.. _devcycle-building: ######## Building ######## .. contents:: Table Of Contents :local: :backlinks: none :depth: 2 Introduction ============ This document describes how to build Native Client modules. It is intended for developers who have experience writing, compiling, and linking C and C++ code. If you haven't read the Native Client :doc:`Technical Overview <../../overview>` and :doc:`Tutorial <../tutorial/index>`, we recommend starting with those. .. _target_architectures: Target architectures -------------------- Portable Native Client (PNaCl) modules are written in C or C++ and compiled into an executable file ending in a **.pexe** extension using the PNaCl toolchain in the Native Client SDK. Chrome can load **pexe** files embedded in web pages and execute them as part of a web application. As explained in the Technical Overview, PNaCl modules are operating-system-independent **and** processor-independent. The same **pexe** will run on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and ChromeOS and it will run on x86-32, x86-64, ARM and MIPS processors. Native Client also supports architecture-specific **nexe** files. These **nexe** files are **also** operating-system-independent, but they are **not** processor-independent. To support a wide variety of devices you must compile separate versions of your Native Client module for different processors on end-user machines. A :ref:`manifest file ` will then specify which version of the module to load based on the end-user's architecture. The SDK includes a script for generating manifest files called ``create_nmf.py``. This script is located in the ``pepper_/tools/`` directory, meaning under your installed pepper bundle. For examples of how to compile modules for multiple target architectures and how to generate manifest files, see the Makefiles included with the SDK examples. This section will mostly cover PNaCl, but also describes how to build **nexe** applications. C libraries ----------- The PNaCl SDK has a single choice of C library: newlib_. The Native Client SDK also has a GCC-based toolchain for building **nexes**. The GCC-based toolchain has support for two C libraries: newlib_ and glibc_. See :doc:`Dynamic Linking & Loading with glibc ` for information about these libraries, including factors to help you decide which to use. .. _building_cpp_libraries: C++ standard libraries ---------------------- The PNaCl SDK can use either LLVM's `libc++ `_ (the current default) or GCC's `libstdc++ `_ (deprecated). The ``-stdlib=[libc++|libstdc++]`` command line argument can be used to choose which standard library to use. The GCC-based Native Client SDK only has support for GCC's `libstdc++ `_. C++11 library support is only complete in libc++ but other non-library language features should work regardless of which standard library is used. The ``-std=gnu++11`` command line argument can be used to indicate which C++ language standard to use (``-std=c++11`` often doesn't work well because newlib relies on some GNU extensions). SDK toolchains -------------- The Native Client SDK includes multiple toolchains. It has one PNaCl toolchain and it has multiple GCC-based toolchains that are differentiated by target architectures and C libraries. The single PNaCl toolchain is located in a directory named ``pepper_/toolchain/_pnacl``, and the GCC-based toolchains are located in directories named ``pepper_/toolchain/__``. The compilers, linkers, and other tools are located in the ``bin/`` subdirectory in each toolchain. For example, the tools in the Windows SDK for PNaCl has a C++ compiler in ``toolchain/win_pnacl/bin/pnacl-clang++``. SDK toolchains versus your hosted toolchain ------------------------------------------- To build NaCl modules, you must use one of the Native Client toolchains included in the SDK. The SDK toolchains use a variety of techniques to ensure that your NaCl modules comply with the security constraints of the Native Client sandbox. During development, you have another choice: You can build modules using a *standard* toolchain, such as the hosted toolchain on your development machine. This can be Visual Studio's standard compiler, XCode, LLVM, or GNU-based compilers on your development machine. These standard toolchains will not produce executables that comply with the Native Client sandbox security constraints. They are also not portable across operating systems and not portable across different processors. However, using a standard toolchain allows you to develop modules in your favorite IDE and use your favorite