pw_env_setup#

A classic problem in the embedded space is reducing the time from git clone to having a binary executing on a device. The issue is that an entire suite of tools is needed for non-trivial production embedded projects. For example:

A C++ compiler for your target device, and also for your host
A build system or three; for example, GN, Ninja, CMake, Bazel
A code formatting program like clang-format
A debugger like OpenOCD to flash and debug your embedded device (OpenOCD support removed for Windows)
A known Python version with known modules installed for scripting
A Go compiler for the Go-based command line tools

…and so on

In the server space, container solutions like Docker or Podman solve this; however, in our experience container solutions are a mixed bag for embedded systems development where one frequently needs access to native system resources like USB devices, or must operate on Windows.

pw_env_setup is our compromise solution for this problem that works on Mac, Windows, and Linux. It leverages the Chrome packaging system CIPD to bootstrap a Python installation, which in turn inflates a virtual environment. The tooling is installed into your workspace, and makes no changes to your system. This tooling is designed to be reused by any project.

Users interact with pw_env_setup with two commands: . bootstrap.sh and . activate.sh. The bootstrap command always pulls down the current versions of CIPD packages and sets up the Python virtual environment. The activate command reinitializes a previously configured environment, and if none is found, runs bootstrap.

Note

On Windows the scripts used to set up the environment are bootstrap.bat and activate.bat.

bootstrap.fish and activate.fish are also available for Fish shell users.

For simplicity they will be referred to with the .sh endings unless the distinction is relevant.

On POSIX systems, the environment can be deactivated by running deactivate.

Using pw_env_setup in your project#

Downstream Projects Using Pigweed’s Packages#

Projects using Pigweed can leverage pw_env_setup to install Pigweed’s dependencies or their own dependencies. Projects that only want to use Pigweed’s dependencies without modifying them can just source Pigweed’s bootstrap.sh and activate.sh scripts.

An example of what your project’s bootstrap.sh could look like is below. This assumes bootstrap.sh is at the top level of your repository.

# Do not include a "#!" line, this must be sourced and not executed.

# This assumes the user is sourcing this file from it's parent directory. See
# below for a more flexible way to handle this.
PROJ_SETUP_SCRIPT_PATH="$(pwd)/bootstrap.sh"

export PW_PROJECT_ROOT="$(_python_abspath "$(dirname "$PROJ_SETUP_SCRIPT_PATH")")"

# You may wish to check if the user is attempting to execute this script
# instead of sourcing it. See below for an example of how to handle that
# situation.

# Source Pigweed's bootstrap utility script.
# Using '.' instead of 'source' for POSIX compatibility. Since users don't use
# dash directly, using 'source' in most documentation so users don't get
# confused and try to `./bootstrap.sh`.
. "$PW_PROJECT_ROOT/third_party/pigweed/pw_env_setup/util.sh"

pw_check_root "$PW_ROOT"
_PW_ACTUAL_ENVIRONMENT_ROOT="$(pw_get_env_root)"
export _PW_ACTUAL_ENVIRONMENT_ROOT
SETUP_SH="$_PW_ACTUAL_ENVIRONMENT_ROOT/activate.sh"
pw_bootstrap --args...  # See below for details about args.
pw_finalize bootstrap "$SETUP_SH"

Bazel Usage#

It is possible to pull in a CIPD dependency into Bazel using WORKSPACE rules rather than using bootstrap.sh. e.g.

# WORKSPACE

load("//pw_env_setup/bazel/cipd_setup:cipd_rules.bzl", "pigweed_deps")

# Setup CIPD client and packages.
# Required by: pigweed.
# Used by modules: all.
pigweed_deps()

load("@cipd_deps//:cipd_init.bzl", "cipd_init")

cipd_init()

This will make the entire set of Pigweeds remote repositories available to your project. Though these repositories will only be donwloaded if you use them. To get a full list of the remote repositories that this configures, run:

bazel query //external:all | grep cipd_

All files and executables in each CIPD remote repository is exported and visible either directely (@cipd_<dep>//:<file>) or from ‘all’ filegroup (@cipd_<dep>//:all).

