Nodic nRF5 SDK Bazel toolchain

This repository is an example on how to compile the nRF5 SDK into a Bazel based project.

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Using the nRF5 Bazel rules

WORKSPACE

Check the releases page and copy the accurate workspace setup for the version you want.

This is an example of what to add to your workspace file, this includes a suitable ARM toolchain used to compile the nrf source code. In this example we are going to use arm-none-eabi-gcc from the bazel-arm-none-eabi repo

# WORKSPACE
load("@bazel_tools//tools/build_defs/repo:git.bzl", "git_repository")

#---------------------------------------------------------------------
# ARM none eabi GCC
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
git_repository(
    name = "arm_none_eabi",
    commit = "eb08f73c8890baa153fa2f0de36cfacbb7552109",
    remote = "https://github.com/hexdae/bazel-arm-none-eabi",
    shallow_since = "1665997882 -0700",
)

load("@arm_none_eabi//:deps.bzl", "arm_none_eabi_deps")

arm_none_eabi_deps()
#---------------------------------------------------------------------

#---------------------------------------------------------------------
# nRF5 SDK dependencies
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
load("@bazel_tools//tools/build_defs/repo:http.bzl", "http_archive")
git_repository(
    name = "nRF5",
    commit = "<latest_commit>",
    remote = "https://github.com/hexdae/bazel-nrf-sdk",
)

load("@nRF5//:deps.bzl", "nRF5_deps")
nRF5_deps()
#---------------------------------------------------------------------

.bazelrc

Enable cc_toolchain resolution

# .bazelrc

# Enable toolchain resolution
build --incompatible_enable_cc_toolchain_resolution

BUILD

Then you can the nrf_binary rule to build firmware in your BUILD files. Just use it as you would use the cc_binary rule, and by adding the custom attributes linker, sdk_srcs, and sdk_includes if you need files from the nRF5 SDK.

# BUILD

# Your custom platform compiled with the arm-none-eabi-gcc toolchain.
platform(
    name = "nrf",
    constraint_values = [
        "@platforms//cpu:arm",
        "@platforms//os:none",
    ],
    visibility = ["//visibility:public"],
)

# Your custom nRF5 based firmware.
nrf_binary(
    name = "nrf_firmware",
    linker = "...",
    srcs = [...],
    includes = [...],
    sdk_srcs = [...],
    sdk_includes = [...],
)

To build the target, use the command

bazelisk build --platform=//:nrf //:nrf_firmware

Checkout the examples directory for inspiration.

Testing the repository

Bazel

Install Bazel for your platform. Installing with a package manager is recommended, especially on windows where additional runtime components are needed.

• Ubuntu Linux: sudo apt install bazel
• macOS: brew install bazel
• Windows: choco install bazel

Bazelisk

bazelisk is a user-friendly launcher for bazel. Follow the install instructions in the Bazelisk repo

Use bazelisk as you would use bazel, this takes care of using the correct Bazel version for each project by using the .bazelversion file contained in each project.

Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/d-asnaghi/bazel-nordic-sdk.git

Build examples

Use this command to build all the examples target for the pca10040 evaluation board.

# build the project
bazelisk build --platforms=//platforms:pca10056 //examples

This will take care of downloading the appropriate toolchain for your OS and compile all the source files specified by the target.

To build for the pca10056 and pca10100 evaluation boards, just use --platforms=//platforms:pca10056 and --platforms=//platforms:pca10100 respectively.