debugging and profiling tools. The drawback is that modules compiled in this manner can only run as Pepper (PPAPI) plugins in Chrome. To publish and distribute Native Client modules as part of a web application, you must eventually use a toolchain in the Native Client SDK. .. Note:: :class: note In the future, additional tools will be available to compile Native Client modules written in other programming languages, such as C#. But this document covers only compiling C and C++ code, using the toolchains provided in the SDK. The PNaCl toolchain =================== The PNaCl toolchain contains modified versions of the tools in the LLVM toolchain, as well as linkers and other tools from binutils. To determine which version of LLVM or binutils the tools are based upon, run the tool with the ``--version`` command line flag. These tools are used to compile and link applications into **.pexe** files. The toolchain also contains a tool to translate a **pexe** file into a architecture-specific **.nexe** (e.g., for debugging purposes). Some of the useful tools include: ``pnacl-abicheck`` Checks that the **pexe** follows the PNaCl ABI rules. ``pnacl-ar`` Creates archives (i.e., static libraries) ``pnacl-bcdis`` Object dumper for PNaCl bitcode files. ``pnacl-clang`` C compiler and compiler driver ``pnacl-clang++`` C++ compiler and compiler driver ``pnacl-compress`` Compresses a finalized **pexe** file for deployment. ``pnacl-dis`` Disassembler for both **pexe** files and **nexe** files ``pnacl-finalize`` Finalizes **pexe** files for deployment ``pnacl-ld`` Bitcode linker ``pnacl-nm`` Lists symbols in bitcode files, native code, and libraries ``pnacl-ranlib`` Generates a symbol table for archives (i.e., static libraries) ``pnacl-translate`` Translates a **pexe** to a native architecture, outside of the browser For the full list of tools, see the ``pepper_/toolchain/_pnacl/bin`` directory. Using the PNaCl tools to compile, link, debug, and deploy ========================================================= To build an application with the PNaCl SDK toolchain, you must compile your code, link it, test and debug it, and then deploy it. This section goes over some examples of how to use the tools. Compile ------- To compile a simple application consisting of ``file1.cc`` and ``file2.cc`` into ``hello_world.pexe`` use the ``pnacl-clang++`` tool .. naclcode:: :prettyprint: 0 nacl_sdk/pepper_/toolchain/win_pnacl/bin/pnacl-clang++ \ file1.cc file2.cc -Inacl_sdk/pepper_/include \ -Lnacl_sdk/pepper_/lib/pnacl/Release -o hello_world.pexe \ -g -O2 -lppapi_cpp -lppapi The typical application consists of many files. In that case, each file can be compiled separately so that only files that are affected by a change need to be recompiled. To compile an individual file from your application, you must use either the ``pnacl-clang`` C compiler, or the ``pnacl-clang++`` C++ compiler. The compiler produces separate bitcode files. For example: .. naclcode:: :prettyprint: 0 nacl_sdk/pepper_/toolchain/win_pnacl/bin/pnacl-clang++ \ hello_world.cc -Inacl_sdk/pepper_/include -c \ -o hello_world.o -g -O0 For a description of each command line flag, run ``pnacl-clang --help``. For convenience, here is a description of some of the flags used in the example. .. _compile_flags: ``-c`` indicates that ``pnacl-clang++`` should only compile an individual file, rather than continue the build process and link together the full application. ``-o `` indicates the **output** filename. ``-g`` tells the compiler to include debug information in the result. This debug information can be used during development, and then **stripped** before actually deploying the application to keep the application's download size small. ``-On`` sets the optimization level to n. Use ``-O0`` when debugging, and ``-O2`` or ``-O3`` for deployment. The main difference between ``-O2`` and ``-O3`` is whether the compiler performs optimizations that involve a space-speed tradeoff. It could be the case that ``-O3`` optimizations are not desirable due to increased **pexe** download size; you should make your own performance measurements to determine which level of optimization is right for you. When looking at code size, note that what you generally care about is not the size of the **pexe** produced by ``pnacl-clang``, but the size of the compressed **pexe** that you upload to the server or to the Chrome Web Store. Optimizations that increase the size of an uncompressed **pexe** may not increase the size of the compressed **pexe** very much. You should also