📝 8 Dec 2024
Folks on macOS: Compiling Apache NuttX RTOS used to be so tiresome. Not any more! run-build-macos.sh
## Build Anything on Apple Silicon macOS:
## Arm32, RISC-V and Xtensa!
git clone https://github.com/lupyuen/nuttx-build-farm
cd nuttx-build-farm
./run-build-macos.sh raspberrypi-pico:nsh
./run-build-macos.sh ox64:nsh
./run-build-macos.sh esp32s3-devkit:nsh
## NuttX Executable will be at
## /tmp/run-build-macos/nuttx
In this article, we explain…
How we Build Anything on macOS Arm64
By patching the NuttX CI Script for macOS
Which also becomes our macOS Build Farm
Thanks to the awesome work by Simbit18!
Can macOS replace a PC? Not quite yet
Because some NuttX Targets won’t build correctly
“GNU Coreutils and Binutils on PATH are also known to break build in MacOS”
Super Important! NuttX won’t build correctly on macOS unless we remove Homebrew ar
from PATH: run-job-macos.sh
## Remove Homebrew `ar` from PATH
## Instead: We use `/usr/bin/ar`
## https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv/issues/2862#issuecomment-1849198741
export PATH=$(
echo $PATH \
| tr ':' '\n' \
| grep -v "/opt/homebrew/opt/make/libexec/gnubin" \
| grep -v "/opt/homebrew/opt/coreutils/libexec/gnubin" \
| grep -v "/opt/homebrew/opt/binutils/bin" \
| tr '\n' ':'
)
if [[ $(which ar) != "/usr/bin/ar" ]]; then
echo "ERROR: Expected 'which ar' to return /usr/bin/ar, not $(which ar)"
exit 1
fi
Thus we should always do the above before compiling NuttX. Otherwise we’ll see a conflict between the Homebrew and Clang Linkers…
ld: archive member '/' not a mach-o file in 'libgp.a'
clang++: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)
Earlier we talked about compiling Any NuttX Target on macOS: run-build-macos.sh
## Build Anything on Apple Silicon macOS:
## Arm32, RISC-V and Xtensa!
git clone https://github.com/lupyuen/nuttx-build-farm
cd nuttx-build-farm
./run-build-macos.sh raspberrypi-pico:nsh
./run-build-macos.sh ox64:nsh
./run-build-macos.sh esp32s3-devkit:nsh
## NuttX Executable will be at
## /tmp/run-build-macos/nuttx
## To re-download the GCC Toolchains
## rm -rf /tmp/run-build-macos
And it works on Apple Silicon! M1, M2, M3, M4, …
$ ./run-build-macos.sh raspberrypi-pico:nsh
Configuration/Tool: raspberrypi-pico/nsh,CONFIG_ARM_TOOLCHAIN_GNU_EABI
Cleaning...
Configuring...
Disabling CONFIG_ARM_TOOLCHAIN_GNU_EABI
Enabling CONFIG_ARM_TOOLCHAIN_GNU_EABI
Building NuttX...
Normalize raspberrypi-pico/nsh
Build Log for Arm32 (raspberrypi-pico:nsh)
Build Log for RISC-V (ox64:nsh)
Build Log for Xtensa (esp32s3-devkit:nsh)
With Some Exceptions, see below
Huh what about the GCC Toolchains? Arm32, RISC-V, Xtensa…
Toolchains are Auto-Downloaded. Thanks to the brilliant Continuous Integration Script by Simbit18!
NuttX CI for macOS Arm64 (darwin_arm64.sh)
Just make sure we’ve installed brew, neofetch and Xcode Command-Line Tools.
(Yep the same script drives our GitHub Daily Builds)
Toolchains are downloaded in 10 mins, subsequent builds are quicker
We’re running the NuttX CI Script on our computer. How does it work?
This is how we call tools/ci/cibuild.sh to Download the Toolchains and Compile our NuttX Target: run-build-macos.sh
## Let's download the NuttX Toolchains and Run a NuttX Build on macOS
## First we checkout the NuttX Repo and NuttX Apps...
tmp_dir=/tmp/run-build-macos
cd $tmp_dir
git clone https://github.com/apache/nuttx
git clone https://github.com/apache/nuttx-apps apps
## Then we patch the NuttX CI Script for Apple Silicon: darwin_arm64.sh
## Which will trigger an "uncommitted files" warning later
pushd nuttx
$script_dir/patch-ci-macos.sh ## https://github.com/lupyuen/nuttx-build-farm/blob/main/patch-ci-macos.sh
popd
## Omitted: Suppress the uncommitted darwin_arm64.sh warning:
## We copy the patched "nuttx" folder to "nuttx-patched"
## Then restore the original "nuttx" folder
...
