[Buildroot] adding nodejs to buildroot

[Buildroot] adding nodejs to buildroot

[Jenkins, Lee]

I tried to add package nodejs to an old BuildRoot : 2011.05

Here's how I added the package:
1. I downloaded the nodejs package (Config.in, nodejs.mk, and nodejs...patch) from the latest buildroot into the buildroot/package/nodejs directory.
2. I added an entry for nodejs in buildroot/packages/Config.in under "Interpreter languages and scripting"
3. I ran "make menuconfig", selected the nodejs package (yes, it appeared in the right spot) and saved the configuration

But something is out of place because the make fails:

buildroot$ make nodejs
make: *** No rule to make target `nodejs'. Stop.

Similarly, if I just run "make" the make succeeds but the nodejs package is not built.

The buildroot/.config file has an entry BR2_PACKAGE_NODEJS=y, but clearly there's something else missing.

It's been about a year since I added a package to buildroot, so I'm wondering if I missed a step? Or is there some incompatibility between this package and my old buildroot?

Lee Jenkins
HP Server Storage

[Buildroot] adding nodejs to buildroot

[Thomas Petazzoni]

Dear Jenkins, Lee (ISS Houston),

On Wed, 19 Feb 2014 00:38:16 +0000, Jenkins, Lee (ISS Houston) wrote:

> I tried to add package nodejs to an old BuildRoot : 2011.05
> 
> Here's how I added the package:
> 1. I downloaded the nodejs package (Config.in, nodejs.mk, and nodejs...patch) from the latest buildroot into the buildroot/package/nodejs directory.
> 2. I added an entry for nodejs in buildroot/packages/Config.in under "Interpreter languages and scripting"
> 3. I ran "make menuconfig", selected the nodejs package (yes, it appeared in the right spot) and saved the configuration
> 
> But something is out of place because the make fails:
> 
> buildroot$ make nodejs
> make: *** No rule to make target `nodejs'. Stop.

You need to replace the last lines of nodejs.mk by:

$(eval $(call GENTARGETS,package,nodejs))
$(eval $(call GENTARGETS,package,nodejs,host))

However, there will most likely be a lot of other problems, as new
packages often rely on new features of the package infrastructure. So
you cannot simply take a package from a more recent version of
Buildroot, drop it in a 3 years older Buildroot and expect things to
work.

What about upgrading your Buildroot instead? By using such an old
version, you lose all the support that the community could give you,
because we are not really interested in solving issues occurring with a
3 years old Buildroot.

Best regards,

Thomas
-- 
Thomas Petazzoni, CTO, Free Electrons
Embedded Linux, Kernel and Android engineering
http://free-electrons.com

[Buildroot] adding nodejs to buildroot

[Thomas Petazzoni]

Lee,

Please keep the list Cc'ed.

On Wed, 19 Feb 2014 18:12:33 +0000, Jenkins, Lee (ISS Houston) wrote:

> Thanks for the assist. With that information and a small patch to the build of host-python I was able to build node.

Cool!

> We have talked about upgrading our buildroot. Same old tradeoff convo of time/risk to upgrade vs. our looming deadline.

Yes, indeed. Unfortunately, when calculating this tradeoff, a lot of
people/companies forget that by not upgrading, they lose community
support. And this support might prove to be very useful :)

> I could post my solution to the mailing list if you think it might be useful. I realize this wouldn't be an official patch, but it might help someone operating under similar constraints.

I don't know if it would be really useful, because it's unlikely that
people having the same problem as you will find your patch amongst the
myriad of patches that are being sent to the Buildroot mailing list :-)

Thomas
-- 
Thomas Petazzoni, CTO, Free Electrons
Embedded Linux, Kernel and Android engineering
http://free-electrons.com