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How to contribute to the xPack OpenOCD

license

This page is designed for developers who plan to contribute new features or fix bugs in the xPack OpenOCD project and provides documentation on how to build and test the package.

The xPack Build Box

The build scripts in this project use the xPack Build Box (XBB) tools, which require the usual native development tools (packed as a Docker image for GNU/Linux builds), complemented with several binary packages, installed with xpm as development dependencies.

For those interested in understanding how things work, a good starting point would be to read the XBB page.

caution

The XBB tools are intended for building standalone relocatable distributions, thus are quite complex and perform several post-processing steps to adjust RPATH and validate the resulting binaries.

For the traditional configure && make install builds specific to Linux, these scripts are probably too complicated and therefore are not recommended for inexperienced users.

xPack build configurations

The xPack Framework supports projects with multiple build configurations.

Build configurations are sets of properties, actions and dependencies that apply to a specific build. Build configurations can inherit from other build configurations.

For simple projects, the typical use case is with two configurations, Debug and Release.

For building the binary xPack executables, there is one configuration for each platform:

  • win32-x64
  • darwin-x64
  • darwin-arm64
  • linux-x64
  • linux-arm64
  • linux-arm
note

In case you wonder where these names come from, they are exactly the Node.js process.platform and process.arch for each platform.

The build configurations are defined in the package.json file, in the xpack section.

{
  "...":"...",
  "xpack": {
    "buildConfigurations": {
      "...": {
      },
      "win32-x64": {
        "inherit": [
          "common-dependencies",
          "common-actions",
          "common-docker"
        ],
        "devDependencies": {
          "@xpack-dev-tools/gcc": "13.2.0-2.1",
          "@xpack-dev-tools/mingw-w64-gcc": "13.2.0-1.1",
          "@xpack-dev-tools/wine": "8.0.2-1.1"
        },
        "properties": {
          "dockerImage": "ilegeul/ubuntu:amd64-18.04-xbb-v5.2.2"
        },
        "actions": {
          "build": "{{properties.commandBashBuild}} --windows",
          "build-development": "{{properties.commandBashBuild}} --windows --development",
          "build-development-debug": "{{properties.commandBashBuild}} --windows --development --debug",
          "build-development-tests-only": "{{properties.commandBashBuild}} --windows --development --tests-only"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

To ask xpm to perform a specific action on a given build configuration, use the --config <name> option.

For example:

xpm install --config darwin-x64
xpm run build --config darwin-x64
xpm/xPack actions

The xpm actions are extensions of npm scripts, i.e. named sequences of commands that are invoked via xpm run <name> to perform specific operations. together in a sub-shell .

The commands are invoked in a sub-shell with an adjusted PATH, having the xpacks/.bin folder prepended. This ensures the locally installed tools are preferred to the system tools.

Actions can be defined for the entire project or for a specific build configuration.

The actions are defined in the package.json file, in the xpack section, at the top or inside build configurations.

tip

For those who, for various reasons, can not use xpm, it is perfectly possible to manually adjust the PATH and to invoke the sequence of commands in order, just that it is more tedious, since multiple substitutions must be performed to compose the commands.

Visual Studio Code integration

xpm/xPack actions and build configurations are supported in Visual Studio via the xPack C/C++ Managed Build Tools extension.

With this extension installed, xpm/xPack actions can be very conveniently invoked via a single mouse click, for example:

xPack actions

Prerequisites​

The build scripts run on GNU/Linux and macOS. The Windows binaries are compiled on x64 GNU/Linux, using mingw-w64.

For details on installing the prerequisites, please read the Build Prerequisites page.

Get project sources​

The project is hosted on GitHub:

Branches

Apart from the unused master branch, there are three active branches:

  • xpack, with the latest stable version (default)
  • xpack-development, with the current development version
  • website, with the current content of the website

All development is done in the xpack-development branch, and contributions via Pull Requests should be directed to this branch.

When new releases are published, the xpack-development branch is merged into xpack.

Pushes to the website branch trigger a GitHub Action to generate and publish the project web site.

To clone the stable branch (xpack), run the following commands in a terminal (on Windows use the Git Bash console):

rm -rf ~/Work/xpack-dev-tools/openocd-xpack.git && \
git clone https://github.com/xpack-dev-tools/openocd-xpack.git \
  ~/Work/xpack-dev-tools/openocd-xpack.git
For development purposes, clone the xpack-development branch.
rm -rf ~/Work/xpack-dev-tools/openocd-xpack.git && \
mkdir -p ~/Work/xpack-dev-tools && \
git clone \
  --branch xpack-development \
  https://github.com/xpack-dev-tools/openocd-xpack.git \
  ~/Work/xpack-dev-tools/openocd-xpack.git
tip

To contribute Pull Requests, fork the project and be sure the Copy the master branch only is disabled.

Use the xpack-development branch and be sure you contribute the Pull Requests back to the xpack-development branch.

