The xPack Build Box history

The project was initiated in January 2018 to address the need for a build environment capable of integrating arm-none-eabi-gcc into GNU ARM Eclipse.

The initial release, version 1, drew inspiration from Holy Build Box. It utilised CentOS 6 Docker images for GNU/Linux and Homebrew for macOS

March 2019

In March 2019, version 2 was released, incorporating a major rework

January 2020

In January 2020, version 3 introduced an upgrade to Ubuntu 12 for x64 and Ubuntu 16 for Arm.

The build process was divided into two steps, starting with a bootstrap phase that included essential tools required to build the final tools.

January 2023

The complexity of the custom builds increased to the point where the entire project became difficult to manage, taking days to complete.

The solution was to migrate all tools to binary xPacks. This was accomplished in two steps. In the intermediate version 4, all tools were packaged as binary xPacks, known as the The xPack XBB Bootstrap. The base XBB environment was simplified to standard Docker images or macOS systems.

The next step, version 5, upgraded the environment to Ubuntu 18

The v5.0.0 release represents a major milestone for the xPack project, since it is the first self-sustained release, which allows to build new binary xPacks using previous xPacks, without requiring any custom Docker images, or other compiled tools.

The foreseeable future

The next step is planned for 2025, featuring an upgrade to Debian 10 and the deprecation of Arm 32-bit support.