## NuttX CI Build expects this Target Format:
## /arm/rp2040/raspberrypi-pico/configs/nsh,CONFIG_ARM_TOOLCHAIN_GNU_EABI
## /risc-v/bl808/ox64/configs/nsh
## /xtensa/esp32s3/esp32s3-devkit/configs/nsh
target_file=$tmp_dir/target.dat
rm -f $target_file
echo "/arm/*/$board/configs/$config,CONFIG_ARM_TOOLCHAIN_GNU_EABI" >>$target_file
echo "/arm64/*/$board/configs/$config" >>$target_file
echo "/risc-v/*/$board/configs/$config" >>$target_file
echo "/sim/*/$board/configs/$config" >>$target_file
echo "/x86_64/*/$board/configs/$config" >>$target_file
echo "/xtensa/*/$board/configs/$config" >>$target_file
## Run the NuttX CI Build in "nuttx-patched"
pushd nuttx-patched/tools/ci
(
./cibuild.sh -i -c -A -R $target_file \
|| echo '***** BUILD FAILED'
)
popd
What is patch-ci-macos.sh?
To run NuttX CI Locally: We made Minor Tweaks. Somehow this Python Environment runs OK at GitHub Actions: darwin_arm64.sh
## Original Python Environment:
## Works OK for GitHub Actions
python_tools() { ...
python3 \
-m venv \
--system-site-packages /opt/homebrew ...
But it doesn’t work locally. Hence we patch darwin_arm64.sh to Run Locally: patch-ci-macos.sh
## Modified Python Environment:
## For Local macOS
python_tools() {
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
Why the “uncommitted darwin_arm64.sh warning”?
Remember we just patched darwin_arm64.sh? NuttX CI is super picky about Modified Files, it will warn us because we changed darwin_arm64.sh.
Our Workaround: We copy the modified nuttx folder to nuttx-patched. Then we run NuttX CI from nuttx-patched folder: run-build-macos.sh
## Suppress the uncommitted darwin_arm64.sh warning:
## We copy the patched "nuttx" folder to "nuttx-patched"
## Then restore the original "nuttx" folder
cp -r nuttx nuttx-patched
pushd nuttx
git restore tools/ci
popd
## Patch the CI Job cibuild.sh to point to "nuttx-patched"
## Change: CIPLAT=${CIWORKSPACE}/nuttx/tools/ci/platforms
## To: CIPLAT=${CIWORKSPACE}/nuttx-patched/tools/ci/platforms
file=nuttx-patched/tools/ci/cibuild.sh
tmp_file=$tmp_dir/cibuild.sh
search='\/nuttx\/tools\/'
replace='\/nuttx-patched\/tools\/'
cat $file \
| sed "s/$search/$replace/g" \
>$tmp_file
mv $tmp_file $file
chmod +x $file
## Run the NuttX CI Build in "nuttx-patched"
pushd nuttx-patched/tools/ci
./cibuild.sh -i -c -A -R $target_file
...
Awesome! We can compile Everything NuttX on macOS Arm64?
Erm sorry not quite. These NuttX Targets won’t compile on macOS…
Group | Target | Troubles |
---|---|---|
arm-05 | nrf5340-dk : rpmsghci_nimble_cpuapp | ble_svc_gatt.c: rc set but not used |
arm-07 | ucans32k146 : se05x | mv: illegal option T |
arm64-01 | imx93-evk : bootloader | ld: library not found for -lcrt0.o |
other | micropendous3 : hello | avr-objcopy: Bad CPU type in executable |
sim-01 to 03 | sim : nsh | clang: invalid argument ‘medium’ to -mcmodel= |
x86_64-01 | qemu-intel64 : jumbo | arg_rex.c: setjmp.h: No such file or directory |
xtensa-02 | esp32s3-devkit : qemu_debug | xtensa_hostfs.c: SIMCALL_O_NONBLOCK undeclared |
xtensa-02 | esp32s3-devkit : knsh | sed: invalid command code . |
Clang Groups | Clang Targets | clang++: configuration file cannot be found |
We’ll come back to this. First we talk about NuttX Build Farm…
What’s this macOS Build Farm?
Earlier we compiled NuttX for One Single Target. Now we scale up and Compile All NuttX Targets… Non-Stop 24 by 7!
This becomes our Community-Hosted macOS Build Farm for NuttX.
(Why? So we can Catch Build Errors without depending on GitHub Actions)
If Your Mac has Spare CPU Cycles: Please join our macOS Build Farm! 🙏 Like so: run.sh
## Run the NuttX Build Farm for macOS.
## Set the GitHub Token: (Should have Gist Permission)
## export GITHUB_TOKEN=...
. $HOME/github-token.sh
brew install neofetch gh
## Run All NuttX CI Jobs on macOS
## Will repeat forever
git clone https://github.com/lupyuen/nuttx-build-farm
cd nuttx-build-farm
./run-ci-macos.sh
## To re-download the GCC Toolchains:
## rm -rf /tmp/run-job-macos
## For Testing:
## Run One Single NuttX CI Job on macOS
## ./run-job-macos.sh risc-v-01
And please tell me your Gist User ID. (Also works for GitLab Snippets)
The Build Outcomes will appear in NuttX Dashboard…
How does it work?
