0be303cacc
The correct capitalised form appears to be "BusyBox" rather than "Busybox"; fix all references to the latter form. (Most such references occur in the manual and in commentary in package makefiles.) Signed-off-by: Simon Dawson <spdawson@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Peter Korsgaard <peter@korsgaard.com>
256 lines
8.8 KiB
Plaintext
256 lines
8.8 KiB
Plaintext
// -*- mode:doc; -*-
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// vim: set syntax=asciidoc:
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== Daily use
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include::rebuilding-packages.txt[]
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=== Offline builds
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If you intend to do an offline build and just want to download
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all sources that you previously selected in the configurator
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('menuconfig', 'nconfig', 'xconfig' or 'gconfig'), then issue:
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--------------------
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$ make source
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--------------------
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You can now disconnect or copy the content of your +dl+
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directory to the build-host.
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=== Building out-of-tree
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As default, everything built by Buildroot is stored in the directory
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+output+ in the Buildroot tree.
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Buildroot also supports building out of tree with a syntax similar to
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the Linux kernel. To use it, add +O=<directory>+ to the make command
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line:
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--------------------
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$ make O=/tmp/build
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--------------------
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Or:
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--------------------
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$ cd /tmp/build; make O=$PWD -C path/to/buildroot
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--------------------
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All the output files will be located under +/tmp/build+. If the +O+
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path does not exist, Buildroot will create it.
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*Note:* the +O+ path can be either an absolute or a relative path, but if it's
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passed as a relative path, it is important to note that it is interpreted
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relative to the main Buildroot source directory, *not* the current working
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directory.
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When using out-of-tree builds, the Buildroot +.config+ and temporary
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files are also stored in the output directory. This means that you can
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safely run multiple builds in parallel using the same source tree as
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long as they use unique output directories.
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For ease of use, Buildroot generates a Makefile wrapper in the output
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directory - so after the first run, you no longer need to pass +O=<...>+
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and +-C <...>+, simply run (in the output directory):
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--------------------
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$ make <target>
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--------------------
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[[env-vars]]
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=== Environment variables
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Buildroot also honors some environment variables, when they are passed
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to +make+ or set in the environment:
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* +HOSTCXX+, the host C++ compiler to use
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* +HOSTCC+, the host C compiler to use
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* +UCLIBC_CONFIG_FILE=<path/to/.config>+, path to
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the uClibc configuration file, used to compile uClibc, if an
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internal toolchain is being built.
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+
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Note that the uClibc configuration file can also be set from the
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configuration interface, so through the Buildroot +.config+ file; this
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is the recommended way of setting it.
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+
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* +BUSYBOX_CONFIG_FILE=<path/to/.config>+, path to
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the BusyBox configuration file.
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+
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Note that the BusyBox configuration file can also be set from the
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configuration interface, so through the Buildroot +.config+ file; this
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is the recommended way of setting it.
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+
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* +BR2_DL_DIR+ to override the directory in which
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Buildroot stores/retrieves downloaded files
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+
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Note that the Buildroot download directory can also be set from the
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configuration interface, so through the Buildroot +.config+ file; this
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is the recommended way of setting it.
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* +BR2_GRAPH_ALT+, if set and non-empty, to use an alternate color-scheme in
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build-time graphs
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* +BR2_GRAPH_OUT+ to set the filetype of generated graphs, either +pdf+ (the
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default), or +png+.
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* +BR2_GRAPH_DEPS_OPTS+ to pass extra options to the dependency graph; see
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xref:graph-depends[] for the accepted options
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An example that uses config files located in the toplevel directory and
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in your $HOME:
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--------------------
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$ make UCLIBC_CONFIG_FILE=uClibc.config BUSYBOX_CONFIG_FILE=$HOME/bb.config
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--------------------
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If you want to use a compiler other than the default +gcc+
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or +g+++ for building helper-binaries on your host, then do
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--------------------
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$ make HOSTCXX=g++-4.3-HEAD HOSTCC=gcc-4.3-HEAD
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--------------------
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=== Dealing efficiently with filesystem images
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Filesystem images can get pretty big, depending on the filesystem you choose,
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the number of packages, whether you provisioned free space... Yet, some
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locations in the filesystems images may just be _empty_ (e.g. a long run of
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'zeroes'); such a file is called a _sparse_ file.
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Most tools can handle sparse files efficiently, and will only store or write
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those parts of a sparse file that are not empty.
