1 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
2 Copyright(c) 2010-2015 Intel Corporation.
4 .. _linux_gsg_compiling_dpdk:
6 Compiling the DPDK Target from Source
7 =====================================
9 Uncompress DPDK and Browse Sources
10 ----------------------------------
12 First, uncompress the archive and move to the uncompressed DPDK source directory:
14 .. code-block:: console
16 tar xJf dpdk-<version>.tar.xz
19 The DPDK is composed of several directories:
21 * lib: Source code of DPDK libraries
23 * drivers: Source code of DPDK poll-mode drivers
25 * app: Source code of DPDK applications (automatic tests)
27 * examples: Source code of DPDK application examples
29 * config, buildtools: Framework-related scripts and configuration
31 Compiling and Installing DPDK System-wide
32 -----------------------------------------
34 DPDK can be configured, built and installed on your system using the tools
35 ``meson`` and ``ninja``.
41 To configure a DPDK build use:
43 .. code-block:: console
47 where "build" is the desired output build directory, and "<options>" can be
48 empty or one of a number of meson or DPDK-specific build options, described
49 later in this section. The configuration process will finish with a summary
50 of what DPDK libraries and drivers are to be built and installed, and for
51 each item disabled, a reason why that is the case. This information can be
52 used, for example, to identify any missing required packages for a driver.
54 Once configured, to build and then install DPDK system-wide use:
56 .. code-block:: console
63 The last two commands above generally need to be run as root,
64 with the `ninja install` step copying the built objects to their final system-wide locations,
65 and the last step causing the dynamic loader `ld.so` to update its cache to take account of the new objects.
69 On some linux distributions, such as Fedora or Redhat, paths in `/usr/local` are
70 not in the default paths for the loader. Therefore, on these
71 distributions, `/usr/local/lib` and `/usr/local/lib64` should be added
72 to a file in `/etc/ld.so.conf.d/` before running `ldconfig`.
74 .. _adjusting_build_options:
76 Adjusting Build Options
77 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
79 DPDK has a number of options that can be adjusted as part of the build configuration process.
80 These options can be listed by running ``meson configure`` inside a configured build folder.
81 Many of these options come from the "meson" tool itself and can be seen documented on the
82 `Meson Website <https://mesonbuild.com/Builtin-options.html>`_.
84 For example, to change the build-type from the default, "debugoptimized",
85 to a regular "debug" build, you can either:
87 * pass ``-Dbuildtype=debug`` or ``--buildtype=debug`` to meson when configuring the build folder initially
89 * run ``meson configure -Dbuildtype=debug`` inside the build folder after the initial meson run.
91 Other options are specific to the DPDK project but can be adjusted similarly.
92 The "platform" option specifies a set a configuration parameters that will be used.
95 * ``-Dplatform=native`` will tailor the configuration to the build machine.
97 * ``-Dplatform=generic`` will use configuration that works on all machines
98 of the same architecture as the build machine.
100 * ``-Dplatform=<SoC>`` will use configuration optimized for a particular SoC.
101 Consult the "socs" dictionary in ``config/arm/meson.build`` to see which
104 The instruction set will be set automatically by default according to these rules:
106 * ``-Dplatform=native`` sets ``cpu_instruction_set`` to ``native``,
107 which configures ``-march`` (x86_64), ``-mcpu`` (ppc), ``-mtune`` (ppc) to ``native``.
109 * ``-Dplatform=generic`` sets ``cpu_instruction_set`` to ``generic``,
110 which configures ``-march`` (x86_64), ``-mcpu`` (ppc), ``-mtune`` (ppc) to
111 a common minimal baseline needed for DPDK.
113 To override what instruction set will be used, set the ``cpu_instruction_set``
114 parameter to the instruction set of your choice (such as ``corei7``, ``power8``, etc.).
116 ``cpu_instruction_set`` is not used in Arm builds, as setting the instruction set
117 without other parameters leads to inferior builds. The way to tailor Arm builds
118 is to build for a SoC using ``-Dplatform=<SoC>`` mentioned above.
120 The values determined by the ``platform`` parameter may be overwritten.
121 For example, to set the ``max_lcores`` value to 256, you can either:
123 * pass ``-Dmax_lcores=256`` to meson when configuring the build folder initially
125 * run ``meson configure -Dmax_lcores=256`` inside the build folder after the initial meson run.
127 Some of the DPDK sample applications in the `examples` directory can be
128 automatically built as part of a meson build too.
129 To do so, pass a comma-separated list of the examples to build to the
130 `-Dexamples` meson option as below::
132 meson -Dexamples=l2fwd,l3fwd build
134 As with other meson options, this can also be set post-initial-config using `meson configure` in the build directory.
135 There is also a special value "all" to request that all example applications whose
136 dependencies are met on the current system are built.
137 When `-Dexamples=all` is set as a meson option, meson will check each example application to see if it can be built,
138 and add all which can be built to the list of tasks in the ninja build configuration file.
141 Building 32-bit DPDK on 64-bit Systems
142 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
144 To build a 32-bit copy of DPDK on a 64-bit OS,
145 the ``-m32`` flag should be passed to the compiler and linker
146 to force the generation of 32-bit objects and binaries.
147 This can be done either by setting ``CFLAGS`` and ``LDFLAGS`` in the environment,
148 or by passing the value to meson using ``-Dc_args=-m32`` and ``-Dc_link_args=-m32``.
149 For correctly identifying and using any dependency packages,
150 the ``pkg-config`` tool must also be configured
151 to look in the appropriate directory for .pc files for 32-bit libraries.
152 This is done by setting ``PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR`` to the appropriate path.
154 The following meson command can be used on RHEL/Fedora systems to configure a 32-bit build,
155 assuming the relevant 32-bit development packages, such as a 32-bit libc, are installed::
157 PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR=/usr/lib/pkgconfig \
158 meson -Dc_args='-m32' -Dc_link_args='-m32' build
160 For Debian/Ubuntu systems, the equivalent command is::
162 PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/pkgconfig \
163 meson -Dc_args='-m32' -Dc_link_args='-m32' build
165 Once the build directory has been configured,
166 DPDK can be compiled using ``ninja`` as described above.
169 .. _building_app_using_installed_dpdk:
171 Building Applications Using Installed DPDK
172 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
174 When installed system-wide, DPDK provides a pkg-config file ``libdpdk.pc`` for applications to query as part of their build.
175 It's recommended that the pkg-config file be used, rather than hard-coding the parameters (cflags/ldflags)
176 for DPDK into the application build process.
178 An 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.
179 A simplified example snippet is shown below, where the target binary name has been stored in the variable ``$(APP)``
180 and the sources for that build are stored in ``$(SRCS-y)``.
182 .. code-block:: makefile
186 CFLAGS += -O3 $(shell $(PKGCONF) --cflags libdpdk)
187 LDFLAGS += $(shell $(PKGCONF) --libs libdpdk)
189 $(APP): $(SRCS-y) Makefile
190 $(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(SRCS-y) -o $@ $(LDFLAGS)
194 Unlike with the make build system present in older DPDK releases,
195 the meson system is not
196 designed to be used directly from a build directory. Instead it is
197 recommended that it be installed either system-wide or to a known
198 location in the user's home directory. The install location can be set
199 using the `--prefix` meson option (default: `/usr/local`).
201 an equivalent build recipe for a simple DPDK application using meson as a
202 build system is shown below:
204 .. code-block:: python
206 project('dpdk-app', 'c')
208 dpdk = dependency('libdpdk')
209 sources = files('main.c')
210 executable('dpdk-app', sources, dependencies: dpdk)