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libxml2

    1:              libxml2 on VxWorks 6.4+
    2: 
    3: Here are my instructions for building on VxWorks.... I am very ashamed of
    4: how I did this because it is a complete hack, but it works great, so I
    5: can't complain too much.
    6: 
    7: General Information
    8: 
    9: 1. The only way to build for VxWorks is to cross compile from a windows or
   10: linux system.  We use a RedHat 5.1 workstation system as our build
   11: environment.
   12: 
   13: 2. VxWorks 6.X has two main types of executable, DKMs (dynamic kernel
   14: modules), and RTPs (real-time processes).  Kernel modules are the bread
   15: and butter of VxWorks, but they look nothing like processes/threads in
   16: normal UNIX/Windows systems.  RTPs are more like processes that have
   17: memory protection, threads, etc.  VxWorks 6.X also introduces some level
   18: of POSIX conformance to their environment.  The POSIX conformance was the
   19: key for us to be able to port libxml2.  We support accessing libxml2 from
   20: both DKMs and RTPs.
   21: 
   22: 3. There are 2 compilers for VxWorks, the WindRiver compiler, and a port
   23: of the GNU toolchain, we have only tested and built with the GNU
   24: toolchain.
   25: 
   26: How To Build
   27: 
   28: 1. Run the configure on your native linux system (this is the cheesy
   29: hack).  Since the VxWorks GNU toolchain is very close in version to the
   30: one in red hat, it generates a good config.h file.  We configured libxml2
   31: with the following to keep the size down, (but we have done basic testing
   32: with everything compiled in).
   33: 
   34: ./configure --with-minimum --with-reader --with-writer --with-regexps
   35: --with-threads --with-thread-alloc
   36: 
   37: 2. Rename the libxml2 folder to "src".  This step is required for our
   38: replacement makefile to work.
   39: 
   40: 3. Run the replacement makefile.  I wrote a new makefile that sets all the
   41: proper vxworks defines and uses the correct compilers.  The two defines on
   42: the make command line are to tell it which VxWorks Target (SH3.2 little
   43: endian), and the executable type.  We have tested this code on PENTIUM2gnu
   44: and SH32gnule.
   45: 
   46: This makefile creates a shared library that runs on VxWorks: (libxml2.so)
   47: make -f Makefile.vxworks clean all VXCPU=SH32gnule VXTYPE=RTP
   48: 
   49: This makefile creates a kernel module that runs on VxWorks: (xml2.out)
   50: make -f Makefile.vxworks clean all VXCPU=SH32gnule VXTYPE=DKM
   51: 
   52: Important Notes
   53: 
   54: 1. There are several ways that this process could be improved, but at the
   55: end of the day, we make products, not port libraries, so we did a meets
   56: minimum for our needs.
   57: 
   58: 2. VxWorks is the devil, give me embedded linux every day.
   59: 
   60: 3. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get the configure to pick up the
   61: VxWorks toolchain, and in my investigation, it has something to do with
   62: automake/autoconf, not any individual package.  VxWorks doesn't play by
   63: the normal rules for building toolchains.
   64: 
   65: 4. The PIC flag in VxWorks (especially for SH processors) is very
   66: important, and very troublesome.  On linux, you can liberally use the PIC
   67: flag when compiling and the compiler/linker will ignore it as needed, on
   68: VxWorks if must always be on for shared libraries, and always be off for
   69: static libraries and executables.
   70: 
   71: 5. If anyone wants to work on a better way to do the build of libxml2 for
   72: VxWorks, I'm happy to help as much as I can, but I'm not looking to
   73: support it myself.
   74: 
   75: Attached Files
   76: 
   77: 1. To use my Makefile for vxworks, you should enter the vxworks
   78: environment (/opt/windriver/wrenv.linux -p vxworks-6.4 for me).
   79: 2. Run: build.sh libxml2-2.6.32 SH32gnule RTP (where you have
   80: libxml2-2.6.32.tar.gz and the Makefile in the same directory as the script
   81: file).
   82: 
   83: Thanks,
   84: 
   85: Jim Wert Jr.
   86: JWert@ILSTechnology.com