macOS Build Farm shall run (nearly) All NuttX CI Jobs, forever and ever: run-ci-macos.sh
## Run All NuttX CI Jobs on macOS, forever and ever.
## Arm32 Jobs run hotter (80 deg C) than RISC-V Jobs (70 deg C).
## So we stagger the jobs.
## risc-v-05: CI Test may hang, we move to the end
for (( ; ; )); do
for job in \
arm-08 risc-v-06 \
arm-09 xtensa-01 \
arm-10 arm-11 arm-12 arm-13 arm-14 \
arm-01 risc-v-01 \
arm-02 risc-v-02 \
arm-03 risc-v-03 \
arm-04 risc-v-04 \
arm-06 risc-v-05
do
## Run the CI Job and find Errors / Warnings
run_job $job
clean_log
find_messages
## Upload the log to GitLab Snippet or GitHub Gist
upload_log $job $nuttx_hash $apps_hash
done
done
## Run the NuttX CI Job (e.g. risc-v-01)
## Capture the output
function run_job {
local job=$1
pushd /tmp
script $log_file \
$script_option \
$script_dir/run-job-macos.sh $job
popd
}
(Some Target Groups won’t compile)
(clean_log removes Control Chars)
What’s inside run-job-macos.sh?
It will run one single NuttX CI Job. Similar to the NuttX Build Script we saw earlier: run-job-macos.sh
## Run one single NuttX CI Job on macOS (e.g. risc-v-01)
## Checkout the NuttX Repo and NuttX Apps
tmp_dir=/tmp/run-job-macos
cd $tmp_dir
git clone https://github.com/apache/nuttx
git clone https://github.com/apache/nuttx-apps apps
## Patch the macOS CI Job for Apple Silicon: darwin_arm64.sh
## Which will trigger an "uncommitted files" warning later
pushd nuttx
$script_dir/patch-ci-macos.sh ## https://github.com/lupyuen/nuttx-build-farm/blob/main/patch-ci-macos.sh
popd
## Omitted: Suppress the uncommitted darwin_arm64.sh warning:
## We copy the patched "nuttx" folder to "nuttx-patched"
## Then restore the original "nuttx" folder
...
## Exclude clang Targets from macOS Build
## Because they will fail due to unknown arch
## "/arm/lpc54xx,CONFIG_ARM_TOOLCHAIN_CLANG"
## https://github.com/apache/nuttx/pull/14691#issuecomment-2466518544
tmp_file=$tmp_dir/rewrite-testlist.dat
for file in nuttx-patched/tools/ci/testlist/*.dat; do
grep -v "CLANG" \
$file \
>$tmp_file
mv $tmp_file $file
done
## If CI Test Hangs: Kill it after 1 hour
( sleep 3600 ; echo Killing pytest after timeout... ; pkill -f pytest )&
## Run the CI Job in "nuttx-patched"
## ./cibuild.sh -i -c -A -R testlist/risc-v-01.dat
pushd nuttx-patched/tools/ci
(
./cibuild.sh -i -c -A -R testlist/$job.dat \
|| echo '***** BUILD FAILED'
)
popd
Now we can cook some NuttX on macOS…
Anything we should worry about?
Yeah Mac Mini will get (nearly) Boiling Hot (90°C) when running the NuttX Build Farm! All CPU Cores will be 100% Maxed Out. (M2 Pro, pic above)
I recommend TG Pro for Fan Control. Set the Fan Speed to Auto-Max. (Pic below)
Which will trigger the fans at 70°C (red bar below), keeping things cooler. (Compare the green bars with above)
Do you have a Mac Pro or M4 Pro? Please test the NuttX Build Farm! 🙏
(Xcode Benchmark suggests Your Mac might be twice as fast as my M2 Pro)
Is macOS Arm64 faster than Intel PC? For compiling NuttX Arm32?
Not really, Compiling Arm on Arm isn’t much faster. I still prefer Ubuntu PC for compiling NuttX, lemme explain…
Is macOS good enough for NuttX Development?
If we’re Compiling NuttX for One Single Target: Arm32 / RISC-V / Xtensa… Yep sure!
But as NuttX Maintainer: I find it tough to reproduce All Possible NuttX Builds on macOS…
Some NuttX Targets won’t compile for macOS
We have Limited Skills (and machines) for maintaining NuttX CI on macOS
My Favourite Setup: VSCode on macOS controlling a Refurbished Xeon Workstation for Ubuntu Docker Builds (which will faithfully compile everything)
Shall we use Docker for macOS Arm64?
Hopefully we’ll find a reliable way to compile sim:nsh on macOS…
## macOS Arm64 won't compile sim:nsh
$ git clone https://github.com/lupyuen/nuttx-build-farm
$ cd nuttx-build-farm
$ ./run-build-macos.sh sim:nsh
clang: error: invalid argument 'medium' to -mcmodel=
Next Article: We chat about a new tool to “Rewind The Build” when something breaks the Daily Build.
Then we study the internals of a Mystifying Bug that concerns PyTest, QEMU RISC-V and expect
.
Many Thanks to the awesome NuttX Admins and NuttX Devs! And my GitHub Sponsors, for sticking with me all these years.
Got a question, comment or suggestion? Create an Issue or submit a Pull Request here…