Build systems#

Building software for embedded devices is a complex process. Projects often have custom toolchains, target different hardware platforms, and require additional configuration and post-processing of artifacts.

As a modern embedded framework, Pigweed’s goal is to collect these embedded use cases into a powerful and flexible build system, then extend it with support for modern software development practices.

See Pigweed’s GN Python Build for information about Python build automation with Pigweed.

What’s in a build system?#

A quality build system provides a variety of features beyond compiling code. Throughout our experience with embedded development, we’ve found several build features to be especially useful, and designed Pigweed’s build system with them in mind.

Simple toolchain configuration#

Embedded projects often use custom build toolchains for their specific hardware. Configuring these should be a simple process, both in their initial setup and later adjustments.

Multi-target builds#

Virtually every consumer product has firmware that targets different boards or MCUs during development. While building for a single board is simple enough, the complexity of supporting different targets ranges from changing compiler flags to swapping out entire libraries of firmware and drivers. This is often done by running multiple builds, configuring each one accordingly. In Pigweed, we’ve designed our build system with first-class multi-target support in mind, allowing any number of target configurations to be built simultaneously.

Multi-language support#

Embedded projects are typically written in C, C++, and assembly. However, it is possible to have firmware written in other languages, such as Rust. Additionally, projects may have host-side tooling written in a wide variety of languages. Having all of these build together proves to be a large time saver.

Custom scripting#

Embedded projects often require post-processing of build artifacts; these may include:

Extracting ELF sections into a different container
Injecting metadata into firmware images
Image signing
Creating databases of symbols for debugging
Extracting string tokens into a database (for example, with pw_tokenizer)

These are run as steps during a build, facilitated by the build system.

Python#

Python is a favorite scripting language of many development teams, and here at Pigweed, we’re no exception. Much of Pigweed’s host-side tooling is written in Python. While Python works great for local development, problems can arise when scripts need to be packaged and distributed for vendors or factory teams. Having proper support for packaging Python within a build system allows teams to focus on writing code instead of worrying about distribution.

Size reporting#

On embedded devices, memory is everything. Most projects have some sort of custom tooling to determine how much flash and RAM space their firmware uses. Being able to run size reports as part of a build ensures that they are always up-to-date and allows space usage to be tracked over time.

Documentation#

An oft-neglected part of software development, documentation is invaluable for future maintainers of a project. As such, Pigweed has integrated documentation which builds alongside its code and combines with other build features, such as size reports, to provide high quality, up-to-date references for developers.

Unit testing#

Unit tests are essential to ensure that the functionality of code remains consistent as changes are made to avoid accidental regressions. Running unit tests as part of a build keeps developers constantly aware of the impact of their changes.

Host-side unit tests#

Though Pigweed targets embedded devices, a lot of its code can be run and tested on a host desktop by swapping out backends to host platform libraries. This is highly beneficial during development, as it allows tests to consistently run without having to go through the process of flashing a device.

Device-side unit tests#

As useful as host-side tests are, they are not sufficient for developing actual firmware, and it is critical to run tests on the actual hardware. Pigweed has invested into creating a test framework and build integration for running tests across physical devices as part of a build.

Bonus: pw watch#

In web development, it is common to have a file system watcher listening for source file changes and triggering a build for quick iteration. When combined with a fast incremental build system, this becomes a powerful feature, allowing things such as unit tests and size reports to re-run whenever any dependent code is modified.

While initially seen as somewhat of a gimmick, Pigweed’s watcher has become a staple of Pigweed development, with most Pigweed users having it permanently running in a terminal window.

Pigweed’s build systems#

Pigweed can be used either as a monolith or à la carte, slotting into an existing project. To this end, Pigweed supports multiple build systems, allowing Pigweed-based projects to choose the most suitable one for them.

Of the supported build systems, GN is the most full-featured, followed by CMake, and finally Bazel.

Note

A quick note on terminology: the word “target” is overloaded within GN/Bazel (and Pigweed)—it can refer to either a GN/Bazel build target, such as a source_set or executable, or to an output platform (e.g. a specific board, device, or system).

To avoid confusing the two, we refer to the former as “GN/Bazel targets” and the latter as “Pigweed targets”.

