How to Build in edk2 with Stuart

EDK II packages are easy to build with set of tools called "stuart".

💡 If you are familiar with the build command and would like to learn about build vs stuart, see the comparison.

Steps are split into two categories: (1) one-time and (2) regular use.

One-Time Steps

If you've already completed these steps you don't need to run them again.

Pre-requisites (Git, Python, Compiler)

Git - Source Control Management (SCM) Tool

Git is the source control management tool used by this project.

You need git to pull the edk2 source code onto your system, make changes in the code, and submit your changes back to the GitHub repository.

Git Download Page

Python

Python is a programming language that many of the edk2 build tools are written in.

You will need Python to run the edk2 build tools including stuart, which is written in Python.

It is recommended you install a Python version that is equal to the version used in the UsePythonVersion@0 step in this file .azurepipelines/templates/pr-gate-steps.yml.

That version is constantly tested against the code in the repository.

Python Download Page

C Compiler

A C compiler is needed to compile the firmware code.

Several options are available. This is an area where direct guidance cannot be provided.

You will need to choose a compiler supported on your host operating system and the particular firmware packages you are building.

However, it is common to use: GCC on Linux Ubuntu GCC Installation Instructions apt-get update && apt-get install -y build-essential git nasm wget m4 bison flex uuid-dev python unzip acpica-tools gcc-multilib Visual Studio on Windows Visual Studio Installation Instructions (Windows)

  **Visual Studio 2022 Installation Instructions**
    ---

      Click to download [Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools](https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vs_BuildTools.exe)


        Open an **Administrator Command Prompt** by right-clicking on **Command Prompt**
        and select **Run as Administrator**


        Change to the directory where you downloaded the `vs_BuildTools.exe` file
        (e.g. `C:\Downloads`)


        Enter the following command:

        `
          start /w vs_BuildTools.exe --quiet --wait --norestart --nocache --installPath C:\BuildTools ^
          --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.CoreBuildTools --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.x86.x64 ^
          --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows11SDK.22000 --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.ARM ^
          --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.ARM64
        `

    ---
**Visual Studio 2019 Installation Instructions**
  ---

    Click to download [Visual Studio 2019 Build Tools](https://aka.ms/vs/16/release/vs_BuildTools.exe)


      Open an **Administrator Command Prompt** by right-clicking on **Command Prompt**
      and select **Run as Administrator**


      Change to the directory where you downloaded the `vs_BuildTools.exe` file
      (e.g. `C:\Downloads`)


      Enter the following command:

      `
        start /w vs_BuildTools.exe --quiet --wait --norestart --nocache --installPath C:\BuildTools ^
        --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.CoreBuildTools --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.x86.x64 ^
        --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows10SDK.19041 --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.ARM ^
        --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.ARM64
      `

  ---
**Visual Studio 2017 Installation Instructions**
  ---

    Click to download [Visual Studio 2017 Build Tools](https://aka.ms/vs/15/release/vs_BuildTools.exe)


    Open an **Administrator Command Prompt** by right-clicking on **Command Prompt** and
    select **Run as Administrator**


    Change to the directory where you downloaded the `vs_BuildTools.exe` file
    (e.g. `C:\Downloads`)


      Enter the following command:

      `
        start /w vs_BuildTools.exe --quiet --wait --norestart --nocache --installPath C:\BuildTools ^
        --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.CoreBuildTools --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.x86.x64 ^
        --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows10SDK.17763 --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.ARM ^
        --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.ARM64
      `

  ---
Note: You can find the latest version of Visual Studio supported by edk2 on the
      [CI Status](https://github.com/tianocore/edk2#core-ci-build-status) section of the
      repo readme file.


      Note: If you still run into build problems finding tools in the SDK, try installing the Windows SDK manually
      using the following instructions.

  **Optional: Install the Windows SDK manually**
  ---

    Download the Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) from
    [Windows Dev Center - Windows SDK](https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/windows-sdk/)


    Follow the default options until you reach the "**Select the features you want to install**" page.