From here it is possible to get access to the Bloaty binaries using the following command. For example;

bazel run @cipd_pigweed_third_party_bloaty_embedded_linux_amd64//:bloaty \
 -- --help

User-Friendliness#

You may wish to allow sourcing bootstrap.sh from a different directory. In that case you’ll need the following at the top of bootstrap.sh.

_python_abspath () {
  python -c "import os.path; print(os.path.abspath('$@'))"
}

# Use this code from Pigweed's bootstrap to find the path to this script when
# sourced. This should work with common shells. PW_CHECKOUT_ROOT is only used in
# presubmit tests with strange setups, and can be omitted if you're not using
# Pigweed's automated testing infrastructure.
if test -n "$PW_CHECKOUT_ROOT"; then
  PROJ_SETUP_SCRIPT_PATH="$(_python_abspath "$PW_CHECKOUT_ROOT/bootstrap.sh")"
  unset PW_CHECKOUT_ROOT
# Shell: bash.
elif test -n "$BASH"; then
  PROJ_SETUP_SCRIPT_PATH="$(_python_abspath "$BASH_SOURCE")"
# Shell: zsh.
elif test -n "$ZSH_NAME"; then
  PROJ_SETUP_SCRIPT_PATH="$(_python_abspath "${(%):-%N}")"
# Shell: dash.
elif test ${0##*/} = dash; then
  PROJ_SETUP_SCRIPT_PATH="$(_python_abspath \
    "$(lsof -p $$ -Fn0 | tail -1 | sed 's#^[^/]*##;')")"
# If everything else fails, try $0. It could work.
else
  PROJ_SETUP_SCRIPT_PATH="$(_python_abspath "$0")"
fi

You may also wish to check if the user is attempting to execute bootstrap.sh instead of sourcing it. Executing bootstrap.sh would download everything required for the environment, but cannot modify the environment of the parent process. To check for this add the following.

# Check if this file is being executed or sourced.
_pw_sourced=0
# If not running in Pigweed's automated testing infrastructure the
# SWARMING_BOT_ID check is unnecessary.
if [ -n "$SWARMING_BOT_ID" ]; then
  # If set we're running on swarming and don't need this check.
  _pw_sourced=1
elif [ -n "$ZSH_EVAL_CONTEXT" ]; then
  case $ZSH_EVAL_CONTEXT in *:file) _pw_sourced=1;; esac
elif [ -n "$KSH_VERSION" ]; then
  [ "$(cd $(dirname -- $0) && pwd -P)/$(basename -- $0)" != \
    "$(cd $(dirname -- ${.sh.file}) && pwd -P)/$(basename -- ${.sh.file})" ] \
    && _pw_sourced=1
elif [ -n "$BASH_VERSION" ]; then
  (return 0 2>/dev/null) && _pw_sourced=1
else  # All other shells: examine $0 for known shell binary filenames
  # Detects `sh` and `dash`; add additional shell filenames as needed.
  case ${0##*/} in sh|dash) _pw_sourced=1;; esac
fi

_pw_eval_sourced "$_pw_sourced"

Downstream Projects Using Different Packages#

Projects depending on Pigweed but using additional or different packages should copy the Pigweed sample project’s bootstrap.sh and pigweed.json and update the call to pw_bootstrap. Search for “downstream” for other places that may require changes, like setting the PW_ROOT and PW_PROJECT_ROOT environment variables. Explanations of parts of pigweed.json are described here.

