbols give more meaningful output from GDB. 
    </para>

    <para>
        Sometimes, due to memory or disk space constraints, it is not possible
        to use GDB directly on the remote target to debug applications. This is 
        due to the fact that
        GDB needs to load the debugging information and the binaries of the
        process being debugged. GDB then needs to perform many
        computations to locate information such as function names, variable
        names and values, stack traces, etc. even before starting the debugging
        process. This places load on the target system and can alter the
        characteristics of the program being debugged.
    </para>
    <para>
        This is where GDBSERVER comes into play as it runs on the remote target
        and does not load any debugging information from the debugged process.
        Instead, the debugging information processing is done by a GDB instance
        running on a distant computer - the host GDB. The host GDB then sends 
        control commands to GDBSERVER to make it stop or start the debugged 
        program, as well as read or write some memory regions of that debugged
        program. All the debugging information loading and processing as well
        as the heavy debugging duty is done by the host GDB, giving the 
        GDBSERVER running on the target a chance to remain small and fast.
    </para>
    <para>
        As the host GDB is responsible for loading the debugging information and 
        doing the necessary processing to make actual debugging happen, the 
        user has to make sure it can access the unstripped binaries complete
        with their debugging information and compiled with no optimisations. The
        host GDB must also have local access to all the libraries used by the 
        debugged program. On the remote target the binaries can remain stripped
        as GDBSERVER does not need any debugging information there. However they 
        must also be compiled without optimisation matching the host's binaries.
    </para>

    <para>
        The binary being debugged on the remote target machine is hence referred
        to as the 'inferior' in keeping with GDB documentation and terminology.
        Further documentation on GDB, is available on 
        <ulink url="http://sourceware.org/gdb/documentation/">on their site</ulink>.
    </para>

    <section id="platdev-gdb-remotedebug-launch-gdbserver">
        <title>Launching GDBSERVER on the target</title>
        <para>
            First, make sure gdbserver is installed on the target. If not, 
            install the gdbserver package (which needs the libthread-db1
            package).
        </para>
        <para>
            To launch GDBSERVER on the target and make it ready to "debug" a 
            program located at <emphasis>/path/to/inferior</emphasis>, connect
            to the target and launch:
            <programlisting>$ gdbserver localhost:2345 /path/to/inferior</programlisting>
            After that, gdbserver should be listening on port 2345 for debugging
            commands coming from a remote GDB process running on the host computer.
            Communication between the GDBSERVER and the host GDB will be done using
            TCP. To use other communication protocols please refer to the 
            GDBSERVER documentation.
        </para>
    </section>

    <section id="platdev-gdb-remotedebug-launch-gdb">
        <title>Launching GDB on the host computer</title>

        <para>
            Running GDB on the host computer takes a number of stages, described in the
            following sections.
        </para>

        <section id="platdev-gdb-remotedebug-launch-gdb-buildcross">
            <title>Build the cross GDB package</title>
            <para>
                A suitable gdb cross binary is required which runs on your host computer but
                knows about the the ABI of the remote target. This can be obtained from
                the the Poky toolchain, e.g. 
                <filename>/usr/local/poky/eabi-glibc/arm/bin/arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-gdb</filename> 
                which "arm" is the target architecture and "linux-gnueabi" the target ABI.
            </para>

            <para>
                Alternatively this can be built directly by Poky. To do this you would build 
                the gdb-cross package so for example you would run:
                <programlisting>bitbake gdb-cross</programlisting>
                Once built, the cross gdb binary can be found at
                <programlisting>tmp/sysroots/&lt;host-arch&lt;/usr/bin/&lt;target-abi&gt;-gdb </programlisting>
            </para>

        </section>
        <section id="platdev-gdb-remotedebug-launch-gdb-inferiorbins">

            <title>Making the inferior binaries available</title>

            <para>
                The inferior binary needs to be available to GDB complete with all debugging 
                symbols in order to get the best possible results along with any libraries
                the inferior depends on and their debugging symbols. There are a number of
                ways this can be done.
            </para>