verify how optimization level affects on-device translation time, this can be tested locally with ``pnacl-translate``. ``-I`` adds a directory to the search path for **include** files. The SDK has Pepper (PPAPI) headers located at ``nacl_sdk/pepper_/ include``, so add that directory when compiling to be able to include the headers. ``-mllvm -inline-threshold=n`` change how much inlining is performed by LLVM (the default is 225, a smaller value will result in less inlining being performed). The right number to choose is application-specific, you'll therefore want to experiment with the value that you pass in: you'll be trading off potential performance with **pexe** size and on-device translation speed. Create a static library ----------------------- The ``pnacl-ar`` and ``pnacl-ranlib`` tools allow you to create a **static** library from a set of bitcode files, which can later be linked into the full application. .. naclcode:: :prettyprint: 0 nacl_sdk/pepper_/toolchain/win_pnacl/bin/pnacl-ar cr \ libfoo.a foo1.o foo2.o foo3.o nacl_sdk/pepper_/toolchain/win_pnacl/bin/pnacl-ranlib libfoo.a Link the application -------------------- The ``pnacl-clang++`` tool is used to compile applications, but it can also be used link together compiled bitcode and libraries into a full application. .. naclcode:: :prettyprint: 0 nacl_sdk/pepper_/toolchain/win_pnacl/bin/pnacl-clang++ \ -o hello_world.pexe hello_world.o -Lnacl_sdk/pepper_/lib/pnacl/Debug \ -lfoo -lppapi_cpp -lppapi This links the hello world bitcode with the ``foo`` library in the example as well as the *Debug* version of the Pepper libraries which are located in ``nacl_sdk/pepper_/lib/pnacl/Debug``. If you wish to link against the *Release* version of the Pepper libraries, change the ``-Lnacl_sdk/pepper_/lib/pnacl/Debug`` to ``-Lnacl_sdk/pepper_/lib/pnacl/Release``. In a release build you'll want to pass ``-O2`` to the compiler *as well as to the linker* to enable link-time optimizations. This reduces the size and increases the performance of the final **pexe**, and leads to faster downloads and on-device translation. .. naclcode:: :prettyprint: 0 nacl_sdk/pepper_/toolchain/win_pnacl/bin/pnacl-clang++ \ -o hello_world.pexe hello_world.o -Lnacl_sdk/pepper_/lib/pnacl/Release \ -lfoo -lppapi_cpp -lppapi -O2 By default the link step will turn all C++ exceptions into calls to ``abort()`` to reduce the size of the final **pexe** as well as making it translate and run faster. If you want to use C++ exceptions you should use the ``--pnacl-exceptions=sjlj`` linker flag as explained in the :ref:`exception handling ` section of the C++ language support reference. Finalizing the **pexe** for deployment -------------------------------------- Typically you would run the application to test it and debug it if needed before deploying. See the :doc:`running ` documentation for how to run a PNaCl application, and see the :doc:`debugging ` documentation for debugging techniques and workflow. After testing a PNaCl application, you must **finalize** it. The ``pnacl-finalize`` tool handles this. .. naclcode:: :prettyprint: 0 nacl_sdk/pepper_/toolchain/win_pnacl/bin/pnacl-finalize \ hello_world.pexe -o hello_world.final.pexe Prior to finalization, the application **pexe** is stored in a binary format that is subject to change. After finalization, the application **pexe** is **rewritten** into a different binary format that is **stable** and will be supported by future versions of PNaCl. The finalization step also helps minimize the size of your application for distribution by stripping out debug information and other metadata. Once the application is finalized, be sure to adjust the manifest file to refer to the final version of the application before deployment. The ``create_nmf.py`` tool helps generate an ``.nmf`` file, but ``.nmf`` files can also be written by hand. .. _pnacl_compress: Compressing the **pexe** for deployment --------------------------------------- Size compression is an optional step for deployment, and reduces the size of the **pexe** file that must be transmitted over the wire, resulting in faster download speed. The tool ``pnacl-compress`` applies compression strategies that are already built into the **stable** binary format of a **pexe** application. As such, compressed **pexe** files do not need any extra time to be decompressed on the client's side. All costs are upfront when you call ``pnacl-compress``. Currently, this tool will compress **pexe** files by about 25%. However, it is somewhat slow (can take from seconds to