Compile

mruby is using Rake to compile and cross-compile all libraries and binaries.

Prerequisites

To compile mruby out of the source code you need the following tools:

C Compiler (i.e. gcc)
Linker (i.e. gcc)
Archive utility (i.e. ar)
Parser generator (i.e. bison)
Ruby 1.8 or 1.9 (i.e. ruby or jruby)

Optional:

GIT (to update mruby source and integrate mrbgems easier)
C++ compiler (to use GEMs which include *.cpp)
Assembler (to use GEMs which include *.asm)

Usage

Inside of the root directory of the mruby source a file exists called build_config.rb. This file contains the build configuration of mruby and looks like this for example:

MRuby::Build.new do |conf|
  toolchain :gcc
end

All tools necessary to compile mruby can be set or modified here. In case you want to maintain an additional build_config.rb you can define a customized path using the $MRUBY_CONFIG environment variable.

To compile just call ./minirake inside of the mruby source root. To generate and execute the test tools call ./minirake test. To clean all build files call ./minirake clean.

Build Configuration

Inside of the build_config.rb the following options can be configured based on your environment.

Toolchains

The mruby build system already contains a set of toolchain templates which configure the build environment for specific compiler infrastructures.

GCC

Toolchain configuration for the GNU C Compiler.

toolchain :gcc

clang

Toolchain configuration for the LLVM C Compiler clang. Mainly equal to the GCC toolchain.

toolchain :clang

Visual Studio 2012

Toolchain configuration for Visual Studio 2012 on Windows.

toolchain :vs2012

Android

Toolchain configuration for Android.

toolchain :androideabi

Requires the custom standalone Android NDK and the toolchain path in ANDROID_STANDALONE_TOOLCHAIN.

Binaries

It is possible to select which tools should be compiled during the compilation process. The following tools can be selected:

mrbc (mruby compiler)
mruby (mruby interpreter)
mirb (mruby interactive shell)

To select all define an array in conf.bins:

conf.bins = %(mrbc mruby mirb)

File Separator

Some environments require a different file separator character. It is possible to set the character via conf.file_separator.

conf.file_separator = '/'

C Compiler

Configuration of the C compiler binary, flags and include paths.

conf.cc do |cc|
  cc.command = ...
  cc.flags = ...
  cc.include_paths = ...
  cc.defines = ...
  cc.option_include_path = ...
  cc.option_define = ...
  cc.compile_options = ...
end

Linker

Configuration of the Linker binary, flags and library paths.

conf.linker do |linker|
  linker.command = ...
  linker.flags = ...
  linker.flags_before_libraries = ...
  linker.libraries = ...
  linker.flags_after_libraries = ...
  linker.library_paths = ....
  linker.option_library = ...
  linker.option_library_path = ...
  linker.link_options = ...
end

Archiver

Configuration of the Archiver binary and flags.

conf.archiver do |archiver|
  archiver.command = ...
  archiver.archive_options = ...
end

Parser Generator

Configuration of the Parser Generator binary and flags.

conf.yacc do |yacc|
  yacc.command = ...
  yacc.compile_options = ...
end

GPerf

Configuration of the GPerf binary and flags.

conf.gperf do |gperf|
  gperf.command = ...
  gperf.compile_options = ...
end

File Extensions

conf.exts do |exts
  exts.object = ...
  exts.executable = ...
  exts.library = ...
end

Mrbgems

Integrate GEMs in the build process.

# Integrate GEM with additional configuration
conf.gem 'path/to/gem' do |g|
  g.cc.flags << ...
end

# Integrate GEM without additional configuration
conf.gem 'path/to/another/gem'

Mrbtest

Configuration Mrbtest build process.

If you want mrbtest.a only, You should set conf.build_mrbtest_lib_only

conf.build_mrbtest_lib_only

Cross-Compilation

mruby can also be cross-compiled from one platform to another. To achieve this the build_config.rb needs to contain an instance of MRuby::CrossBuild. This instance defines the compilation tools and flags for the target platform. An example could look like this:

MRuby::CrossBuild.new('32bit') do |conf|
  toolchain :gcc

  conf.cc.flags << "-m32"
  conf.linker.flags << "-m32
end

All configuration options of MRuby::Build can also be used in MRuby::CrossBuild.

Build process

During the build process the directory build will be created in the root directory. The structure of this directory will look like this:

+- build
   |
   +-  host
       |
       +- bin          <- Binaries (mirb, mrbc and mruby)
       |
       +- lib          <- Libraries (libmruby.a and libmruby_core.a)
       |
       +- mrblib
       |
       +- src
       |
       +- test         <- mrbtest tool
       |
       +- tools
          |
          +- mirb
          |
          +- mrbc
          | 
          +- mruby