GN#

A perhaps unfamiliar name, GN (Generate Ninja) is a meta-build system that outputs Ninja build files, originally designed for use in Chromium. Pigweed first experimented with GN after hearing about it from another team, and we quickly came to appreciate its speed and simplicity. GN has become Pigweed’s primary build system; it is used for all upstream development and strongly recommended for Pigweed-based projects where possible.

The GN build#

This section describes Pigweed’s GN build structure, how it is used upstream, build conventions, and recommendations for Pigweed-based projects. While containing some details about how GN works in general, this section is not intended to be a guide on how to use GN. To learn more about the tool itself, refer to the official GN reference.

Entrypoint: .gn#

The entrypoint to a GN build is the .gn file, which defines a project’s root directory (henceforth //).

.gn must point to the location of a BUILDCONFIG.gn file for the project. In Pigweed upstream, this is its only purpose.

Downstream projects may additionally use .gn to set global overrides for Pigweed’s build arguments, which apply across all Pigweed targets. For example, a project could configure the protobuf libraries that it uses. This is done by defining a default_args scope containing the overrides.

# The location of the BUILDCONFIG file.
buildconfig = "//BUILDCONFIG.gn"

# Build arguments set across all Pigweed targets.
default_args = {
  dir_pw_third_party_nanopb = "//third_party/nanopb-0.4.2"
}

Configuration: BUILDCONFIG.gn#

The file BUILDCONFIG.gn configures the GN build by defining any desired global variables/options. It can be located anywhere in the build tree, but is conventionally placed at the root. .gn points GN to this file.

BUILDCONFIG.gn is evaluated before any other GN files, and variables defined within it are placed into GN’s global scope, becoming available in every file without requiring imports.

The options configured in this file differ from those in .gn in two ways:

BUILDCONFIG.gn is evaluated for every GN toolchain (and Pigweed target), whereas .gn is only evaluated once. This allows BUILDCONFIG.gn to set different options for each Pigweed target.
In .gn, only GN build arguments can be overridden. BUILDCONFIG.gn allows defining arbitrary variables.

Generally, it is preferable to expose configuration options through build args instead of globals in BUILDCONFIG.gn (something Pigweed’s build previously did), as they are more flexible, greppable, and easier to manage. However, it may make sense to define project-specific constants in BUILDCONFIG.gn.

Pigweed’s upstream BUILDCONFIG.gn does not define any variables; it just sets Pigweed’s default toolchain, which GN requires.

Top-level GN targets: //BUILD.gn#

The root BUILD.gn file defines all of the libraries, images, tests, and binaries built by a Pigweed project. This file is evaluated immediately after BUILDCONFIG.gn, with the active toolchain (which is the default toolchain at the start of a build).

//BUILD.gn is responsible for enumerating each of the Pigweed targets built by a project. This is done by instantiating a version of each of the project’s GN target groups with each Pigweed target’s toolchain. For example, in upstream, all of Pigweed’s GN targets are contained within the pigweed_default group. This group is instantiated multiple times, with different Pigweed target toolchains.

These groups include the following:

host – builds pigweed_default with Clang or GCC, depending on the platform
host_clang – builds pigweed_default for the host with Clang
host_gcc – builds pigweed_default for the host with GCC
stm32f429i – builds pigweed_default for STM32F429i Discovery board
docs – builds the Pigweed documentation and size reports

Pigweed projects are recommended to follow this pattern, creating a top-level group for each of their Pigweed targets that builds a common GN target with the appropriate toolchain.

It is important that no dependencies are listed under the default toolchain within //BUILD.gn, as it does not configure any build parameters, and therefore should not evaluate any other GN files. The pattern that Pigweed uses to achieve this is to wrap all dependencies within a condition checking the toolchain.

group("my_application_images") {
  deps = []  # Empty in the default toolchain.

  if (current_toolchain != default_toolchain) {
    # This is only evaluated by Pigweed target toolchains, which configure
    # all of the required options to build Pigweed code.
    deps += [ "//images:evt" ]
  }
}

# The images group is instantiated for each of the project's Pigweed targets.
group("my_pigweed_target") {
  deps = [ ":my_application_images(//toolchains:my_pigweed_target)" ]
}

Warning

Pigweed’s default toolchain is never used, so it is set to an empty toolchain which doesn’t define any tools. //BUILD.gn contains conditions which check that the current toolchain is not the default before declaring any GN target dependencies to prevent the default toolchain from evaluating any other BUILD files. All GN targets added to the build must be placed under one of these conditional scopes.

