autotools for barebox host/target tools?

[Sascha Hauer]

On Thu, Feb 22, 2018 at 07:00:26PM +0100, Sam Ravnborg wrote:
> Hi Sasha.
> 
> > I was just thinking, the kernel build system is great for compiling
> > barebox itself, but for compiling the userspace host and target tools
> > autotools would be a better match as they much better allow to specify
> > the necessary compilers and to pull the necessary dependencies in.
> 
> What specific problems are you trying to solve that is
> not solved today by the support in scripts/Makefile.host?

No really specific problems. I just think that while handmade Makefiles
are good for the kernel/barebox, compiling userspace tools feels more
natural using widespread userspace build environments. Manually calling
pkg-config doesn't sound like a good idea and probably we would need
another pkg-config when compiling for the target. Now we normally do
not want to build the USB upload tools we have for the target, so this
argument doesn't really count.

> 
> I notice you want to build tools for the target as well.
> This should be relatively easy to add support for that using
> the current kbuild syntax.

We do this already using targetprogs-y

> 
> I we are going for something more standard then cmake or meson
> are more modern choices than the dreadful autotools stuff.
> And with modern I also imply better / simpler.

I didn't know about meson. This one sounds interesting and Michael
Olbrich, our build system expert, also has good things to tell about
meson.

As said, there are no concrete problems I wanted to solve, I just had
the vague feeling that for example integration into build systems
like YOCTO or ptxdist) might get simpler. Anyway, it was just an idea.

Sascha

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