pw.pw_env_setup.root_variable: Variable used to point to the root of the source tree. Optional, can always use PW_PROJECT_ROOT instead. (That variable will be set regardless of whether this is provided.)
pw.pw_env_setup.relative_pigweed_root: Location of the Pigweed submodule within the source tree. Optional—environment setup will work correctly without this. If present, will confirm that it’s correct. May be used by other tooling.
pw.pw_env_setup.cipd_package_files: CIPD package file. JSON file consisting of a list of additional CIPD package files to import and a list of dictionaries with “path”, “platforms”, “subdir”, “tags”, and “version_file” keys. Both top-level lists are optional. An example is below. Only “path”, “platforms”, and “tags” are required. If “version_file” is specified then pw doctor will fail if that version file is not present. If “subdir” is specified then this packages will be installed in a subdirectory of the directory created for packages in this file.

{
  "included_files": [
    "foo.json"
  ],
  "packages": [
    {
      "path": "infra/3pp/tools/go/${platform}",
      "platforms": [
          "linux-amd64",
          "linux-arm64",
          "mac-amd64",
          "windows-amd64"
      ],
      "subdir": "pa/th",
      "tags": [
        "version:2@1.16.3"
      ],
      "version_file": ".versions/go.cipd_version"
    }
  ]
}

pw.pw_env_setup.project_actions

A list of plugins to load and run after CIPD setup, but prior to virtualenv setup, for e.g. downloading project-specific tools or artifacts needed by later steps. Particularly useful for downstream projects with limited CIPD access.

A plugin is specified as a dictionary with two keys: “import_path” and “module_name”. The “import_path” is relative to the root of the checkout.

The specified module must provide a “run_actions” method which takes a single argument, “env_vars”, which is a pw_env_setup.Environment instance.

Sample plugin and pigweed.json blob:

"""Sample pw_env_setup project action plugin.

A sample/starter project action plugin template for pw_env_setup.
"""
def run_action(**kwargs):
    """Sample project action."""
    if "env" not in kwargs:
        raise ValueError(f"Missing required kwarg 'env', got %{kwargs}")

    kwargs["env"].prepend("PATH", "PATH_TO_NEW_TOOLS")
    raise NotImplementedError("Sample project action running!")

"project_actions" : [
   {
    "import_path": "pw_env_setup",
    "module_name": "sample_project_action"
   }
],

pw.pw_env_setup.virtualenv.gn_args

Any necessary GN args to be used when installing Python packages.

pw.pw_env_setup.virtualenv.gn_targets

Target for installing Python packages. Downstream projects will need to create targets to install their packages or only use Pigweed Python packages.

pw.pw_env_setup.virtualenv.gn_root

The root directory of your GN build tree, relative to PW_PROJECT_ROOT. This is the directory your project’s .gn file is located in. If you’re only installing Pigweed Python packages, use the location of the Pigweed submodule.

pw.pw_env_setup.virtualenv.requirements

A list of Python Pip requirements files for installing into the Pigweed virtualenv. Each file will be passed as additional --requirement argument to a single `pip install at the beginning of bootstrap’s Python environment setup stage. See the Requirements Files documentation for details on what can be specified using requirements files.

pw.pw_env_setup.virtualenv.constraints

A list of Python Pip constraints files. These constraints will be passed to every pip invocation as an additional --constraint argument during bootstrap. virtualenv. See the Constraints Files documentation for details on formatting.

pw.pw_env_setup.virtualenv.system_packages

A boolean value that can be used the give the Python virtual environment access to the system site packages. Defaults to false.

pw.pw_env_setup.virtualenv.pip_install_offline

A boolean value that adds --no-index to all pip install commands that are part of bootstrap. This forces pip to not reach out to the internet (usually pypi.org) to download packages. Using this option requires setting pw.pw_env_setup.virtualenv.pip_install_find_links. Defaults to false.

See also

The Python GN guide for offline pip installation: Installing Offline

pw.pw_env_setup.virtualenv.pip_install_find_links

List of paths to folders containing Python wheels (*.whl) or source tar files (*.tar.gz). Pip will check each of these directories when looking for potential install candidates. Each path will be passed to all pip install commands as --find-links PATH.

