From 903059dfb0dc520f0618062bbbafac4ebd8e29f8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Laurent Bercot Date: Mon, 22 May 2017 22:35:47 +0000 Subject: Add index.html, rename documentation to doc, clean up --- doc/INTERNALS.md | 106 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 106 insertions(+) create mode 100644 doc/INTERNALS.md (limited to 'doc/INTERNALS.md') diff --git a/doc/INTERNALS.md b/doc/INTERNALS.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ab7aa54 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/INTERNALS.md @@ -0,0 +1,106 @@ + + + +# Internals of lh-bootstrap + +Laurent Bercot +last modified: 2017-04-07 + +## Definitions + +BUILD is the machine you're running this set of scripts on. +HOST is the machine you're building the image for. +TARGET has the same meaning as HOST. See the `README.md` file. + + +## General organization + +### ./lh-config and ./make + +All your configuration should happen in the `lh-config` file. It is a series +of variable assignments, in shell syntax. + +`./make` is a shell script that reads `lh-config`, provides reasonable +defaults for variables not specified in `lh-config`, exports a set of +variables into the environment then executes into `make` with the exact +same command line that it was given. So you can use make options, specify +a make target, etc. + + +### Other files and directories + +The main `Makefile` includes sub-Makefiles that are in the subdirectories +of the `sub` directory, roughly one per software package. Those subdirectories +also may contain various scripts and patches necessary to make the software +package compile and/or run properly. + +The `bin` directory contains scripts that are used throughout the whole +build process. They have been designed for maximum portability, not efficiency. + +The `sysdeps` directory contains "system dependencies" for the various HOSTs +that lh-bootstrap supports, i.e. a textual description of the +HOST architecture's capabilities and quirks, such as endianness, sizes of +certain types, etc. These descriptions are used when cross-compiling the +skarnet.org packages. + +The `layout` directory contains the base layout for all the filesystems +that are used to build our image: + +- *rootfs* is the basic one, the root filesystem. It will be mounted +read-only. +- *rwfs* is a read-write directory we use to store our configuration +and other read-write data for normal operation of the machine. It is +not accessible to "normal" users. For instance, `/var` is a part of +rwfs. +- *userfs* is a read-write directory that will be used to store user +data. For instance, `/home` is a part of userfs. +- *stagingfs* is unused for now. It will be used for safe firmware +updates. + + All the files under `layout` must be text or otherwise editable +files: there must be absolutely no binary files in it. Currently, +the timezone files (`/etc/zoneinfo`) are an exception to that rule; +at some point I will remove them and make a sub-package script to +install them. + + +## Dependencies and build order + +`./make` first builds a set of tools for the BUILD. The goal is to make the +build work on as many BUILD machines as possible, with as few dependencies +as possible. For instance, parts of a recent `util-linux` package are +installed because the build needs the `-P` option to the `losetup` binary +and not all distributions ship a `util-linux` version with `losetup -P`. + +Then `./make` builds the software for the HOST, installing it into the +`rootfs` subdirectory of the output. + + +### Topological list of the BUILD tools + +- Linux kernel headers +- musl +- skarnet.org packages +- some binaries from util-linux +- xz-utils +- kmod + + +### Topological list of the HOST packages + + For now, the HOST packages are a mix of "production" bootstrap packages, +i.e. software that is needed to get a host up and running without +aiming for development on that host, and "development" bootstrap packages, +i.e. software that is needed to turn the host into a native development +platform (in order to build and install software that is difficult to +cross-compile). A better separation between those two sets of packages +is planned for future versions of lh-bootstrap. + +- Linux kernel +- musl +- bearssl +- skarnet.org packages +- busybox +- dnscache (from djbdns) +- dropbear +- a native host toolchain (for now just copied from a location) -- cgit v1.2.3