Buildroot

Article summary

Buildroot is a set of Makefile and patch files that automates the process of building Linux-based system software for an embedded system, including cross-compiling to a target platform that differs from the build system. Buildroot can build a cross-compilation toolchain, a root file system, a Linux kernel image, and a boot loader. Buildroot supports multiple computer and instruction set architectures including x86, ARM, MIPS, PowerPC and RISC-V. Buildroot comes with configurations for several off-the-shelf embedded boards, such as Cubieboard, Raspberry Pi and SheevaPlug. Several third-party projects and products use Buildroot as the basis for their build systems, including the OpenWrt project that creates an embedded operating system, and firmware for the customer-premises equipment (CPE) used by the Google Fiber broadband service. Multiple C standard library variants are supported, including the GNU C Library, uClibc and musl, as well as those belonging to various preconfigured development environments, such as Linaro. Buildroot's build configuration system internally uses Kconfig (which is part of the Linux codebase), to provide features such as a menu-driven interface, handling of dependencies, and contextual help.…

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