Hello everyone,

My company has a set of utilities that need to be built and released for multiple (Linux) distributions on multiple platforms. Due to staffing constraints I am setting up a build system to accommodate this task; however I don't have any build server experience.

I ideally we would have one set of libs and one set of exes that would work on all of the targets, but I don't think that will be a possibility because each target may have different library versions.

Currently I have two cross compilers installed, Montavista4.0 and a Montavista3.1 and I am trying to install a Windriver cross compiler as well.

It seems like it's going to be a total mess managing each cross compiler for each target. I have to configure some environment variables for each cross compiler and ultimately each one is just compiling with g++. I know that doesn't sound like too much, and I have a script to toggle between each cross compiler environment but each cross compiler plays a little be differently and for each cross compiler that I add the more complicated it gets. Also, documentation is sparse.

I have two questions.

1) I really feel like I'm re-inventing the wheel. I would guess that there are build engineers out there that have dealt with multiple targets and one code base. Can anyone in the community point me to a resource?

2) I have an idea to use a generic g++ compiler and have a folder for each target with its libraries. When I wanted to build for each platform I could just change a variable or two to point to the target's libraries.


I have a lot more on my mind regarding this, but I'm trying to condense it for readability.

Thanks in advance,

//Rob

In general developers do not try to provide packages for a wide range of distributions and platforms. The few that do (Open Office for example) try to provide a few tar.gz packages that install a binary.

Most developers start out by providing a package for the distribution and platform that they do development work on. For everybody else they provide a source tar.gz which uses ./configure, make, and make install.

If you can talk a distribution into including your software on their install CDs then the distribution will compile and package your software for each release of their software and for every platform that they support. The way that you achieve universal distribution and platform support is by creating an application that is popular enough that every distribution thinks that it is worthwhile to include it in their install CDs.

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Steve Stites