How to build Linux kernel user space tools

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1 Article purpose[edit source]

This article provides the basic information needed to build the user space tools available on the Linux^® kernel.

2 Introduction[edit source]

The Linux kernel provides some user-space tools that are available in the tools directory ^[1] of the source tree.

These tools are not compiled by default when compiling the Linux kernel for the target board. They can be compiled independently, depending on the user's needs.

3 Installing the trace and debug tool on your target board[edit source]

3.1 Using the STM32MPU Embedded Software distribution[edit source]

3.1.1 Developer Package[edit source]

Prerequisites, please ensure:

The available user space tools can be listed by using the following commands in the Linux kernel source root path:

 cd <Linux_kernel_source_path>
 make tools/help O="<Linux_kernel_build_dir>" (optional)
Possible targets:

 acpi                   - ACPI tools
 cgroup                 - cgroup tools
 cpupower               - a tool for all things x86 CPU power
 firewire               - the userspace part of nosy, an IEEE-1394 traffic sniffer
 freefall               - laptop accelerometer program for disk protection
 gpio                   - GPIO tools
 hv                     - tools used when in Hyper-V clients
 iio                    - IIO tools
 kvm_stat               - top-like utility for displaying kvm statistics
 leds                   - LEDs  tools
 liblockdep             - user-space wrapper for kernel locking-validator
 bpf                    - misc BPF tools
 perf                   - Linux performance measurement and analysis tool
 selftests              - various kernel selftests
 spi                    - spi tools
 objtool                - an ELF object analysis tool
 tmon                   - thermal monitoring and tuning tool
 turbostat              - Intel CPU idle stats and freq reporting tool
 usb                    - USB testing tools
 virtio                 - vhost test module
 vm                     - misc vm tools
 wmi			- WMI interface examples
 x86_energy_perf_policy - Intel energy policy tool

Note: some tools are made for specific platforms (ARM, x86, RISC, and so on), so cannot be used on STM32MPU systems

The following basic steps must be done :

Compiling the application:

- Refer to <Linux kernel installation directory>/README.HOW_TO.txt helper file to know how to compile (the latest version of this helper file is also available in this user guide: README.HOW_TO.txt).

- Ensure at least that the kernel configuration file is generated (.config) (information available in README.HWO_TO file previously mentioned)

- Compile the expected tool (i.e. iio, spi...)

 cd <Linux_kernel_source_path>/tools
 make <tool> [O=<Linux_kernel_build_dir>]

Note: The 'O' option can be used to specify the output directory

Deploying the application on a board:

-The binary is generated in the directory path <Linux_kernel_build_dir>/<tool>

-Push it onto the board.

 scp <tool_binary> root@<board ip address>:/<dest_path>

PS: please ensure that the <dest_path> is known in the $PATH to execute the tool binary from anywhere on the target board.

3.1.2 Distribution Package[edit source]

There is currently no recipe to build the Linux kernel user space tools, so the Developer package has to be used.

4 References[edit source]

↑ /tools

[1] /tools

[1]