If you are an embedded software developer like me chances are you use embedded Linux for the purpose. It's Open Source, has great tools support and is a great software environment where (almost) everything could be automated through command line interfaces.Once you decide about operating system used the next step is to choose a build system that would be used for the task of building the software. There are few choices you can select from:
- use pre-built toolchain and rootfs and add your binaries and configuration files (i.e. STLinux for ST-based devices)
- use OpenEmbedded for full-featured buildsystem with packaging system included
- use BuildRoot for simple build system without packaging system included
We believe that for most embedded Linux systems, binary packages are not necessary, and potentially harmful. When binary packages are used, it means that the system can be partially upgraded, which creates an enormous number of possible combinations of package versions that should be tested before doing the upgrade on the embedded device. On the other hand, by doing complete system upgrades by upgrading the entire root filesystem image at once, the image deployed to the embedded system is guaranteed to really be the one that has been tested and validated.After few years with OpenEmbedded and few months with Buildroot I like the simplicity of Buildroot model. Below you can find basic (the most important in my opinion) concepts of Buildroot.