Tip

Environment variables may be used in these paths. For example:

"virtualenv": {
   "pip_install_find_links": [
     "${PW_PROJECT_ROOT}/pip_cache"
   ]
 }

pw.pw_env_setup.virtualenv.pip_install_require_hashes

Adds --require-hashes This option enforces hash checking on Python package files. Defaults to false.

pw.pw_env_setup.virtualenv.pip_install_disable_cache

A boolean value that adds --no-cache-dir to all pip install commands that are part of bootstrap. This forces pip to ignore any previously cached Python packages. On most systems this is located in ~/.cache/pip/. Defaults to false.

pw.pw_env_setup.optional_submodules

By default environment setup will check that all submodules are present in the checkout. Any submodules in this list are excluded from that check.

pw.pw_env_setup.required_submodules

If this is specified instead of optional_submodules bootstrap will only complain if one of the required submodules is not present. Combining this with optional_submodules is not supported.

pw.pw_env_setup.pw_packages

A list of packages to install using pw_package after the rest of bootstrap completes.

pw.pw_env_setup.gni_file

Location to write a .gni file containing paths to many things within the environment directory. Defaults to build_overrides/pigweed_environment.gni.

pw.pw_env_setup.json_file

Location to write a .json file containing step-by-step modifications to the environment, for reading by tools that don’t inherit an environment from a sourced bootstrap.sh.

pw.pw_env_setup.rosetta

Whether to use Rosetta to use amd64 packages on arm64 Macs. Accepted values are never, allow, and force. For now, allow means force. At some point in the future allow will be changed to mean never.

An example of a config file is below.

{
  "pw": {
    "pw_env_setup": {
      "root_variable": "EXAMPLE_ROOT",
      "cipd_package_files": [
        "pigweed/pw_env_setup/py/pw_env_setup/cipd_setup/pigweed.json",
        "pigweed/pw_env_setup/py/pw_env_setup/cipd_setup/luci.json"
        "tools/myprojectname.json"
      ],
      "virtualenv": {
        "gn_root": ".",
        "gn_targets": [
          ":python.install",
        ],
        "system_packages": false
      },
      "pw_packages": [],
      "optional_submodules": [
        "optional/submodule/one",
        "optional/submodule/two"
      ],
      "gni_file": "tools/environment.gni",
      "json_file": "tools/environment.json",
      "rosetta": "allow"
    }
  }
}

Only the packages necessary for almost all projects based on Pigweed are included in the cipd_setup/pigweed.json file. A number of other files are present in that directory for projects that need more than the minimum. Internal-Google projects using LUCI should at least include luci.json.

In case the CIPD packages need to be referenced from other scripts, variables like PW_${BASENAME}_CIPD_INSTALL_DIR point to the CIPD install directories, where ${BASENAME} is "PIGWEED" for "pigweed/pw_env_setup/py/pw_env_setup/cipd_setup/pigweed.json" and "LUCI" for "pigweed/pw_env_setup/py/pw_env_setup/cipd_setup/luci.json". This example would set the following environment variables.

PW_LUCI_CIPD_INSTALL_DIR
PW_MYPROJECTNAME_CIPD_INSTALL_DIR
PW_PIGWEED_CIPD_INSTALL_DIR

These directories are also referenced in the gni_file specified by the environment config file as dir_cipd_${BASENAME}. This allows the GN build to reliably reference these directories without using GN getenv() calls or hardcoding paths.

In addition, PW_${BASENAME}_CIPD_INSTALL_DIR and PW_${BASENAME}_CIPD_INSTALL_DIR/bin are both added to PATH for each package directory.

