Variables in options.mk not set when included in tool Makefiles

[MulattoKid]

Hi,

We've seen an issue where one of our developers is attempting to build wolfBoot in a Docker container built for a aarch64 host. When doing so the build fails (specifically for the bin-assemble tool) with the stabs debug format not being supported. We did some digging, and found that it's due to this check in options.mk:

# allow elf inclusion of debug symbols even with optimizations enabled
# make DEBUG_SYMBOLS=1
ifeq ($(DEBUG_SYMBOLS),1)
  CFLAGS+=-g
  ifeq ($(USE_GCC),1)
    CFLAGS+=-ggdb3
  else
    CFLAGS+=-gstabs
  endif
endif

When compiling the actual bootloader this works fine as this line is at the top of the Makefile: USE_GCC?=1. However, when compiling the tools the options.mk file is included without USE_GCC being set to 1.

Is there a reason the stabs format is used specifically, or could it be replaced by -g, to use the default format on the host platform? Or should USE_GCC be set to 1, because the Makefile explicitly uses GCC.
Just to note that this works fine in Docker containers built for a amd64 host.

[danielinux]

Hi @MulattoKid
Would explicitly adding USE_GCC=1 in bin-assemble/Makefile fix the issue?

diff --git a/tools/bin-assemble/Makefile b/tools/bin-assemble/Makefile
index 2fda4157..ed78a96e 100644
--- a/tools/bin-assemble/Makefile
+++ b/tools/bin-assemble/Makefile
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 -include ../../options.mk
 
 CC=gcc
+USE_GCC=1
 CFLAGS+=-Wall -g -ggdb
 EXE=bin-assemble

[MulattoKid]

I think so, i.e. ignoring whether USE_GCC is already set, and forcing it to 1.

[dgarske]

Hi @MulattoKid ,
Can you review the PR that @danielinux put up (#549) and let us know if that resolves the issue?
Thanks, David Garske, wolfSSL

[MulattoKid]

Hi,

My colleague isn't able to reproduce the original issue anymore - maybe his setup has changed.
However, I believe my previous statement was incorrect. options.mk uses the value of USE_GCC, so USE_GCC should be set before including options.mk.

As we're not seeing the issue anymore I'll leave it up to you whether you want to actually move forward with this, or just close it 🙂

Thanks

[dgarske]

Hi @MulattoKid , thank you. We will go ahead and close this ticket. Thanks, David Garske, wolfSSL