  Select the following options:
  Windows SDK Signing Tools for Desktop Apps
    Windows SDK for UWP Managed Apps
    Windows SDK for UWP C++ Apps
    Windows SDK for Desktop C++ x86 Apps
    Windows SDK for Desktop C++ amd64 Apps
    Windows SDK for Desktop C++ arm Apps
  Click **Download** and complete the installation process.

  ---
**Mono (Linux)**
[Mono](https://www.mono-project.com) needs to be installed on Linux.
`apt-get install mono-complete`

Clone the edk2 repo
- Open a command-prompt in the directory where you would like to keep the edk2 repo
- Clone the repo
  - Example: git clone https://github.com/tianocore/edk2.git
Change into the edk2 directory
- cd edk2
Create a Python virtual environment
- Note that the steps differ between Linux and Windows.
  - Linux Instructions python3 -m venv .venv
    
    source .venv/bin/activate
    - Windows Instructions py -m venv .venv
    .venv\Scripts\activate.bat 4. Tell Git to ignore the Python virtual environment
Git will try to track your Python virtual environment as new code if it is not told to ignore it.

The edk2 project has been set to ignore the .venv directory (since this commit), so if you are working on the current version of edk2 you can ignore this step.

If you are working on another project (or older versions of the edk2 project), you can tell git to ignore the virtual environment like this:
- Open the file .git/info/exclude
  - cd .git
  - cd info
  - Open the exclude file in a text editor
  - Add the following line to the end of the file:
    - *venv*/**
  - Close the file
- Note: Git will no longer try to track your Python virtual environments in this repository.

That's it!

Your terminal may now indicate that a virtual environment is active by showing (.venv) before the current line.

Regular Use Steps

These are steps you should run on a regular basis.

The steps are split into three categories: (1) once per session, (2) when dependencies are updated, and (3) before each build.

Once Per Session Steps

These assume your command prompt is in the edk2 repository directory.

Activate the Python virtual environment
- Linux
  - source .venv/bin/activate
- Windows
  - .venv\Scripts\activate.bat
Update Python PIP modules
- pip install -r pip-requirements.txt --upgrade
Get updated code dependencies
- stuart_setup -c .pytool/CISettings.py

That's it!

When Dependencies are Updated Steps

The edk2 repo has a number of dependencies on external content. For example, it depends on git submodules, Python pip modules, tools in the form of application binaries, etc. If the corresponding version information for these is updated in the repo, you will need to pull the update.

The recommended steps to update dependencies are in this section.

Git Submodules

git submodule update --init --recursive

Python PIP Modules

pip install -r pip-requirements.txt --upgrade

Rebuild BaseTools

In Linux (Ubuntu) rebuilding BaseTools requires a one-time install of various dependencies, see the BaseTools build example.

Once any required dependencies are installed, the command to rebuild BaseTools (you may need to specify a different toolchain with -t) is:

python3 BaseTools/Edk2ToolsBuild.py -t GCC5

Before Each Build Steps

Now every time you would like to build the code, you only need to run the following commands until you end this session and return.

Update other dependencies (like binaries)
- stuart_update -c .pytool/CISettings.py
  
  Note: It is recommended to specify the architecture and tool chain in the update command (see the stuart_ci_build command below) so any binaries specific to that architecture and tool chain are downloaded in this step.
  
  Note: The binaries downloaded by this step can be very large, it may take a long time to complete.
Run CI build (--help will give you options)
- stuart_ci_build -c .pytool/CISettings.py TOOL_CHAIN_TAG=<your tag here>
  - Common options:
    - -p <pkg1,pkg2,pkg3>: To build only certain packages use a comma-separated list
    - -a <arch1,arch2,arch3>: To run only certain architectures use a comma-separated list
    - -t <target1,target2>: To run only tests related to certain targets use a comma-separated list

That's it to do a basic build.

