IAR Build Tools for Arm on GitHub Actions using Linux runners

Warning

The information in this repository is subject to change without notice and does not constitute a commitment by IAR. While it serves as a valuable reference for DevOps Engineers implementing Continuous Integration with IAR Tools, IAR assumes no responsibility for any errors, omissions, or specific implementations.

Introduction

From a CI/CD perspective, the IAR Build Tools for Arm comes with everything you need to build embedded firmware projects from the command line. This tutorial provides a simple example with general guidelines on how to set up a CI/CD pipeline using GitHub Actions while taking advantage of the so-called GitHub self-hosted runners.

In case you need an introduction on how to get started with GitHub, use Quickstart.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you will need to download and install the following:

• IAR Build Tools for Arm V9.60.3 for Ubuntu 22.04 x64 (bxarm-9.60.3.deb)
  • IAR customers can download it directly from IAR MyPages. If you do not have a license, contact IAR Sales.

You also will need:

• A GitHub organization account
  • or a GitHub enterprise account.

Quickstart

Under your organization's GitHub account:

• Go to Import repository.
• Fill Your old repository's clone URL with this repository's URL.
• Set the Repository name as of your liking.
• Make it 🔘 Private. Why?
• Finally click Begin import.

Once the importing process is complete, a message will show up Your new repository <organization>/<repo> is ready. The message will provide a link to jump to the new repository.

GitHub Actions pipeline example

On your private repository, navigate to the .github/workflows/bxarm.yml workflow file. This file uses the GitHub-flavored YAML syntax to describe a pipeline containing multiple jobs found in a typical embedded firmware project.

Refer to the .github/workflows/bxarm.yml workflow file for detailed comments.

Adding runners to the organization

With GitHub Actions is straightforward enabling a self-hosted runner on a Linux build node where the IAR Build Tools for Arm was installed:

• Navigate to your Organization's (<org>) settings page to setup a new runner https://github.com/<org>/settings/actions/runners/new.
• Select Linux as the Operating System.
• Select the x64 Architecture.
• Follow the GitHub-provided instructions on the page to download and configure the runner¹.

You can have as many parallel build nodes with runners as your license allows you to. Contact sales for expanding your build capacity.

Summary

This tutorial provided an overview of how to get started with the IAR Build Tools for Arm on GitHub Actions using self-hosted Linux runners. Development teams can immediately benefit from the comprehensive feedback these modern workflows offer, enabling them to quickly build, analyze, test, and deploy with high quality.

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Issues

For technical support contact IAR Customer Support.

For questions or suggestions related to this tutorial: try the wiki or check earlier issues. If those don't help, create a new issue with detailed information.

Footnotes

1. From the default installation, the runners become available organization-wide, for all its repositories. These can be grouped and managed as desired. ↩