“default” group#

The root BUILD.gn file can define a special group named default. If present, Ninja will build this group when invoked without arguments.

Tip

Defining a default group makes using pw watch simple!

Optimization levels#

Pigweed’s //BUILD.gn defines the pw_DEFAULT_C_OPTIMIZATION_LEVEL build arg, which specifies the optimization level to use for the default groups (host, stm32f429i, etc.). The supported values for pw_DEFAULT_C_OPTIMIZATION_LEVEL are:

debug – create debugging-friendly binaries (-Og)
size_optimized – optimize for size (-Os)
speed_optimized – optimized for speed, without increasing code size (-O2)

Pigweed defines versions of its groups in //BUILD.gn for each optimization level specified in the pw_C_OPTIMIZATION_LEVELS list. Rather than relying on pw_DEFAULT_C_OPTIMIZATION_LEVEL, you may directly build a group at the desired optimization level: <group>_<optimization>. Examples include host_clang_debug, host_gcc_size_optimized, and stm32f429i_speed_optimized.

Upstream GN target groups#

In upstream, Pigweed splits its top-level GN targets into a few logical groups, which are described below. In order to build a GN target, it must be listed in one of the groups in this file.

Important

Pigweed’s top-level BUILD.gn file should not be used by downstream projects. Projects that wish to pull all of Pigweed’s code into their build may use the pw_modules and pw_module_tests variables in modules.gni.

apps#

This group defines the application images built in Pigweed. It lists all of the common images built across all Pigweed targets, such as modules’ example executables. Each Pigweed target can additionally provide its own specific images through the pw_TARGET_APPLICATIONS build arg, which is included by this group.

host_tools#

This group defines host-side tooling binaries built for Pigweed.

runtime_sanitizers#

This group defines host-side build targets for Clang runtime sanitizers. Next runtime sanitizers supported:

asan – AddressSanitizer is a fast memory error detector.
msan – MemorySanitizer is a detector of uninitialized reads.
ubsan – UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer is a fast undefined behavior detector.
ubsan_heuristic – UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer with the following additional checks enabled:
- integer: Checks for undefined or suspicious integer behavior.
- float-divide-by-zero: Checks for floating point division by zero.
- implicit-conversion: Checks for suspicious behavior of implicit conversions.
- nullability: Checks for null as function arg, lvalue and return type.
These additional checks are heuristic and may not correspond to undefined behavior.
tsan – ThreadSanitizer is a tool that detects data races.

Results of building this group are host_clang_<sanitizer> build directories with pw_module_tests per supported sanitizer.

coverage#

This group defines host-side build target for Clang source-based code coverage.

pw_modules#

This group lists the main libraries for all of Pigweed’s modules.

The modules in the pw_modules group are listed in the pw_modules variable, which is provided by modules.gni.

pw_module_tests#

All modules’ unit tests are collected here, so that they can all be run at once.

The test groups in pw_module_tests group are listed in the pw_module_tests variable, which is provided by modules.gni.

pigweed_default#

This group defines everything built in a Pigweed build invocation by collecting the above groups and conditionally depending on them based on the active Pigweed target’s configuration. Generally, new dependencies should not be added here; instead, use one of the groups listed above.

The pigweed_default group is instantiated for each upstream Pigweed target’s toolchain.

Pigweed target instantiations#

These groups wrap pigweed_default with a specific target toolchain. They are named after the Pigweed target, e.g. host_clang, stm32f429i, etc.

Other BUILD files: //**/BUILD.gn#

The rest of the BUILD.gn files in the tree define libraries, configs, and build args for each of the modules in a Pigweed project.

Project configuration: //build_overrides/pigweed.gni#

Each Pigweed project must contain a Pigweed configuration file at a known location in the GN build tree. Currently, this file only contains a single build argument, which must be set to the GN build path to the root of the Pigweed repository within the project.

Module variables#

As Pigweed is intended to be a subcomponent of a larger project, it cannot assume where it or its modules is located. Therefore, Pigweed’s upstream BUILD.gn files do not use absolute paths; instead, variables are defined pointing to each of Pigweed’s modules, set relative to a project-specific dir_pigweed.

