xref: /dpdk/doc/guides/linux_gsg/build_dpdk.rst (revision f5057be340e44f3edc0fe90fa875eb89a4c49b4f)
1..  SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
2    Copyright(c) 2010-2015 Intel Corporation.
3
4.. _linux_gsg_compiling_dpdk:
5
6Compiling the DPDK Target from Source
7=====================================
8
9.. note::
10
11    Parts of this process can also be done using the setup script described in
12    the :ref:`linux_setup_script` section of this document.
13
14Uncompress DPDK and Browse Sources
15----------------------------------
16
17First, uncompress the archive and move to the uncompressed DPDK source directory:
18
19.. code-block:: console
20
21    tar xJf dpdk-<version>.tar.xz
22    cd dpdk-<version>
23
24The DPDK is composed of several directories:
25
26*   lib: Source code of DPDK libraries
27
28*   drivers: Source code of DPDK poll-mode drivers
29
30*   app: Source code of DPDK applications (automatic tests)
31
32*   examples: Source code of DPDK application examples
33
34*   config, buildtools: Framework-related scripts and configuration
35
36Compiling and Installing DPDK System-wide
37-----------------------------------------
38
39DPDK can be configured, built and installed on your system using the tools
40``meson`` and ``ninja``.
41
42
43DPDK Configuration
44~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
45
46To configure a DPDK build use:
47
48.. code-block:: console
49
50     meson <options> build
51
52where "build" is the desired output build directory, and "<options>" can be
53empty or one of a number of meson or DPDK-specific build options, described
54later in this section. The configuration process will finish with a summary
55of what DPDK libraries and drivers are to be built and installed, and for
56each item disabled, a reason why that is the case. This information can be
57used, for example, to identify any missing required packages for a driver.
58
59Once configured, to build and then install DPDK system-wide use:
60
61.. code-block:: console
62
63        cd build
64        ninja
65        ninja install
66        ldconfig
67
68The last two commands above generally need to be run as root,
69with the `ninja install` step copying the built objects to their final system-wide locations,
70and the last step causing the dynamic loader `ld.so` to update its cache to take account of the new objects.
71
72.. note::
73
74   On some linux distributions, such as Fedora or Redhat, paths in `/usr/local` are
75   not in the default paths for the loader. Therefore, on these
76   distributions, `/usr/local/lib` and `/usr/local/lib64` should be added
77   to a file in `/etc/ld.so.conf.d/` before running `ldconfig`.
78
79.. _adjusting_build_options:
80
81Adjusting Build Options
82~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
83
84DPDK has a number of options that can be adjusted as part of the build configuration process.
85These options can be listed by running ``meson configure`` inside a configured build folder.
86Many of these options come from the "meson" tool itself and can be seen documented on the
87`Meson Website <https://mesonbuild.com/Builtin-options.html>`_.
88
89For example, to change the build-type from the default, "debugoptimized",
90to a regular "debug" build, you can either:
91
92* pass ``-Dbuildtype=debug`` or ``--buildtype=debug`` to meson when configuring the build folder initially
93
94* run ``meson configure -Dbuildtype=debug`` inside the build folder after the initial meson run.
95
96Other options are specific to the DPDK project but can be adjusted similarly.
97To set the "max_lcores" value to 256, for example, you can either:
98
99* pass ``-Dmax_lcores=256`` to meson when configuring the build folder initially
100
101* run ``meson configure -Dmax_lcores=256`` inside the build folder after the initial meson run.
102
103Some of the DPDK sample applications in the `examples` directory can be
104automatically built as part of a meson build too.
105To do so, pass a comma-separated list of the examples to build to the
106`-Dexamples` meson option as below::
107
108  meson -Dexamples=l2fwd,l3fwd build
109
110As with other meson options, this can also be set post-initial-config using `meson configure` in the build directory.
111There is also a special value "all" to request that all example applications whose
112dependencies are met on the current system are built.
113When `-Dexamples=all` is set as a meson option, meson will check each example application to see if it can be built,
114and add all which can be built to the list of tasks in the ninja build configuration file.
115
116.. _building_app_using_installed_dpdk:
117
118Building Applications Using Installed DPDK
119~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
120
121When installed system-wide, DPDK provides a pkg-config file ``libdpdk.pc`` for applications to query as part of their build.
122It's recommended that the pkg-config file be used, rather than hard-coding the parameters (cflags/ldflags)
123for DPDK into the application build process.
124
125An example of how to query and use the pkg-config file can be found in the ``Makefile`` of each of the example applications included with DPDK.
126A simplified example snippet is shown below, where the target binary name has been stored in the variable ``$(APP)``
127and the sources for that build are stored in ``$(SRCS-y)``.
128
129.. code-block:: makefile
130
131        PKGCONF = pkg-config
132
133        CFLAGS += -O3 $(shell $(PKGCONF) --cflags libdpdk)
134        LDFLAGS += $(shell $(PKGCONF) --libs libdpdk)
135
136        $(APP): $(SRCS-y) Makefile
137                $(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(SRCS-y) -o $@ $(LDFLAGS)
138
139.. note::
140
141   Unlike with the make build system present in older DPDK releases,
142   the meson system is not
143   designed to be used directly from a build directory. Instead it is
144   recommended that it be installed either system-wide or to a known
145   location in the user's home directory. The install location can be set
146   using the `--prefix` meson option (default: `/usr/local`).
147
148an equivalent build recipe for a simple DPDK application using meson as a
149build system is shown below:
150
151.. code-block:: python
152
153   project('dpdk-app', 'c')
154
155   dpdk = dependency('libdpdk')
156   sources = files('main.c')
157   executable('dpdk-app', sources, dependencies: dpdk)
158