The remainder of this page contains more details about the stuart_ci_build and stuart_build commands.

Examples

I want to build MdeModulePkg to test a change I made there

MdeModulePkg Build Example

The important parameter here is the -p parameter which specifies that MdeModulePkg should be built.

The example below uses:

The TOOL_CHAIN_TAG parameter to specify the build should use VS2019 (Visual Studio 2019).
The -a parameter is used to specify that the IA32 and X64 architectures should be built.

stuart_ci_build -c .pytool/CISettings.py -p MdeModulePkg -a IA32,X64 TOOL_CHAIN_TAG=VS2019

I only want to run the unit tests in a package

Unit Test Build Example

This example shows how to run only the host-based unit tests in MdeModulePkg.

Normally, all package supported targets are tested including unit tests.
Unit tests are run for the NOOPT target.

stuart_ci_build -c .pytool/CISettings.py -p MdeModulePkg -a IA32,X64 TOOL_CHAIN_TAG=VS2019 -t NOOPT

The important parameter here is the -t parameter which specifies that only the NOOPT target should be built.

I want to build OvmfPkg to test a change I made there

OvmfPkg Build Example

OvmfPkg is considered a "platform firmware" for the QEMU open-source emulator.

Therefore, it provides a platform build file (see What is PlatformBuild.py?)
Located at OvmfPkg/PlatformCI/PlatformBuild.py
Because we are building a platform build file, the build command will be stuart_build instead of stuart_ci_build to compile the code

As a one-time step (and when binary dependencies are updated):

stuart_update -c PlatformBuild.py

Then to build:

stuart_build -c PlatformBuild.py -a IA32,X64 TOOL_CHAIN_TAG=VS2019

If you want to run CI checks such as CI plugins, you can use stuart_ci_build with the CI build file.

stuart_ci_build -c .pytool/CISettings.py -p OvmfPkg -a IA32,X64 TOOL_CHAIN_TAG=VS2019

I want to build OvmfPkg and automatically run with my firmware after build

OvmfPkg Build and Run Example

OvmfPkg is considered a "platform firmware" for the QEMU open-source emulator.

Therefore, it provides a platform build file (see What is PlatformBuild.py?)
Located at OvmfPkg/PlatformCI/PlatformBuild.py

Because we are building a platform build file, the build command will be stuart_build instead of stuart_ci_build

To see what parameters are supported by this platform build file (at the time this page was written), we can pass the --help argument to the stuart_build command:

❯ stuart_build -c PlatformBuild.py --help
usage: stuart_build [-h] [--SKIPBUILD] [--SKIPPREBUILD] [--SKIPPOSTBUILD] [--FLASHONLY] [--FLASHROM]
                    [--UPDATECONF] [--CLEAN] [--CLEANONLY] [--OUTPUTCONFIG OUTPUTCONFIG] [-a BUILD_ARCH]
                    [--build-config BUILD_CONFIG] [--verbose]

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --SKIPBUILD, --skipbuild, --SkipBuild
                        Skip the build process
  --SKIPPREBUILD, --skipprebuild, --SkipPrebuild
                        Skip prebuild process
  --SKIPPOSTBUILD, --skippostbuild, --SkipPostBuild
                        Skip postbuild process
  --FLASHONLY, --flashonly, --FlashOnly
                        Flash rom after build.
  --FLASHROM, --flashrom, --FlashRom
                        Flash rom. Rom must be built previously.
  --UPDATECONF, --updateconf, --UpdateConf
                        Update Conf. Builders Conf files will be replaced with latest template files
  --CLEAN, --clean, --CLEAN
                        Clean. Remove all old build artifacts and intermediate files
  --CLEANONLY, --cleanonly, --CleanOnly
                        Clean Only. Do clean operation and don't build just exit.
  --OUTPUTCONFIG OUTPUTCONFIG, --outputconfig OUTPUTCONFIG, --OutputConfig OUTPUTCONFIG
                        Provide shell variables in a file
  -a BUILD_ARCH, --arch BUILD_ARCH
                        Optional - CSV of architecture to build. IA32 will use IA32 for Pei & Dxe. X64 will use
                        X64 for both PEI and DXE. IA32,X64 will use IA32 for PEI and X64 for DXE. default is
                        IA32,X64
  --build-config BUILD_CONFIG
                        Provide shell variables in a file
  --verbose, --VERBOSE, -v
                        verbose