minutes on large appications). Hence, this step is optional. .. naclcode:: :prettyprint: 0 nacl_sdk/pepper_/toolchain/win_pnacl/bin/pnacl-compress \ hello_world.final.pexe ``pnacl-compress`` must be called after a **pexe** file has been finalized for deployment (via ``pnacl-finalize``). Alternatively, you can apply this step as part of the finalizing step by adding the ``--compress`` flag to the ``pnacl-finalize`` command line. This compression step doesn't replace the gzip compression performed web servers configured for HTTP compression: both compressions are complementary. You'll want to configure your web server to gzip **pexe** files: the gzipped version of a compressed **pexe** file is smaller than the corresponding uncompressed **pexe** file by 7.5% to 10%. .. _pnacl-bcdis: Object dumping of PNaCl bitcode files ===================================== Sometimes you may be interesting in the contents of a PNaCl bitcode file. The tool ``pnacl-bcdis`` object dumps the contents of a PNaCl bitcode file. For a description of the output produced by this tool, see :doc:`/reference/pnacl-bitcode-manual`. .. naclcode:: :prettyprint: 0 nacl_sdk/pepper_/toolchain/win_pnacl/bin/pnacl-bcdis \ hello_world.final.pexe The output is the corresponding contents of the given **pexe**. The GNU-based toolchains ======================== Besides the PNaCl toolchain, the Native Client SDK also includes modified versions of the tools in the standard GNU toolchain, including the GCC compilers and the linkers and other tools from binutils. These tools only support building **nexe** files. Run the tool with the ``--version`` command line flag to determine the current version of the tools. Each tool in the toolchain is prefixed with the name of the target architecture. In the toolchain for the ARM target architecture, each tool's name is preceded by the prefix "arm-nacl-". In the toolchains for the x86 target architecture, there are actually two versions of each tool---one to build Native Client modules for the x86-32 target architecture, and one to build modules for the x86-64 target architecture. "i686-nacl-" is the prefix for tools used to build 32-bit **.nexes**, and "x86_64-nacl-" is the prefix for tools used to build 64-bit **.nexes**. These prefixes conform to gcc naming standards and make it easy to use tools like autoconf. As an example, you can use ``i686-nacl-gcc`` to compile 32-bit **.nexes**, and ``x86_64-nacl-gcc`` to compile 64-bit **.nexes**. Note that you can typically override a tool's default target architecture with command line flags, e.g., you can specify ``x86_64-nacl-gcc -m32`` to compile a 32-bit **.nexe**. The GNU-based SDK toolchains include the following tools: * addr2line * ar * as * c++ * c++filt * cpp * g++ * gcc * gcc-4.4.3 * gccbug * gcov * gprof * ld * nm * objcopy * objdump * ranlib * readelf * size * strings * strip Compiling --------- Compiling files with the GNU-based toolchain is similar to compiling files with the PNaCl-based toolchain, except that the output is architecture specific. For example, assuming you're developing on a Windows machine, targeting the x86 architecture, and using the newlib library, you can compile a 32-bit **.nexe** for the hello_world example with the following command: .. naclcode:: :prettyprint: 0 nacl_sdk/pepper_/toolchain/win_x86_newlib/bin/i686-nacl-gcc \ hello_world.c -Inacl_sdk/pepper_/include \ -Lnacl_sdk/pepper_/lib/newlib/Release -o hello_world_x86_32.nexe \ -m32 -g -O2 -lppapi To compile a 64-bit **.nexe**, you can run the same command but use -m64 instead of -m32. Alternatively, you could also use the version of the compiler that targets the x86-64 architecture, i.e., ``x86_64-nacl-gcc``. You should name executable modules with a **.nexe** filename extension, regardless of what platform you're using. Creating libraries and Linking ------------------------------ Creating libraries and linking with the GNU-based toolchain is similar to doing the same with the PNaCl toolchain. The relevant tools for creating **static** libraries are ``ar`` and ``ranlib``. Linking can be done with ``g++``. See the :doc:`Dynamic Linking & Loading with glibc ` section on how to create **shared** libraries. Finalizing a **nexe** for deployment ------------------------------------ Unlike the PNaCl toolchain, no separate finalization step is required for **nexe** files. The **nexe** files are always in a **stable** format. However, the **nexe** file may contain debug information and symbol information which may make the **nexe** file larger than needed