            <para>
                Perhaps the easiest is to have an 'sdk' image corresponding to the plain
                image installed on the device. In the case of 'pky-image-sato', 
                'poky-image-sdk' would contain suitable symbols. The sdk images already 
                have the debugging symbols installed so its just a question expanding the 
                archive to some location and telling GDB where this is. 
            </para>

            <para>
                Alternatively, poky can build a custom directory of files for a specific 
                debugging purpose by reusing its tmp/rootfs directory, on the host computer
                in a slightly different way to normal. This directory contains the contents 
                of the last built image. This process assumes the image running on the
                target was the last image to be built by Poky, the package <emphasis>foo</emphasis>
                contains the inferior binary to be debugged has been built without without 
                optimisation and has debugging information available.
            </para>
            <para>
                Firstly you want to install the <emphasis>foo</emphasis> package to tmp/rootfs 
                by doing:
                </para>
                <programlisting>tmp/sysroots/i686-linux/usr/bin/opkg-cl -f \
tmp/work/&lt;target-abi&gt;/poky-image-sato-1.0-r0/temp/opkg.conf -o \
tmp/rootfs/ update</programlisting>
               <para>
                then,
                </para>
                <programlisting>tmp/sysroots/i686-linux/usr/bin/opkg-cl -f \
tmp/work/&lt;target-abi&gt;/poky-image-sato-1.0-r0/temp/opkg.conf \
-o tmp/rootfs install foo

tmp/sysroots/i686-linux/usr/bin/opkg-cl -f \
tmp/work/&lt;target-abi&gt;/poky-image-sato-1.0-r0/temp/opkg.conf \
-o tmp/rootfs install foo-dbg</programlisting>
             <para>
                which installs the debugging information too.
            </para>

        </section>
        <section id="platdev-gdb-remotedebug-launch-gdb-launchhost">

            <title>Launch the host GDB</title>
            <para>
                To launch the host GDB, run the cross gdb binary identified above with
                the inferior binary specified on the commandline:
                <programlisting>&lt;target-abi&gt;-gdb rootfs/usr/bin/foo</programlisting>
                This loads the binary of program <emphasis>foo</emphasis>
                as well as its debugging information. Once the gdb prompt
                appears, you must instruct GDB to load all the libraries
                of the inferior from tmp/rootfs:
                <programlisting>set solib-absolute-prefix /path/to/tmp/rootfs</programlisting>
                where <filename>/path/to/tmp/rootfs</filename> must be 
                the absolute path to <filename>tmp/rootfs</filename> or wherever the 
                binaries with debugging information are located.
            </para>
            <para>
                Now, tell GDB to connect to the GDBSERVER running on the remote target:
                <programlisting>target remote remote-target-ip-address:2345</programlisting>
                Where remote-target-ip-address is the IP address of the
                remote target where the GDBSERVER is running. 2345 is the
                port on which the GDBSERVER is running.
            </para>

        </section>
        <section id="platdev-gdb-remotedebug-launch-gdb-using">

            <title>Using the Debugger</title>
            <para>
                Debugging can now proceed as normal, as if the debugging were being done on the 
                local machine, for example to tell GDB to break in the <emphasis>main</emphasis> 
                function, for instance:
                <programlisting>break main</programlisting>
                and then to tell GDB to "continue" the inferior execution,
                <programlisting>continue</programlisting>
            </para>
            <para>
                For more information about using GDB please see the 
                project's online documentation at <ulink 
                url="http://sourceware.org/gdb/download/onlinedocs/"/>.
            </para>
        </section>
    </section>

</section>

<section id="platdev-oprofile">
    <title>Profiling with OProfile</title>

    <para>
        <ulink url="http://oprofile.sourceforge.net/">OProfile</ulink> is a 
        statistical profiler well suited to finding performance 
        bottlenecks in both userspace software and the kernel. It provides 
        answers to questions like "Which functions does my application spend 
        the most time in when doing X?". Poky is well integrated with OProfile
        to make profiling applications on target hardware straightforward.
    </para>