::

Get the writable helper sources (optional, for development purposes)

The project has a dependency to a common helper, that is normally installed as a read-only dependency; for development purposes, to be able to make changes to the scripts located inside the helper, clone the xpack-development branch and link it to the user global xPacks store:

rm -rf ~/Work/xpack-dev-tools/xbb-helper-xpack.git && \
mkdir -p ~/Work/xpack-dev-tools && \
git clone \
  --branch xpack-development \
  https://github.com/xpack-dev-tools/xbb-helper-xpack.git \
  ~/Work/xpack-dev-tools/xbb-helper-xpack.git && \
xpm link -C ~/Work/xpack-dev-tools/xbb-helper-xpack.git

For more details the how a writable helper can be used via xpm link, please see the XBB documentation.

Other repositories​

Other repositories in use are:

How to build​

The builds require dedicated machines for each platform (x64 GNU/Linux, armh64 GNU/Linux, arm GNU/Linux, x64 macOS and arm64 macOS).

Update the repo​

git -C ~/Work/xpack-dev-tools/openocd-xpack.git pull
... and the helper (when using a writable helper) ...
git -C ~/Work/xpack-dev-tools/xbb-helper-xpack.git pull

Build the binaries​

The Windows builds run on GNU/Linux, using mingw-w64.

To prepare the docker build:

xpm run install -C ~/Work/xpack-dev-tools/openocd-xpack.git/build-assets && \
xpm run docker-prepare --config win32-x64 -C ~/Work/xpack-dev-tools/openocd-xpack.git/build-assets
... or, with the writable helper ...
xpm run install -C ~/Work/xpack-dev-tools/openocd-xpack.git/build-assets && \
xpm run link-deps -C ~/Work/xpack-dev-tools/openocd-xpack.git/build-assets && \
xpm run docker-prepare --config win32-x64 -C ~/Work/xpack-dev-tools/openocd-xpack.git/build-assets && \
xpm run docker-link-deps --config win32-x64 -C ~/Work/xpack-dev-tools/openocd-xpack.git/build-assets

To run the docker build:

xpm run docker-build --config win32-x64 -C ~/Work/xpack-dev-tools/openocd-xpack.git/build-assets

or, for more verbosity, run the similar development build:

xpm run docker-build-development --config win32-x64 -C ~/Work/xpack-dev-tools/openocd-xpack.git/build-assets

Several minutes later, the output of the build script is a compressed archive and its SHA signature, created in the build-assets/build/win32-x64/deploy folder:

  • xpack-openocd-0.12.0-4-win32-x64.tar.gz
  • xpack-openocd-0.12.0-4-win32-x64.tar.gz.sha

To rerun the build, invoke the deep-clean action and repeat from install:

xpm run deep-clean --config win32-x64 -C ~/Work/xpack-dev-tools/openocd-xpack.git/build-assets

Compile with debug info​

In some cases it is necessary to run a debug session with the binaries.

For these cases, the build script accepts the --debug options.

There are also xpm actions that use this option (build-development-debug and docker-build-development-debug).

Use a local cache​

The XBB build scripts use a local cache such that files are downloaded only during the first run, later runs being able to use the cached files.

However, occasionally some servers may not be available, and the builds may fail.

The workaround is to manually download the files from alternate locations (like https://github.com/xpack-dev-tools/files-cache/tree/master/libs), place them in the XBB cache (Work/cache) and restart the build.

Manual tests​

For the simplest functional case, plug a common board like the STM32F4DISCOVERY into an USB port, start the program and check if the CPU is identified.

Note: If this is the first time openocd is executed, on GNU/Linux it is necessary to configure the rights, otherwise LIBUSB will issue the libusb_open failed: LIBUSB_ERROR_ACCESS error.

sudo cp ~/Downloads/xpack-openocd-0.12.0-4/contrib/60-openocd.rules /etc/udev/rules.d
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules

Then it is possible to start openocd:

$ .../bin/openocd -f "board/stm32f4discovery.cfg"
xPack Open On-Chip Debugger 0.12.0-01004-g9ea7f3d64-dirty
Licensed under GNU GPL v2
For bug reports, read
https://openocd.org/doc/doxygen/bugs.html
Info : The selected transport took over low-level target control. The results might differ compared to plain JTAG/SWD
srst_only separate srst_nogate srst_open_drain connect_deassert_srst

Info : Listening on port 6666 for tcl connections
Info : Listening on port 4444 for telnet connections
Info : clock speed 2000 kHz
Info : STLINK V2J39S0 (API v2) VID:PID 0483:3748
Info : Target voltage: 2.901598
Info : [stm32f4x.cpu] Cortex-M4 r0p1 processor detected
Info : [stm32f4x.cpu] target has 6 breakpoints, 4 watchpoints
Info : starting gdb server for stm32f4x.cpu on 3333
Info : Listening on port 3333 for gdb connections
[stm32f4x.cpu] halted due to breakpoint, current mode: Handler HardFault
xPSR: 0x61000003 pc: 0x080002d6 msp: 0x2001ff78
^C
shutdown command invoked

Note: on recent macOS systems it might be necessary to allow individual programs to run.

For a more thorough test, run a debug session with the Eclipse STM32F4DISCOVERY blinky test available in the xpack-arm-none-eabi-openocd package, which uses the -f "board/stm32f4discovery.cfg" configuration file (import the arm-f4b-fs project and start the arm-f4b-fs-debug-oocd launcher).