To depend on Pigweed modules from GN code, import Pigweed’s overrides file and reference these module variables.

# This must be imported before .gni files from any other Pigweed modules. To
# prevent gn format from reordering this import, it must be separated by a
# blank line from other imports.

import("//build_overrides/pigweed.gni")

GN target type wrappers#

To facilitate injecting global configuration options, Pigweed defines wrappers around builtin GN target types such as source_set and executable. These are defined within $dir_pw_build/target_types.gni.

Note

To take advantage of Pigweed’s flexible target configuration system, use pw_* target types (e.g. pw_source_set) in your BUILD.gn files instead of GN builtins.

Pigweed targets#

To build for a specific hardware platform, builds define Pigweed targets. These are essentially GN toolchains which set special arguments telling Pigweed how to build. For information on Pigweed’s target system, refer to Hardware targets.

The empty toolchain#

Pigweed’s BUILDCONFIG.gn sets the project’s default toolchain to an “empty” toolchain which does not specify any compilers or override any build arguments. Downstream projects are recommended to do the same, following the steps described in Top-level GN targets: //BUILD.gn to configure builds for each of their Pigweed targets.

Why use an empty toolchain?

To support some of its advanced (and useful!) build features, Pigweed requires the ability to generate new toolchains on the fly. This requires having knowledge of the full configuration of the current toolchain (which is easy if it’s all defined within a scope), something which is impractical to achieve using the default toolchain.

Additionally, there are some cases where GN treats default and non-default toolchains differently. By not using the default toolchain, we avoid having to deal with these inconsistencies.

It is possible to build Pigweed using only the default toolchain, but it requires a more complicated setup to get everything working and should be avoided unless necessary (for example, when integrating with a large existing GN-based project).

Upstream development examples#

If developing for upstream Pigweed, some common build use cases are described below.

Building a custom executable/app image#

Define your executable GN target using the pw_executable template.

# //foo/BUILD.gn
pw_executable("foo") {
  sources = [ "main.cc" ]
  deps = [ ":libfoo" ]
}

In the root BUILD.gn file, add the executable’s GN target to the apps group.

# //BUILD.gn
group("apps") {
  deps = [
    # ...
    "//foo",  # Shorthand for //foo:foo
  ]
}

Run the ninja build to compile your executable. The apps group is built by default, so there’s no need to provide a target. The executable will be compiled for every supported Pigweed target.
```
ninja -C out
```
Alternatively, build your executable by itself by specifying its path to Ninja. When building a GN target manually, the Pigweed target for which it is built must be specified on the Ninja command line.

For example, to build for the Pigweed target host_gcc_debug:
```
ninja -C out host_gcc_debug/obj/foo/bin/foo
```
Note

The path passed to Ninja is a filesystem path within the out directory, rather than a GN path. This path can be found by running gn outputs.
Retrieve your compiled binary from the out directory. It is located at the path
```
out/<pw_target>/obj/<gn_path>/{bin,test}/<executable>
```
where pw_target is the Pigweed target for which the binary was built, gn_path is the GN path to the BUILD.gn file defining the executable, and executable is the executable’s GN target name (potentially with an extension). Note that the executable is located within a bin subdirectory in the module (or test for unit tests defined with pw_test).

For example, the foo executable defined above and compiled for the Pigweed target stm32f429i_disc1_debug is found at:
```
out/stm32f429i_disc1_debug/obj/foo/bin/foo
```

The CMake build#

A well-known name in C/C++ development, CMake is widely used by all kinds of projects, including embedded devices. Pigweed’s CMake support is provided primarily for projects that have an existing CMake build and wish to integrate Pigweed modules.

The Bazel build#

This section describes Pigweed’s Bazel build structure, how it is used upstream, build conventions, and recommendations for Pigweed-based projects. While containing some details about how Bazel works in general, this section is not intended to be a guide on how to use Bazel. To learn more about the tool itself, refer to the official Bazel reference.

General usage#

While described in more detail in the Bazel docs there a few Bazel features that are of particular importance when targeting embedded platforms. The most commonly used commands used in bazel are;

bazelisk build //your:target
bazelisk test //your:target
bazelisk coverage //your:target

Note

Code coverage support is only available on the host for now.