If multiple packages install executables with the same name, the file mentioned last topologically takes priority. For example, with the file contents below, d.json’s entries will appear in PATH before c.json’s, which will appear before b.json’s, which will appear before a.json’s.

pigweed.json#

{
  "pw": {
    "pw_env_setup": {
      "cipd_package_files": [
        "a.json",
        "b.json",
        "d.json"
      ]
    }
  }
}

a.json#

{
  "package_files": [
    // ...
  ]
}

b.json#

{
  "included_files": ["c.json"],
  "package_files": [
    // ...
  ]
}

c.json#

{
  "package_files": [
    // ...
  ]
}

d.json#

{
  "package_files": [
    // ...
  ]
}

Effective File Loading Order#

pigweed.json
a.json
b.json
c.json
d.json

Pinning Python Packages#

Python modules usually express dependencies as ranges, which makes it easier to install many Python packages that might otherwise have conflicting dependencies. However, this means version of packages can often change underneath us and builds will not be hermetic.

To ensure versions don’t change without approval, Pigweed by default pins the versions of packages it depends on using a pip constraints file. To pin the versions of additional packages your project depends on, run pw python-packages list <path/to/constraints/file> and then add pw_build_PIP_CONSTRAINTS = ["//path/to/constraints/file"] to your project’s .gn file (see Pigweed’s .gn file for an example).

To update packages, set pw_build_PIP_CONSTRAINTS = [], delete the environment, and bootstrap again. Then run the list command from above again, and run pw presubmit.

Environment Variables#

Input Variables#

The following environment variables affect env setup behavior. Most users will never need to set these.

CIPD_CACHE_DIR: Location of CIPD cache dir. Read by CIPD, but if unset will be defaulted to $HOME/.cipd-cache-dir.
PW_NO_CIPD_CACHE_DIR: Disables the CIPD cache.
PW_ACTIVATE_SKIP_CHECKS: If set, skip running pw doctor at end of bootstrap/activate. Intended to be used by automated tools but not interactively.
PW_BANNER_FUNC: Command to print a banner at the beginning of bootstrap.
PW_BOOTSTRAP_PYTHON: Python executable to be used, for example “python3”. Defaults to “python3” if that’s in PATH, then tries “python”.
PW_CIPD_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON: Value to pass as -service-account-json to CIPD invocations. This should point either to a service account JSON key file, or be the magical value :gce to tell the tool to fetch tokens from GCE metadata server.
PW_ENVIRONMENT_ROOT: Location to which packages are installed. Defaults to environment folder within the checkout root. This variable is cleared after environment setup is complete.
PW_ENVSETUP_DISABLE_SPINNER: Disable the spinner during env setup. Intended to be used when the output is being redirected to a log.
PW_ENVSETUP_DISABLE_SPINNER: Disable the console spinner that runs when waiting for env setup steps to complete.
PW_ENVSETUP_NO_BANNER: Skip printing the banner.
PW_ENVSETUP_QUIET: Disables all non-error output.
PW_PROJECT_ROOT: The absolute path of the project using Pigweed’s env setup. For Pigweed this is the same as PW_ROOT. This should be set by the project’s bootstrap script.
PW_ROOT: The absolute path to the Pigweed repository within PW_PROJECT_ROOT. This should be set by the project’s bootstrap script.

Output Variables#

The following environment variables are set by env setup.

PATH: System executable search path. Many of the environment variables below are also added to this variable.
_PW_ACTUAL_ENVIRONMENT_ROOT: Location the environment was installed into. Separate from PW_ENVIRONMENT_ROOT because setting that implicitly and switching to another project directory causes unexpected behavior.
PW_CIPD_INSTALL_DIR: Top-level CIPD install directory. This is where the cipd executable is.
PW_*_CIPD_INSTALL_DIR: Each CIPD package file is installed into its own directory. This allows other tools to determine what those directories are. The * is replaced with an all-caps version of the basename of the package file, without the extension. (E.g., “path/foo.json” becomes PW_FOO_CIPD_INSTALL_DIR.)
PW_PACKAGE_ROOT: Location that packages installed by pw package will be installed to.
VIRTUAL_ENV: Path to Pigweed’s virtualenv.