    <para>
        To use OProfile you need an image with OProfile installed. The easiest 
        way to do this is with "tools-profile" in <glossterm><link 
        linkend='var-IMAGE_FEATURES'>IMAGE_FEATURES</link></glossterm>. You also
        need debugging symbols to be available on the system where the analysis 
        will take place. This can be achieved with "dbg-pkgs" in <glossterm><link 
        linkend='var-IMAGE_FEATURES'>IMAGE_FEATURES</link></glossterm> or by
        installing the appropriate -dbg packages. For 
        successful call graph analysis the binaries must preserve the frame 
        pointer register and hence should be compiled with the 
        "-fno-omit-framepointer" flag. In Poky this can be achieved with 
        <glossterm><link linkend='var-SELECTED_OPTIMIZATION'>SELECTED_OPTIMIZATION
        </link></glossterm> = "-fexpensive-optimizations -fno-omit-framepointer 
        -frename-registers -O2" or by setting <glossterm><link 
        linkend='var-DEBUG_BUILD'>DEBUG_BUILD</link></glossterm> = "1" in 
        local.conf (the latter will also add extra debug information making the
        debug packages large).
    </para>

    <section id="platdev-oprofile-target">
        <title>Profiling on the target</title>

        <para>
            All the profiling work can be performed on the target device. A 
            simple OProfile session might look like:
        </para>

        <para>
            <literallayout class='monospaced'>
# opcontrol --reset
# opcontrol --start --separate=lib --no-vmlinux -c 5
[do whatever is being profiled]
# opcontrol --stop
$ opreport -cl
</literallayout>
        </para>

        <para>
            Here, the reset command clears any previously profiled data, 
            OProfile is then started. The options used to start OProfile mean
            dynamic library data is kept separately per application, kernel 
            profiling is disabled and callgraphing is enabled up to 5 levels 
            deep. To profile the kernel, you would specify the 
            <parameter>--vmlinux=/path/to/vmlinux</parameter> option (the vmlinux file is usually in 
            <filename class="directory">/boot/</filename> in Poky and must match the running kernel). The profile is 
            then stopped and the results viewed with opreport with options
            to see the separate library symbols and callgraph information.
        </para>
        <para>
            Callgraphing means OProfile not only logs infomation about which 
            functions time is being spent in but also which functions
            called those functions (their parents) and which functions that 
            function calls (its children). The higher the callgraphing depth, 
            the more accurate the results but this also increased the loging 
            overhead so it should be used with caution. On ARM, binaries need 
            to have the frame pointer enabled for callgraphing to work (compile
            with the gcc option -fno-omit-framepointer).
        </para>
        <para>
            For more information on using OProfile please see the OProfile 
            online documentation at <ulink 
            url="http://oprofile.sourceforge.net/docs/"/>.
        </para>
    </section>

    <section id="platdev-oprofile-oprofileui">
        <title>Using OProfileUI</title>

        <para>
            A graphical user interface for OProfile is also available. You can
            download and build it from svn at
            <ulink url="http://svn.o-hand.com/repos/oprofileui/trunk/"></ulink>. 
            If the
            "tools-profile" image feature is selected, all necessary binaries
            are installed onto the target device for OProfileUI interaction.
        </para>

<!-- DISBALED, Need a more 'contexual' shot?
        <screenshot>
        <mediaobject>
            <imageobject>
                <imagedata fileref="screenshots/ss-oprofile-viewer.png" format="PNG"/>
            </imageobject>
            <caption>
                <para>OProfileUI Viewer showing an application being profiled on a remote device</para>
            </caption>
         </mediaobject>
         </screenshot>
-->
        <para>
            In order to convert the data in the sample format from the target
            to the host the <filename>opimport</filename> program is needed. 
            This is not included in standard Debian OProfile packages but an 
            OProfile package with this addition is also available from the <ulink
                url='http://debian.o-hand.com/'>OpenedHand repository</ulink>.
            We recommend using OProfile 0.9.3 or greater. Other patches to
            OProfile may be needed for recent OProfileUI features, but Poky 
            usually includes all needed patches on the target device.  Please 
            see the <ulink
                url='http://svn.o-hand.com/repos/oprofileui/trunk/README'>
                OProfileUI README</ulink> for up to date information, and the 
            <ulink url="http://labs.o-hand.com/oprofileui">OProfileUI website
            </ulink> for more information on the OProfileUI project. 
        </para>