Building#

When it comes to building/testing your build target for a specific target platform (e.g. stm32f429i-discovery) a slight variation is required.

bazelisk build //your:target \
  --platforms=@pigweed//pw_build/platforms:lm3s6965evb

For more information on how to create your own platforms refer to the official Bazel platforms reference. You may also find helpful examples of constraints and platforms in the //pw_build/platforms and //pw_build/constraints directories.

Testing#

Running tests on an embedded target with Bazel is possible although support for this is experimental. The easiest way of achieving this at the moment is to use Bazel’s --run_under flag. To make this work create a Bazel target (//your_handler) that:

Takes a single argument (the path to the elf) and uploads the elf to your Pigweed target.
Connects with your target using serial or other communication method.
Listens to the communication transport for the keywords (“PASSED”, “FAIL”) and returns (0, 1) respectively if one of the keywords is intercepted. (This step assumes you are using the pw_unit_test package and it is configured for your target).

Then, run:

bazelisk test //your:test --platforms=//your/platform --run_under=//your_handler

Tag conventions#

Pigweed observes the standard Bazel test tag conventions. We also use the following additional tags:

integration: large, slow integration tests in upstream Pigweed are given the integration tag. You can skip running these tests using –test_tag_filters. For example,
```
bazelisk test --test_tag_filters=-integration //...
```
will run all tests except for these integration tests.
do_not_build: targets which should not be built in wildcard builds. Any use of this tag should be associated with a TODO pointing to a bug. Prefer do_not_build to manual if the target’s build graph is correct, and it just fails at the compilation stage.
do_not_run_test: test targets which should be built but not executed. Prefer this to manual or do_not_build if the code compiles, but the test fails at runtime. Any use of this tag should be associated with a TODO pointing to a bug.

Code Coverage#

TODO(b/304833225): Fix code coverage when using the (default) hermetic toolchains.

Making use of the code coverage functionality in Bazel is straightforward.

Add the following lines to your ‘.bazelrc’.

coverage --experimental_generate_llvm_lcov
coverage --combined_report=lcov

Generate a combined lcov coverage report. This will produce a combined lcov coverage report at the path ‘bazel-out/_coverage/_coverage_report.dat’. e.g.
```
bazelisk coverage //pw_log/...
```
View the results using the command line utility ‘lcov’.
```
lcov --list bazel-out/_coverage/_coverage_report.dat
```

Libraries required at linktime#

Certain low-level libraries (pw_assert, pw_log) are prone to cyclic dependencies. Handling assertions and logging requires using other libraries, which themselves may use assertions or logging. To remove these cycles, the full implementations of these libraries are placed in special implementation targets that are not added to their dependencies. Instead, every binary with a dependency on these libraries (direct or indirect) must link against the implementation targets.

What this means in practice is that any cc_binary that depends on Pigweed libraries should have a dependency on //pw_build:default_link_extra_lib. This can be added in a couple ways:

Add @pigweed//pw_build:default_link_extra_lib directly to the deps of every embedded cc_binary in your project.

The con is that you may forget to add the dependency to some targets, and will then encounter puzzling linker errors.
Use link_extra_lib. Set the @bazel_tools//tools/cpp:link_extra_libs label flag to point to @pigweed//pw_build:default_link_extra_lib, probably using bazelrc. This is only likely to work if you specify the --experimental_exclude_starlark_flags_from_exec_config flag, available in Bazel 8 and newer; see bazelbuild/bazel#22457.

The con is that these libraries are linked into all C++ binaries that are part of your project’s build, including ones that have no dependencies on Pigweed.

Note that depending on @pigweed//pw_build:link_extra_lib will unconditionally include the symbols in the implementation targets in your binary, even if the binary does not use them. If this is a concern (e.g., due to the binary size increase), depend only on the individual implementation targets you actually require.

See Avoiding circular dependencies with PW_LOG and Avoiding Circular Dependencies With PW_ASSERT for more information about the specific modules that have link-time dependencies.

Configuration#

Generally speaking there are three primary concepts that make up Bazel’s configuration API.