for distribution. To minimize the size of the distributed file, you can run the ``strip`` tool to strip out debug information. Using make ========== This document doesn't cover how to use ``make``, but if you want to use ``make`` to build your Native Client module, you can base your Makefile on the ones in the SDK examples. The Makefiles for the SDK examples build most of the examples in multiple configurations (using PNaCl vs NaCl, using different C libraries, targeting different architectures, and using different levels of optimization). To select a specific toolchain, set the **environment variable** ``TOOLCHAIN`` to either ``pnacl``, ``newlib``, ``glibc``, or ``host``. To select a specific level of optimization set the **environment variable** ``CONFIG`` to either ``Debug``, or ``Release``. Running ``make`` in each example's directory does **one** of the following, depending on the setting of the environment variables. * If ``TOOLCHAIN=pnacl`` creates a subdirectory called ``pnacl``; * builds a **.pexe** (architecture-independent Native Client executable) using the newlib library * generates a Native Client manifest (.nmf) file for the pnacl version of the example * If ``TOOLCHAIN=newlib`` creates a subdirectory called ``newlib``; * builds **.nexes** for the x86-32, x86-64, and ARM architectures using the newlib library * generates a Native Client manifest (.nmf) file for the newlib version of the example * If ``TOOLCHAIN=glibc`` creates a subdirectory called ``glibc``; * builds **.nexes** for the x86-32 and x86-64 architectures using the glibc library * generates a Native Client manifest (.nmf) file for the glibc version of the example * If ``TOOLCHAIN=host`` creates a subdirectory called ``windows``, ``linux``, or ``mac`` (depending on your development machine); * builds a Pepper plugin (.dll for Windows, .so for Linux/Mac) using the hosted toolchain on your development machine * generates a Native Client manifest (.nmf) file for the host Pepper plugin version of the example .. Note:: :class: note The glibc library is not yet available for the ARM and PNaCl toolchains. Here is how to build the examples with PNaCl in Release mode on Windows. The resulting files for ``examples/api/audio`` will be in ``examples/api/audio/pnacl/Release``, and the directory layout is similar for other examples. .. naclcode:: :prettyprint: 0 set TOOLCHAIN=pnacl set CONFIG=Release make Your Makefile can be simpler since you will not likely want to build so many different configurations of your module. The example Makefiles define numerous variables near the top (e.g., ``CFLAGS``) that make it easy to customize the commands that are executed for your project and the options for each command. For details on how to use make, see the `GNU 'make' Manual `_. Libraries and header files provided with the SDK ================================================ The Native Client SDK includes modified versions of standard toolchain-support libraries, such as libpthread and libc, plus the relevant header files. The standard libraries are located under the ``/pepper_`` directory in the following locations: * PNaCl toolchain: ``toolchain/_pnacl/usr/lib`` * x86 toolchains: ``toolchain/_x86_/x86_64-nacl/lib32`` and ``/lib64`` (for the 32-bit and 64-bit target architectures, respectively) * ARM toolchain: ``toolchain/_arm_/arm-nacl/lib`` For example, on Windows, the libraries for the x86-64 architecture in the newlib toolchain are in ``toolchain/win_x86_newlib/x86_64-nacl/lib64``. The header files are in: * PNaCl toolchain: ``toolchain/_pnacl/usr/include`` * x86 toolchains: ``toolchain/_x86_/x86_64-nacl/include`` * ARM toolchain: ``toolchain/_arm_/arm-nacl/include`` Many other libraries have been ported for use with Native Client; for more information, see the `webports `_ project. If you port an open-source library for your own use, we recommend adding it to webports. Besides the standard libraries, the SDK includes Pepper libraries. The PNaCl Pepper libraries are located in the the ``nacl_sdk/pepper_/lib/pnacl/`` directory. The GNU-based toolchain has Pepper libraries in ``nacl_sdk/pepper_/lib/newlib_/`` and ``nacl_sdk/pepper_/lib/glibc_/``. The libraries provided by the SDK allow the application to use Pepper, as well as convenience libraries to simplify porting an application that uses POSIX functions. Here are descriptions of the Pepper libraries provided in the SDK. .. _devcycle-building-nacl-io: libppapi.a Implements the Pepper (PPAPI) C interface. Needed for all applications that use Pepper (even C++ applications). libppapi_cpp.a Implements the Pepper (PPAPI) C++ interface. Needed by C++ applications that use Pepper. libppapi_gles2.a Implements the Pepper (PPAPI) GLES interface. Needed by applications that use the 3D graphics API. libnacl_io.a Provides a POSIX layer for NaCl. In particular, the library provides a virtual file system and support for sockets. The virtual file system allows a module to "mount" a given directory tree. Once a module has mounted a file system, it can use standard C library file operations: ``fopen``, ``fread``, ``fwrite``, ``fseek``, and ``fclose``. For more detail, see the header ``include/nacl_io/nacl_io.h``. For an example of how to use nacl_io, see ``examples/demo/nacl_io_demo``. libppapi_simple.a Provides a familiar C programming environment by letting a module have a simple ``main()`` entry point. The entry point is similar to the standard C ``main()`` function, complete with ``argc`` and ``argv[]`` parameters. For details see ``include/ppapi_simple/ps.h``. For an example of how to use ppapi_simple, ``see examples/tutorial/using_ppapi_simple``. .. Note:: :class: note * Since the Native Client toolchains use their own library and header search paths, the tools won't find third-party libraries you use in your non-Native-Client development. If you want to use a specific third-party library for Native Client development, look for it in `webports `_, or port the library yourself. * The order in which you list libraries in your build commands is important, since the linker searches and processes libraries in the order in which they are specified. See the ``\*_LDFLAGS`` variables in the Makefiles of the SDK examples for the order in which specific libraries should be listed. Troubleshooting =============== Some common problems, and how to fix them: "Undefined reference" error --------------------------- An "undefined reference" error may indicate incorrect link order and/or missing libraries. For example, if you leave out ``-lppapi`` when compiling Pepper applications you'll see a series of undefined reference errors. One common type of "undefined reference" error is with respect to certain system calls, e.g., "undefined reference to 'mkdir'". For security reasons, Native Client does not support a number of system calls. Depending on how your code uses such system calls, you have a few options: #. Link with the ``-lnosys`` flag to provide empty/always-fail versions of unsupported system calls. This will at least get you past the link stage. #. Find and remove use of the unsupported system calls. #. Create your own implementation of the unsupported system calls to do something useful for your application. If your code uses mkdir or other file system calls, you might find the :ref:`nacl_io ` library useful. The nacl_io library essentially does option (3) for you: It lets your code use POSIX-like file system calls, and implements the calls using various technologies (e.g., HTML5 file system, read-only filesystems that use URL loaders, or an in-memory filesystem). Can't find libraries containing necessary symbols ------------------------------------------------- Here is one way to find the appropriate library for a given symbol: .. naclcode:: :prettyprint: 0 nacl_sdk/pepper_/toolchain/_pnacl/bin/pnacl-nm -o \ nacl_sdk/pepper_toolchain/_pnacl/usr/lib/*.a | \ grep PNaCl ABI Verification errors ----------------------------- PNaCl has restrictions on what is supported in bitcode. There is a bitcode ABI verifier which checks that the application conforms to the ABI restrictions, before it is translated and run in the browser. However, it is best to avoid runtime errors for users, so the verifier also runs on the developer's machine at link time. For example, the following program which uses 128-bit integers would compile with NaCl GCC for the x86-64 target. However, it is not portable and would not compile with NaCl GCC for the i686 target. With PNaCl, it would fail to pass the ABI verifier: .. naclcode:: typedef unsigned int uint128_t __attribute__((mode(TI))); uint128_t foo(uint128_t x) { return x; } With PNaCl you would get the following error at link time: .. naclcode:: Function foo has disallowed type: i128 (i128) LLVM ERROR: PNaCl ABI verification failed When faced with a PNaCl ABI verification error, check the list of features that are :ref:`not supported by PNaCl `. If the problem you face is not listed as restricted, :ref:`let us know `! .. _glibc: http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/ .. _newlib: http://sourceware.org/newlib/