        <section id="platdev-oprofile-oprofileui-online">
            <title>Online mode</title>

            <para>
                This assumes a working network connection with the target 
                hardware. In this case you just need to run <command>
                "oprofile-server"</command> on the device. By default it listens 
                on port 4224. This can be changed with the <parameter>--port</parameter> command line 
                option.

            </para>

            <para>
                The client program is called <command>oprofile-viewer</command>. The  
                UI is relatively straightforward, the key functionality is accessed
                through the buttons on the toolbar (which are duplicated in the 
                menus.) These buttons are:
            </para>

            <itemizedlist>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                        Connect - connect to the remote host, the IP address or hostname for the
                        target can be supplied here.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                        Disconnect - disconnect from the target.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                        Start - start the profiling on the device.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                        Stop - stop the profiling on the device and download the data to the local
                        host. This will generate the profile and show it in the viewer.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                        Download - download the data from the target, generate the profile and show it
                        in the viewer.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                        Reset - reset the sample data on the device. This will remove the sample
                        information that was collected on a previous sampling run. Ensure you do this
                        if you do not want to include old sample information.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                        Save - save the data downloaded from the target to another directory for later
                        examination.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                        Open - load data that was previously saved.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
            </itemizedlist>

            <para>
                The behaviour of the client is to download the complete 'profile archive' from
                the target to the host for processing. This archive is a directory containing
                the sample data, the object files and the debug information for said object
                files. This archive is then converted using a script included in this
                distribution ('oparchconv') that uses 'opimport' to convert the archive from
                the target to something that can be processed on the host.
            </para>

            <para>
                Downloaded archives are kept in /tmp and cleared up when they are no longer in
                use.
            </para>

            <para>
                If you wish to profile into the kernel, this is possible, you just need to ensure
                a vmlinux file matching the running kernel is available. In Poky this is usually 
                located in /boot/vmlinux-KERNELVERSION, where KERNEL-version is the version of 
                the kernel e.g. 2.6.23. Poky generates separate vmlinux packages for each kernel
                it builds so it should be a question of just ensuring a matching package is 
                installed (<command> opkg install kernel-vmlinux</command>. These are automatically 
                installed into development and profiling images alongside OProfile. There is a 
                configuration option within the OProfileUI settings page where the location of 
                the vmlinux file can be entered. 
            </para>

            <para>
                Waiting for debug symbols to transfer from the device can be slow and it's not     
                always necessary to actually have them on device for OProfile use. All that is 
                needed is a copy of the filesystem with the debug symbols present on the viewer 
                system. The <link linkend='platdev-gdb-remotedebug-launch-gdb'>GDB remote debug
                section</link> covers how to create such a directory with Poky and the location 
                of this directory can again be specified in the OProfileUI settings dialog. If
                specified, it will be used where the file checksums match those on the system 
                being profiled.
            </para>
        </section>
        <section id="platdev-oprofile-oprofileui-offline">
            <title>Offline mode</title>

            <para>
                If no network access to the target is available an archive for processing in
                'oprofile-viewer' can be generated with the following set of command.
            </para>

            <para>
                <literallayout class='monospaced'>
# opcontrol --reset
# opcontrol --start --separate=lib --no-vmlinux -c 5
[do whatever is being profiled]
# opcontrol --stop
# oparchive -o my_archive
</literallayout>
            </para>

            <para>
                Where my_archive is the name of the archive directory where you would like the
                profile archive to be kept. The directory will be created for you. This can
                then be copied to another host and loaded using 'oprofile-viewer''s open
                functionality. The archive will be converted if necessary.
            </para>
        </section>
    </section>
</section>



</chapter> 
<!-- 
vim: expandtab tw=80 ts=4 
-->