Comprehensive Real-World Guidance for Every Embedded Developer and Engineer
This book brings together indispensable knowledge for building efficient, high-value, Linux-based embedded products: information that has never been assembled in one place before. Drawing on years of experience as an embedded Linux consultant and field application engineer, Christopher Hallinan offers solutions for the specific technical issues you're most likely to face, demonstrates how to build an effective embedded Linux environment, and shows how to use it as productively as possible.
Hallinan begins by touring a typical Linux-based embedded system, introducing key concepts and components, and calling attention to differences between Linux and traditional embedded environments. Writing from the embedded developer's viewpoint, he thoroughly addresses issues ranging from kernel building and initialization to bootloaders, device drivers to file systems.
Hallinan thoroughly covers the increasingly popular BusyBox utilities; presents a step-by-step walkthrough of porting Linux to custom boards; and introduces real-time configuration via CONFIG_RT--one of today's most exciting developments in embedded Linux. You'll find especially detailed coverage of using development tools to analyze and debug embedded systems--including the art of kernel debugging.
• Compare leading embedded Linux processors
• Understand the details of the Linux kernel initialization process
• Learn about the special role of bootloaders in embedded Linux systems, with specific emphasis on U-Boot
• Use embedded Linux file systems, including JFFS2--with detailed guidelines for building Flash-resident file system images
• Understand the Memory Technology Devices subsystem for flash (and other) memory devices
• Master gdb, KGDB, and hardware JTAG debugging
• Learn many tips and techniques for debugging within the Linux kernel
• Maximize your productivity in cross-development environments
• Prepare your entire development environment, including TFTP, DHCP, and NFS target servers
• Configure, build, and initialize BusyBox to support your unique requirements
13.3. cbrowser/cscope
13.3. cbrowser/cscope
We mention cbrowser here because support for this handy tool has found its way into the Linux kernel source tree.[82] cbrowser is a simple source-code browsing tool that makes it easy to bounce around a large source tree following symbols.
The Linux kernel makefile supports building the database that cbrowser uses. Here is an example invocation from a recent Linux kernel snapshot:
$ make ARCH=ppc CROSS_COMPILE=ppc_82xx- cscope
This produces the cscope symbol database that cbrowser uses. cscope is the engine; cbrowser is the graphical user interface. You can use cscope on its own if you want. It is command line driven and very powerful, but not quite as quick or easy for navigating a large source tree in this point-and-click era. If vi is still your favorite editor, cscope might be just for you!
To invoke cbrowser, enter the directory that contains your cscope database, and simply type the cbrowser command without arguments. Figure 13-3 shows an example session. You can read more about both of these useful tools in the references listed in Section 13.7.1 at the end of this chapter.
Figure 13-3. cbrowser in action