Non-Shell Environments#

If using this outside of bash—for example directly from an IDE or CI system—users can process the actions.json file that’s generated in the location specified by the environment config. It lists variables to set, clear, and modify. An example actions.json is shown below. The “append” and “prepend” actions are listed in the order they should be applied, so the <pigweed-root>/out/host/host_tools entry should be at the beginning of PATH and not in the middle somewhere.

{
    "modify": {
        "PATH": {
            "append": [],
            "prepend": [
                "<pigweed-root>/environment/cipd",
                "<pigweed-root>/environment/cipd/pigweed",
                "<pigweed-root>/environment/cipd/pigweed/bin",
                "<pigweed-root>/environment/cipd/luci",
                "<pigweed-root>/environment/cipd/luci/bin",
                "<pigweed-root>/environment/pigweed-venv/bin",
                "<pigweed-root>/out/host/host_tools"
            ],
            "remove": []
        }
    },
    "set": {
        "PW_PROJECT_ROOT": "<pigweed-root>",
        "PW_ROOT": "<pigweed-root>",
        "_PW_ACTUAL_ENVIRONMENT_ROOT": "<pigweed-root>/environment",
        "PW_CIPD_INSTALL_DIR": "<pigweed-root>/environment/cipd",
        "CIPD_CACHE_DIR": "<home>/.cipd-cache-dir",
        "PW_PIGWEED_CIPD_INSTALL_DIR": "<pigweed-root>/environment/cipd/pigweed",
        "PW_LUCI_CIPD_INSTALL_DIR": "<pigweed-root>/environment/cipd/luci",
        "VIRTUAL_ENV": "<pigweed-root>/environment/pigweed-venv",
        "PYTHONHOME": null,
        "__PYVENV_LAUNCHER__": null
    }
}

Many of these variables are directly exposed to the GN build as well, through the GNI file specified in the environment config file.

declare_args() {
  pw_env_setup_CIPD_LUCI = "<environment-root>/cipd/packages/luci"
  pw_env_setup_CIPD_PIGWEED = "<environment-root>/cipd/packages/pigweed"
  pw_env_setup_PACKAGE_ROOT = "<environment-root>/packages"
  pw_env_setup_VIRTUAL_ENV = "<environment-root>/pigweed-venv"
}

It’s straightforward to use these variables.

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

deps = [ "$pw_env_setup_CIPD_PIGWEED/..." ]

Implementation#

The environment is set up by installing CIPD and Python packages in PW_ENVIRONMENT_ROOT or <checkout>/environment, and saving modifications to environment variables in setup scripts in those directories. To support multiple operating systems this is done in an operating system-agnostic manner and then written into operating system-specific files to be sourced now and in the future when running activate.sh instead of bootstrap.sh. In the future these could be extended to C shell and PowerShell. A logical mapping of high-level commands to system-specific initialization files is shown below.

SET $PW_ROOT /home/$USER/pigweed

Windows

Linux & Mac (sh-compatible shells)

set PW_ROOT /home/%USER%/pigweed

PW_ROOT="/home/$USER/pigweed"
export PW_ROOT

PREPEND $PATH $PW_ROOT/.env/bin

Windows

Linux & Mac (sh-compatible shells)

set PATH=%PW_ROOT%/.env/bin;%PATH%

PATH="$(\
  echo "$PATH" | \
  sed "s|:$PW_ROOT/.env/bin:|:|g;" | \
  sed "s|^$PW_ROOT/.env/bin:||g;" | \
  sed "s|:$PW_ROOT/.env/bin$||g;")"
PATH="$PW_ROOT/.env/bin;$PATH"
export PATH

ECHO “Setup Complete!”

Windows

Linux & Mac (sh-compatible shells)

echo Setup Complete!

echo "Setup Complete!"