Selects
Compatibility lists
Flags/Build settings

Selects#

Selects are useful for specifying different dependencies/source depending on the platform that is currently being targeted. For more information on this please see the Bazel selects reference. e.g.

cc_library(
  name = "some_platform_dependant_library",
  deps = select({
    "@platforms//cpu:armv7e-m": [":arm_libs"],
    "//conditions:default": [":host_libs"],
  }),
)

Compatibility lists#

Compatibility lists allow you to specify which platforms your targets are compatible with. Consider an example where you want to specify that a target is compatible with only a host os;

cc_library(
  name = "some_host_only_lib",
  srcs = ["host.cc"],
  target_compatible_with = select({
    "@platforms//os:windows": [],
    "@platforms//os:linux": [],
    "@platforms//os:ios": [],
    "@platforms//os:macos": [],
    "//conditions:default": ["@platforms//:incompatible"],
  }),
)

In this case building from or for either Windows/Linux/Mac will be supported, but other OS’s will fail if this target is explicitly depended on. However if building with a wild card for a non-host platform this target will be skipped and the build will continue. e.g.

bazelisk build //... --platforms=@pigweed//pw_build/platforms:lm3s6965evb

This allows for you to easily create compatibility matricies without adversely affecting your ability build your entire repo for a given Pigweed target. For more detailed information on how to use the target_compatible_with attribute please see Bazel target_compatible_with reference.

Flags/build settings#

Flags/build settings are particularly useful in scenarios where you may want to be able to quickly inject a dependency from the command line but don’t necessarily want to create an entirely new set of constraints to use with a select statement.

Note

The scope for what is possible with build flags/settings goes well beyond what will be described here. For more detailed information on flags/settings please see Bazel config reference.

A simple example of when it is useful to use a label_flag is when you want to swap out a single dependency from the command line. e.g.

cc_library(
  name = "some_default_io",
  srcs = ["default_io.cc"],
)

cc_library(
  name = "some_other_io",
  srcs = ["other_io.cc"],
)

label_flag(
  name = "io",
  default_build_setting = ":some_default_io",
)

cc_library(
  name = "some_target_that_needs_io",
  deps = [":io"],
)

From here the label_flag by default redirects to the target “:some_default_io”, however it is possible to override this from the command line. e.g.

bazelisk build //:some_target_that_needs_io --//:io=//:some_other_io

Facades and backends tutorial#

This section walks you through an example of configuring facade backends in a Pigweed Bazel project.

Consider a scenario that you are building a flight controller for a spacecraft. But you have very little experience with Pigweed and have just landed here. First things first, you would set up your WORKSPACE to fetch Pigweed repository. Then, add the dependencies that you need from Pigweed’s WORKSPACE.

Maybe you want to try using the pw_chrono module. So you create a target in your repository like so:

# BUILD.bazel
cc_library(
  name = "time_is_relative",
  srcs = ["relative_time_on_earth.cc"],
  deps = ["@pigweed//pw_chrono:system_clock"],
)

This should work out of the box for any host operating system. E.g., running,

bazelisk build //:time_is_relative

will produce a working library for your host OS.

Using Pigweed-provided backends#

But you’re probably here because Pigweed offers a set of embedded libraries, and might be interested in running your code on some micro-controller/FPGA combined with an RTOS. For now let’s assume you are using FreeRTOS and are happy to make use of our default //pw_chrono backend for FreeRTOS. You could build your library with:

bazelisk build \
  --@pigweed/pw_chrono:system_clock_backend=@pigweed//pw_chrono_freertos:system_clock \
  //:time_is_relative

Then, //pw_chrono:system_clock will use the FreeRTOS backend //pw_chrono_freertos:system_clock.

How does this work? Here’s the relevant part of the dependency tree for your target:

//:time_is_relative
 |
 v
@pigweed//pw_chrono:system_clock  -------> @pigweed//pw_chrono:system_clock_backend
 |                                                    (Injectable)
 |                                                         |
 |                                                         v
 |                                         @pigweed//pw_chrono_freertos:system_clock
 |                                                   (Actual backend)
 v                                                         |
@pigweed//pw_chrono:system_clock.facade <------------------.

When building //:time_is_relative, Bazel checks the dependencies of @pigweed//pw_chrono:system_clock and finds that it depends on @pigweed//pw_chrono:system_clock_backend, which looks like this:

# @pigweed//pw_chrono/BUILD.bazel

label_flag(
    name = "system_clock_backend",
    build_setting_default = ":unspecified system_clock_backend",
)

This is a label_flag: a dependency edge in the build graph that can be overridden by command line flags. By setting

--@pigweed//pw_chrono:system_clock_backend=\
  @pigweed//pw_chrono_freertos:system_clock

on the command line, you told Bazel to override the default and use the FreeRTOS backend.