The compilation workflow will look like this:

compile all files under src (object files will be stored in build/host/src)
generate parser grammar out of src/parse.y (generated result will be stored in build/host/src/y.tab.c)
compile build/host/src/y.tab.c to build/host/src/y.tab.o
create build/host/lib/libmruby_core.a out of all object files (C only)
create build/host/bin/mrbc by compiling tools/mrbc/mrbc.c and linking with build/host/lib/libmruby_core.a
create build/host/mrblib/mrblib.c by compiling all *.rb files under mrblib with build/host/bin/mrbc
compile build/host/mrblib/mrblib.c to build/host/mrblib/mrblib.o
create build/host/lib/libmruby.a out of all object files (C and Ruby)
create build/host/bin/mruby by compiling tools/mruby/mruby.c and linking with build/host/lib/libmruby.a
create build/host/bin/mirb by compiling tools/mirb/mirb.c and linking with build/host/lib/libmruby.a

 _____    _____    ______    ____    ____    _____    _____    ____
| CC  |->|GEN  |->|AR    |->|CC  |->|CC  |->|AR   |->|CC   |->|CC  |
| *.c |  |y.tab|  |core.a|  |mrbc|  |*.rb|  |lib.a|  |mruby|  |mirb|
 -----    -----    ------    ----    ----    -----    -----    ----

Cross-Compilation

In case of a cross-compilation to i386 the build directory structure looks like this:

+- build
   |
   +-  host
   |   |
   |   +- bin           <- Native Binaries
   |   |
   |   +- lib           <- Native Libraries
   |   |
   |   +- mrblib
   |   |
   |   +- src
   |   |
   |   +- test          <- Native mrbtest tool
   |   |
   |   +- tools
   |      |
   |      +- mirb
   |      |
   |      +- mrbc
   |      | 
   |      +- mruby 
   +- i386
      |
      +- bin            <- Cross-compiled Binaries
      |
      +- lib            <- Cross-compiled Libraries
      |
      +- mrblib
      |
      +- src
      |
      +- test           <- Cross-compiled mrbtest tool
      |
      +- tools
         |
         +- mirb
         |
         +- mrbc
         | 
         +- mruby

An extra directory is created for the target platform. In case you compile for i386 a directory called i386 is created under the build direcotry.

The cross compilation workflow starts in the same way as the normal compilation by compiling all native libraries and binaries. Afterwards the cross compilation process proceeds like this:

cross-compile all files under src (object files will be stored in build/i386/src)
generate parser grammar out of src/parse.y (generated result will be stored in build/i386/src/y.tab.c)
cross-compile build/i386/src/y.tab.c to build/i386/src/y.tab.o
create build/i386/mrblib/mrblib.c by compiling all *.rb files under mrblib with the native build/host/bin/mrbc
cross-compile build/host/mrblib/mrblib.c to build/host/mrblib/mrblib.o
create build/i386/lib/libmruby.a out of all object files (C and Ruby)
create build/i386/bin/mruby by cross-compiling tools/mruby/mruby.c and linking with build/i386/lib/libmruby.a
create build/i386/bin/mirb by cross-compiling tools/mirb/mirb.c and linking with build/i386/lib/libmruby.a
create build/i386/lib/libmruby_core.a out of all object files (C only)
create build/i386/bin/mrbc by cross-compiling tools/mrbc/mrbc.c and linking with build/i386/lib/libmruby_core.a

 _______________________________________________________________
|              Native Compilation for Host System               |
|  _____      ______      _____      ____      ____      _____  |
| | CC  | -> |AR    | -> |GEN  | -> |CC  | -> |CC  | -> |AR   | |
| | *.c |    |core.a|    |y.tab|    |mrbc|    |*.rb|    |lib.a| |
|  -----      ------      -----      ----      ----      -----  |
 ---------------------------------------------------------------
                                ||
                               \||/
                                \/
 ________________________________________________________________
|             Cross Compilation for Target System                |
|  _____      _____      _____      ____      ______      _____  |
| | CC  | -> |AR   | -> |CC   | -> |CC  | -> |AR    | -> |CC   | |
| | *.c |    |lib.a|    |mruby|    |mirb|    |core.a|    |mrbc | |
|  -----      -----      -----      ----      ------      -----  |
 ----------------------------------------------------------------

Test Environment

mruby's build process includes a test environment. In case you start the testing of mruby, a native binary called mrbtest will be generated and executed. This binary contains all test cases which are defined under test/t. In case of a cross-compilation an additional cross-compiled mrbtest binary is generated. You can copy this binary and run on your target system.

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README.md

README.md

Compile

Prerequisites

Usage

Build Configuration

Toolchains

GCC

clang

Visual Studio 2012

Android

Binaries

File Separator

C Compiler

Linker

Archiver

Parser Generator

GPerf

File Extensions

Mrbgems

Mrbtest

Cross-Compilation

Build process

Cross-Compilation

Test Environment

Files

README.md

Latest commit

History

README.md

File metadata and controls

Compile

Prerequisites

Usage

Build Configuration

Toolchains

GCC

clang

Visual Studio 2012

Android

Binaries

File Separator

C Compiler

Linker

Archiver

Parser Generator

GPerf

File Extensions

Mrbgems

Mrbtest

Cross-Compilation

Build process

Cross-Compilation

Test Environment