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xPack Windows Build Tools v4.4.1-3 released

· 2 min read
Liviu Ionescu (ilg)
Liviu Ionescu (ilg)

Version 4.4.1-3 is a maintenance release of the xPack Windows Build Tools package; it updates to the latest upstream Busybox.

The xPack Windows Build Tools is a standalone Windows binary distribution of GNU make and a few of other tools required by the Eclipse Embedded CDT (formerly GNU MCU/ARM Eclipse) project, but the binaries can also be used in generic build environments.

There are binaries for x64 Windows.

Download​

The binary files are available from GitHub Releases.

Prerequisites​

  • x64 Windows: Windows 7 with the Universal C Runtime (UCRT), Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11

Install​

The easiest way to install this specific version, is by using xpm:

xpm install @xpack-dev-tools/windows-build-tools@4.4.1-3.1 -verbose

The full details of installing the xPack Windows Build Tools can be found in the Install Guide.

Compliance​

The xPack Windows Build Tools uses programs from other projects.

The current version is based on:

  • GNU make, version 4.4.1 from 26 Feb 2023
  • Busybox, the FRP-5398-g89ae34445 tag from 25 Jun 2024.

Changes​

There are no functional changes from original projects.

Bug fixes​

  • none

Enhancements​

  • none

Known problems​

  • none

Shared libraries​

The dependencies are either linked as static libraries or the DLLs are included, so the binaries should run on any Windows system.

Documentation​

  • none

Build​

The binaries were built using the xPack Build Box (XBB), a set of build environments based on slightly older distributions, that should be compatible with most recent systems.

For the prerequisites and more details on the build procedure, please see the Maintainer Info page.

CI tests​

Before publishing, a set of simple tests were performed on an exhaustive set of platforms. The results are available from:

Tests​

The binaries were testes on Windows 10 Pro 32/64-bit.

Install the package with xpm.

The simple test, consists in starting the binary.

.../xpack-windows-build-tools-4.4.1-3/bin/make --version

A more elaborate test would be to run an Eclipse build.

Checksums​

The SHA-256 hashes for the files are:

113d4dfdbbc56dc9b865c9f75d38cd0da82f0d7094187e6f7a803fe6eef1d218
xpack-windows-build-tools-4.4.1-3-win32-x64.zip

Deprecation notices​

GNU/Linux minimum requirements​

The minimum requirement is GLIBC 2.27, available starting with Ubuntu 18, Debian 10 and RedHat 8. Support for RedHat 7 was dropped in 2022.

32-bit support​

Support for 32-bit x86 GNU/Linux and x86 Windows was dropped in 2022.

Pre-deprecation notice for 32-bit Arm GNU/Linux​

Due to the large user base of 32-bit Raspberry Pi systems, support for 32-bit Arm GNU/Linux (armv7l) will be preserved for a little while, but expect it to be dropped by 2025, so it is recommended to consider an upgrade to a RPi 4 or 5 with at least 4 GB (preferably 8 GB) of RAM.

Pre-deprecation notice for Ubuntu 18.04​

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Bionic Beaver reached the end of the standard five-year maintenance window for Long-Term Support (LTS) release on 31 May 2023.

As a courtesy, the xPack GNU/Linux releases will continue to be based on Ubuntu 18.04 for another year.

From 2025 onwards, the GNU/Linux binaries will be built on Debian 10, (GLIBC 2.28), and are also expected to run on RedHat 8.

Users are urged to update their build and test infrastructure to ensure a smooth transition to the next xPack releases.

Analytics​

Credit to Shields IO for the badges and to Somsubhra/github-release-stats for the individual file counters.