Defining a custom backend#

Continuing with our scenario, let’s say that you have read Module Structure and now want to implement your own backend for //pw_chrono:system_clock using a hardware RTC. In this case you would create a new directory pw_chrono_my_hardware_rtc, containing some header files and a BUILD file like,

# //pw_chrono_my_hardware_rtc/BUILD.bazel

cc_library(
    name = "system_clock",
    hdrs = [
        "public/pw_chrono_stl/system_clock_config.h",
        "public/pw_chrono_stl/system_clock_inline.h",
        "public_overrides/pw_chrono_backend/system_clock_config.h",
        "public_overrides/pw_chrono_backend/system_clock_inline.h",
    ],
    includes = [
        "public",
        "public_overrides",
    ],
    deps = [
        "@pigweed//pw_chrono:system_clock.facade",
    ],
)

To build your //:time_is_relative target using this backend, you’d run,

bazelisk build //:time_is_relative \
  --@pigweed//pw_chrono:system_clock_backend=//pw_chrono_my_hardware_rtc:system_clock

This modifies the build graph to look something like this:

//:time_is_relative
 |
 v
@pigweed//pw_chrono:system_clock  -------> @pigweed//pw_chrono:system_clock_backend
 |                                                    (Injectable)
 |                                                         |
 |                                                         v
 |                                         //pw_chrono_my_hardware_rtc:system_clock
 |                                                   (Actual backend)
 v                                                         |
@pigweed//pw_chrono:system_clock.facade <------------------.

Associating backends with platforms through bazelrc#

As your project grows, you will want to select backends for an increasing number of facades. The right backend to choose will depend on the target platform (host vs embedded, with potentially multiple target embedded platforms). Managing this directly through command-line flags is generally an anti-pattern. Instead, group these flags into configs in your bazelrc. Eventually, your bazelrc may look something like this:

# The Cortex M7 config
build:m7 --@pigweed//pw_chrono:system_clock_backend=//pw_chrono_my_hardware_rtc:system_clock
build:m7 --@pigweed//pw_sys_io:backend=//cortex-m7:sys_io

# The Cortex M4 config
build:m4 --@pigweed//pw_chrono:system_clock_backend=//pw_chrono_my_hardware_rtc:system_clock
build:m4 --@pigweed//pw_sys_io:backend=//cortex-m4:sys_io
build:m4 --@pigweed//pw_log:backend=@pigweed//pw_log_string
build:m4 --@pigweed//pw_log_string:handler_backend=@pigweed//pw_system:log_backend

Then, to build your library for a particular configuration, on the command line you just specify the --config on the command line:

bazelisk build --config=m4 //:time_is_relative

Build systems#

What’s in a build system?#

Simple toolchain configuration#

Multi-target builds#

Multi-language support#

Custom scripting#

See also#

Python#

Size reporting#

See also#

Documentation#

See also#

Unit testing#

Host-side unit tests#

Device-side unit tests#

See also#

Bonus: pw watch#

See also#

Pigweed’s build systems#

GN#

The GN build#

Entrypoint: .gn#

Configuration: BUILDCONFIG.gn#

Top-level GN targets: //BUILD.gn#

“default” group#

Optimization levels#

Upstream GN target groups#

apps#

host_tools#

runtime_sanitizers#

coverage#

pw_modules#

pw_module_tests#

pigweed_default#

Pigweed target instantiations#

Other BUILD files: //**/BUILD.gn#

Project configuration: //build_overrides/pigweed.gni#

Module variables#

GN target type wrappers#

Pigweed targets#

The empty toolchain#

Upstream development examples#

Building a custom executable/app image#

The CMake build#

The Bazel build#

General usage#

Building#

Testing#

Tag conventions#

Code Coverage#

Libraries required at linktime#

Configuration#

Selects#

Compatibility lists#

Flags/build settings#

Facades and backends tutorial#

Using Pigweed-provided backends#

Defining a custom backend#

Associating backends with platforms through bazelrc#