positional arguments:
  <key>=<value>              - Set an env variable for the pre/post build process
  BLD_*_<key>=<value>        - Set a build flag for all build types
                              (key=value will get passed to build process)
  BLD_<TARGET>_<key>=<value> - Set a build flag for build type of <target>
                              (key=value will get passed to build process for given build type)

The --flashonly and --flashrom commands are especially useful with OvmfPkg. They automatically load QEMU with the newly built firmware.

The example below uses:

The TOOL_CHAIN_TAG parameter to specify that the build should use GCC5 to build with GCC.
The -a parameter is used to specify the IA32 and X64 architectures should be built.
The --flashrom parameter is used to load the firmware in QEMU and boot QEMU after the firmware build is completed.

stuart_build -c PlatformBuild.py -a IA32,X64 TOOL_CHAIN_TAG=GCC5 --flashrom

I want to build BaseTools

BaseTools Build Example

BaseTools has its own build script that leverages edk2-pytools to build the BaseTools applications.

Linux Pre-Requisites

sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential uuid-dev

The file BaseTools/Edk2ToolsBuild.py can be called as a standalone Python script. You just need to pass the tool chain tag you would like to build with.

Example: python3 BaseTools/Edk2ToolsBuild.py -t GCC5

I just want to check if my changes will pass all the non-compiler checks in CI

CI Non-Compiler Checks Example

The NO-TARGET build target specifies that the actual firmware source code should not be built for any particular target and, instead, the other parts of the CI process will be active such as the non-compiler checks (plugins).

In the following example, the CI plugins will be run against all packages supported by the CISettings.py file.

stuart_ci_build -c .pytool/CISettings.py -t NO-TARGET

The CI checks could be run against a single package (or a selection of packages) by passing the package names to with the -p parameter.

stuart_ci_build -c .pytool/CISettings.py -p MdePkg,UefiCpuPkg -t NO-TARGET

I want to fix all the spelling errors in my package. How do I just run the spell check plugin?

Spell Check Plugin Example

Plugins are automatically discovered in the workspace by stuart.

Stuart supports command-line arguments to disable all discovered plugins and only run those explicitly requested. The following command disables all plugins and then enables only SpellCheck:

stuart_ci_build -c .pytool/CISettings.py --disable-all SpellCheck=run

Alternative Spell Check Plugin Example

You can also simply delete the other plugin directories so they are not discovered. You can then test with the remaining plugins and then use git to restore the deleted plugin directories back when done testing.

For example, to only test with the SpellCheck plugin, delete every other plugin folder from .pytool/Plugin in your workspace.

Run the command to only perform CI checks:

stuart_ci_build -c .pytool/CISettings.py -t NO-TARGET

When done, restore the other plugin directories: git restore .pytool/Plugin/**

Common Questions

What is CI?

Answer

Continuous Integration

Continuous integration is used in edk2 to test new contributions before they are merged to the edk2 main branch. Stuart is used within the edk2 CI process to pull build dependencies and build the code.

You can use stuart to perform the same CI checks locally that are done on the server (see the examples section).

Also see EDK II Continuous Integration.

What are BaseTools?

Answer

A collection of build related tools for edk2.

Examples:

AutoGen
Build
GenSec
GenFV
GenFW
GenRds

Each tool has a user manual located in BaseTools/UserManuals.

A more complete list of BaseTools is located in the EDK II Tools List.

