Compile

mruby is using Rake to compile and cross-compile all libraries and binaries.

Prerequisites

To compile mruby out of the source code you need the following tools:

C Compiler (i.e. gcc)
Linker (i.e. gcc)
Archive utility (i.e. ar)
Parser generator (i.e. bison)
Ruby 1.8 or 1.9

Optional:

GIT (to update mruby source and integrate mrbgems easier)
C++ compiler (to use GEMs which include *.cpp)
Assembler (to use GEMs which include *.asm)

Usage

Inside of the root directory of the mruby source exist a file called build_config.rb. This file contains the build configuration of mruby and looks like this for example:

MRuby::Build.new do |conf|
  conf.cc = ENV['CC'] || 'gcc'
  conf.ld = ENV['LD'] || 'gcc'
  conf.ar = ENV['AR'] || 'ar'

  conf.cflags << (ENV['CFLAGS'] || %w(-g -O3 -Wall -Werror-implicit-function-declaration))
  conf.ldflags << (ENV['LDFLAGS'] || %w(-lm))
end

All tools necessary to compile mruby can be set or modified here. The following options can be configurated:

conf.cc (C compiler)
conf.ld (Linker)
conf.ar (Archive utility)
conf.cxx (C++ compiler)
conf.objcc (Object compiler)
conf.asm (Assembler)
conf.yacc (Parser Generator)
conf.gperf (Hash function Generator)
conf.cat (Concatenate utility)
conf.git (GIT content tracker)
conf.cflags (C compiler flags)
conf.ldflags (Linker flags)
conf.cxxflags (C++ compiler flags)
conf.objccflags (Object compiler flags)
conf.asmflags (Assembler flags)
conf.gem (A GEM which should be integrated - can be set several times)

To compile just call ./minirake inside of the mruby source root. To generate the test tool environment call ./minirake test. To clean all build files call ./minirake clean.

Cross-Compilation

mruby can also be cross-compiled from one platform to another. To achive this the build_config.rb needs to contain an instance of MRuby::CrossBuild. This instance defines the compilation tools and flags for the target platform. An example could look like this for example:

MRuby::CrossBuild.new('i386') do |conf|
  conf.cc = ENV['CC'] || 'gcc'
  conf.ld = ENV['LD'] || 'gcc'
  conf.ar = ENV['AR'] || 'ar'

  if ENV['OS'] == 'Windows_NT' # MinGW
    conf.cflags = %w(-g -O3 -Wall -Werror-implicit-function-declaration -Di386_MARK)
    conf.ldflags = %w(-s -static)
  else
    conf.cflags << %w(-g -O3 -Wall -Werror-implicit-function-declaration -arch i386)
    conf.ldflags << %w(-arch i386)
  end
end

You can configurate the same options as for a normal build.

Build process

During the build process the directory build will be created. The directory structure will look like this:

+- build
   |
   +-  host
       |
       +- bin          <- Binaries (mirb, mrbc and mruby)
       |
       +- lib          <- Libraries (libmruby.a and libmruby_core.a)
       |
       +- mrblib
       |
       +- src
       |
       +- test         <- mrbtest tool
       |
       +- tools
          |
          +- mirb
          |
          +- mrbc
          | 
          +- mruby

The compilation workflow will look like this:

compile all files under src (object files will be stored in build/host/src
generate parser grammar out of src/parse.y (generated result will be stored in build/host/src/y.tab.c
compile build/host/src/y.tab.c to build/host/src/y.tab.o
create build/host/lib/libmruby_core.a out of all object files (C only)
create build/host/bin/mrbc by compile tools/mrbc/mrbc.c and link with build/host/lib/libmruby_core.a
create build/host/mrblib/mrblib.c by compiling all *.rb files under mrblib with build/host/bin/mrbc
compile build/host/mrblib/mrblib.c to build/host/mrblib/mrblib.o
create build/host/lib/libmruby.a out of all object files (C and Ruby)
create build/host/bin/mruby by compile tools/mruby/mruby.c and link with build/host/lib/libmruby.a
create build/host/bin/mirb by compile tools/mirb/mirb.c and link with build/host/lib/libmruby.a

Cross-Compilation

In case of a cross-compilation to i386 the build directory structure looks like this:

+- build
   |
   +-  host
   |   |
   |   +- bin           <- Native Binaries
   |   |
   |   +- lib           <- Native Libraries
   |   |
   |   +- mrblib
   |   |
   |   +- src
   |   |
   |   +- test          <- Native mrbtest tool
   |   |
   |   +- tools
   |      |
   |      +- mirb
   |      |
   |      +- mrbc
   |      | 
   |      +- mruby 
   +- i386
      |
      +- bin            <- Cross-compiled Binaries
      |
      +- lib            <- Cross-compiled Libraries
      |
      +- mrblib
      |
      +- src
      |
      +- test           <- Cross-compiled mrbtest tool
      |
      +- tools
         |
         +- mirb
         |
         +- mrbc
         | 
         +- mruby

An extra directory is created for the target platform. In case you compile for i386 a directory called i386 is created under the build direcotry.

The cross compilation workflow starts in the same way as the normal compilation by compiling all native libraries and binaries. Aftwards the cross compilation process proceeds like this:

cross-compile all files under src (object files will be stored in build/i386/src
generate parser grammar out of src/parse.y (generated result will be stored in build/i386/src/y.tab.c
cross-compile build/i386/src/y.tab.c to build/i386/src/y.tab.o
create build/i386/mrblib/mrblib.c by compiling all *.rb files under mrblib with the native build/host/bin/mrbc
cross-compile build/host/mrblib/mrblib.c to build/host/mrblib/mrblib.o
create build/i386/lib/libmruby.a out of all object files (C and Ruby)
create build/i386/bin/mruby by cross-compile tools/mruby/mruby.c and link with build/i386/lib/libmruby.a
create build/i386/bin/mirb by cross-compile tools/mirb/mirb.c and link with build/i386/lib/libmruby.a
create build/i386/lib/libmruby_core.a out of all object files (C only)
create build/i386/bin/mrbc by cross-compile tools/mrbc/mrbc.c and link with build/i386/lib/libmruby_core.a

Test Environment

mruby's build process includes a test environment. In case you start the testing of mruby, a native binary called mrbtest will be generated and executed. This binary contains all test cases which are defined under test/t. In case of a cross-compilation an additional cross-compiled mrbtest binary is generated. This binary you can copy and run on your target system.