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For example:
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* +tar+ accepts the +-S+ option to tell it to only store non-zero blocks
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of sparse files:
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** +tar cf archive.tar -S [files...]+ will efficiently store sparse files
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in a tarball
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** +tar xf archive.tar -S+ will efficiently store sparse files extracted
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from a tarball
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* +cp+ accepts the +--sparse=WHEN+ option (+WHEN+ is one of +auto+,
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+never+ or +always+):
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** +cp --sparse=always source.file dest.file+ will make +dest.file+ a
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sparse file if +source.file+ has long runs of zeroes
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Other tools may have similar options. Please consult their respective man
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pages.
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You can use sparse files if you need to store the filesystem images (e.g.
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to transfer from one machine to another), or if you need to send them (e.g.
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to the Q&A team).
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Note however that flashing a filesystem image to a device while using the
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sparse mode of +dd+ may result in a broken filesystem (e.g. the block bitmap
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of an ext2 filesystem may be corrupted; or, if you have sparse files in
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your filesystem, those parts may not be all-zeroes when read back). You
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should only use sparse files when handling files on the build machine, not
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when transferring them to an actual device that will be used on the target.
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=== Graphing the dependencies between packages
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[[graph-depends]]
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One of Buildroot's jobs is to know the dependencies between packages,
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and make sure they are built in the right order. These dependencies
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can sometimes be quite complicated, and for a given system, it is
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often not easy to understand why such or such package was brought into
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the build by Buildroot.
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In order to help understanding the dependencies, and therefore better
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understand what is the role of the different components in your
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embedded Linux system, Buildroot is capable of generating dependency
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graphs.
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To generate a dependency graph of the full system you have compiled,
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simply run:
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------------------------
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make graph-depends
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------------------------
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You will find the generated graph in
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+output/graphs/graph-depends.pdf+.
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If your system is quite large, the dependency graph may be too complex
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and difficult to read. It is therefore possible to generate the
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dependency graph just for a given package:
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------------------------
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make <pkg>-graph-depends
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------------------------
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You will find the generated graph in
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+output/graph/<pkg>-graph-depends.pdf+.
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Note that the dependency graphs are generated using the +dot+ tool
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from the _Graphviz_ project, which you must have installed on your
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system to use this feature. In most distributions, it is available as
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the +graphviz+ package.
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By default, the dependency graphs are generated in the PDF
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format. However, by passing the +BR2_GRAPH_OUT+ environment variable, you
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can switch to other output formats, such as PNG, PostScript or
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SVG. All formats supported by the +-T+ option of the +dot+ tool are
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supported.
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--------------------------------
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BR2_GRAPH_OUT=svg make graph-depends
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--------------------------------
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The +graph-depends+ behaviour can be controlled by setting options in the
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+BR2_GRAPH_DEPS_OPTS+ environment variable. The accepted options are:
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* +--depth N+, +-d N+, to limit the dependency depth to +N+ levels. The
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default, +0+, means no limit.
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--------------------------------
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BR2_GRAPH_DEPS_OPTS='-d 3' make graph-depends
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--------------------------------
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=== Graphing the build duration
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[[graph-duration]]
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When the build of a system takes a long time, it is sometimes useful
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to be able to understand which packages are the longest to build, to
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see if anything can be done to speed up the build. In order to help
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such build time analysis, Buildroot collects the build time of each
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step of each package, and allows to generate graphs from this data.
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To generate the build time graph after a build, run:
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----------------
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make graph-build
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----------------
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This will generate a set of files in +output/graphs+ :
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* +build.hist-build.pdf+, a histogram of the build time for each
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package, ordered in the build order.
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* +build.hist-duration.pdf+, a histogram of the build time for each
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package, ordered by duration (longest first)
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* +build.hist-name.pdf+, a histogram of the build time for each
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package, order by package name.
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* +build.pie-packages.pdf+, a pie chart of the build time per package
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* +build.pie-steps.pdf+, a pie chart of the global time spent in each
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step of the packages build process.
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This +graph-build+ target requires the Python Matplotlib and Numpy
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libraries to be installed (+python-matplotlib+ and +python-numpy+ on
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most distributions), and also the +argparse+ module if you're using a
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Python version older than 2.7 (+python-argparse+ on most
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distributions).
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By default, the output format for the graph is PDF, but a different
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format can be selected using the +BR2_GRAPH_OUT+ environment variable. The
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only other format supported is PNG:
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----------------
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BR2_GRAPH_OUT=png make graph-build
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----------------
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