What are edk2-pytools?

Answer

A collection of Python code for working with edk2.

edk2-pytool-library - Python library code that seeks to provide an easy way to organize and share edk2 related functionality to facilitate reuse across environments, tools, and scripts.
edk2-pytool-extensions - A Python project that consists of command line and other tools and extensions for building and maintaining an edk2 based UEFI firmware code tree.

What is CISettings.py?

Answer

CISettings.py is a common name given to a configuration file used with Stuart for CI. It is often stored in a folder named .pytools in the root of a repository. So you'll likely encounter commands like the following be used with the file:

stuart_ci_setup -c .pytool/CISettings.py TOOL_CHAIN_TAG=PUT_TAG_VALUE_HERE
stuart_update -c .pytool/CISettings.py TOOL_CHAIN_TAG=PUT_TAG_VALUE_HERE
stuart_ci_build -c .pytool/CISettings.py TOOL_CHAIN_TAG=PUT_TAG_VALUE_HERE

What is PlatformBuild.py?

Answer

PlatformBuild.py is a common name given to a configuration file used with Stuart for platform build. It is often stored in the root directory of the package it builds.

For example:

stuart_setup -c SomePkg/PlatformBuild.py TOOL_CHAIN_TAG=PUT_TAG_VALUE_HERE
stuart_update -c SomePkg/PlatformBuild.py TOOL_CHAIN_TAG=PUT_TAG_VALUE_HERE
stuart_build -c SomePkg/PlatformBuild.py TOOL_CHAIN_TAG=PUT_TAG_VALUE_HERE

Like Stuart CI has "CI plugins", the build process has "build plugins". These can hook into the build in "pre-build" or "post-build".

Note

Build plugins will also run during CI if a CompilerPlugin is present that builds the code.

What is the difference between stuart_ci_build and stuart_build?

Answer

stuart_ci_build - Runs CI plugins. By default, often runs CI on several packages at once. This includes all of the checks needed to consider the code ready for integration to the mainline.
stuart_build - Does not run CI plugins. Builds one platform. Platforms often expose platform-specific parameters as defined in their PlatformBuild.py file.

What does stuart_ci_build do exactly?

Answer

The Stuart CI process is composed of "CI plugins" that get discovered in the code tree at CI time and hook into the CI process. Some examples of CI plugins are a host-based unit test compile and execution, spell checking the code, performing markdown lint on the code, etc. Firmware (C code) compilation is performed during CI by a compiler CI plugin.

Each plugin reports back a pass/fail status. If any plugin fails, CI fails. However, plugins usually provide some level of customization in a "CI package configuration file". If this file is present, it is in the root of the package with the naming convention PkgName.ci.yaml. For example, MdePkg.ci.yaml is the CI package configuration file for MdePkg. Sometimes, CI plugins will allow the plugin to be set to run in "audit mode" so the plugin will run and report results but not fail CI if errors are found. As an example, some packages in edk2 currently use this file to run the spell checker CI plugin in audit mode.

The two main places to look for CI settings are:

The CISettings.py file - Usually has repo-wide CI settings
The CI package configuration file - Has package-specific CI settings for a given package

How do I get more detailed information if an error happens?

Answer

You can pass the -v argument to Stuart commands to get more detailed output.

Also, look in your /Build directory.

Each Stuart command produces a separate file. Open the file corresponding to the command you're using that has the failure.

stuart_ci_setup - CISETUP.txt
stuart_setup - SETUPLOG.txt
stuart_update - UPDATE_LOG.txt
stuart_ci_build - CI_BUILDLOG.txt
stuart_build - BUILDLOG_PACKAGENAME.txt

What are plugins?

Answer

The different types of plugins supported by Stuart and details about each type are available in the edk2-pytool-extensions Plugin Manager page.

How do I get lower-level technical details?

Answer

Start in the edk2-pytool-extensions User Documentation.

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