Setting up prerequisites

Currently, only Ubuntu 18.04+ is officially supported as primary development environment.

There are several dependencies, that should be installed manually. The following list is the absolute minimum for building:

  • gcc or any C99-compliant compiler (native or cross, e.g., arm-none-eabi)
  • cmake >= 2.8.12.2

Several scripts and tools help the building and development process, thus it is recommended to have the following installed as well:

  • bash >= 4.3.11
  • cppcheck >= 1.61
  • vera++ >= 1.2.1
  • python >= 2.7.6
  1. sudo apt-get install gcc gcc-arm-none-eabi cmake cppcheck vera++ python

To make our scripts run correctly, several shell utilities should be available on the system:

  • awk
  • bc
  • find
  • sed

Building JerryScript

To build debug version for Linux

  1. python tools/build.py --debug

To build debug version for Linux without LTO (Link Time Optimization)

  1. python tools/build.py --debug --lto=off

To enable more verbose outputs for debugging

  1. tools/build.py --debug --logging=on --error-messages=on --line-info=on

Add custom arguments to CMake

  1. python tools/build.py --cmake-param=CMAKE_PARAM

Set a profile mode (ES.next, ES5.1, minimal)

  1. python tools/build.py --profile=es.next|es5.1|minimal

See also the related README.md.

Use (compiler-default, external) libc

The default libc is the compiler-default libc but you can use an external libc as well:

  • compiler-default libc:
  1. python tools/build.py
  • external libc:
  1. python tools/build.py --compile-flag="-nostdlib -I/path/to/ext-libc/include" --link-lib="ext-c"

Add toolchain file

The cmake dir already contains some usable toolchain files, which you can use in the following format:

  1. python tools/build.py --toolchain=TOOLCHAIN

For example the cross-compile to RaspberryPi 2 is something like this:

  1. python tools/build.py --toolchain=cmake/toolchain_linux_armv7l.cmake

Use system memory allocator

  1. python tools/build.py --system-allocator=on

Note: System allocator is only supported on 32 bit systems.

Enable 32bit compressed pointers

  1. python tools/build.py --cpointer-32bit=on

Note: There is no compression/decompression on 32 bit systems, if enabled.

Change default heap size (512K)

  1. python tools/build.py --mem-heap=256

If you would like to use more than 512K, then you must enable the 32 bit compressed pointers.

  1. python tools/build.py --cpointer-32bit=on --mem-heap=1024

Note: The heap size will be allocated statically at compile time, when JerryScript memory allocator is used.

To build with libfuzzer support

  1. CC=clang python tools/build.py --libfuzzer=on --compile-flag=-fsanitize=address --lto=off

Check the documentation of libfuzzer to get the runtime settings of the created fuzzer binary: https://llvm.org/docs/LibFuzzer.html.

To get a list of all the available buildoptions for Linux

  1. python tools/build.py --help

Checking patch

  1. python tools/run-tests.py --precommit

Running only one type of test

To run build option tests

  1. python tools/run-tests.py --buildoption-test

To run unittests

  1. python tools/run-tests.py --unittests

To run jerry-tests

  1. python tools/run-tests.py --jerry-tests

To run signed-off check

  1. python tools/run-tests.py --check-signed-off

To run cppcheck

  1. python tools/run-tests.py --check-cppcheck

To run vera check

  1. python tools/run-tests.py --check-vera

To get a list of all the available test options

  1. python tools/run-tests.py --help