fpcup

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About

fpcup is a tool that automates running a subversion client to build FPC and/or Lazarus in a self-contained directory structure. Think of it as a batch file on steriods that does the boring svn work for you.

On Windows, it can also serve as a "bare metal" installer: it can download a subversion client, binutils (make.exe etc).

fpcup allows maintaining multiple different FPC/Lazarus combinations.

It is a third party tool, not part of FPC or Lazarus.

Ready to run

fpcup is ready to run out of the box. It will download and install FPC and Lazarus. On Windows, this directory layout is used: 

C:\development\config_lazarus # Default primary-config-path directory 
                              # (contains Lazarus settings)
C:\development\cross          # Place to store cross compiling binutils and libs if wanted
C:\development\extras         # Third party modules (see fpcup.ini) such as fpcdocs
C:\development\fpcbootstrap   # Binutils (make.exe etc) and bootstrap compiler
C:\development\fpc            # FPC fixes 2.6 by default
C:\development\lazarus        # Lazarus trunk by default

On Linux/OSX/BSD, a similar layout is used under ~

fpcup will create a shortcut to the installed Lazarus on your desktop.

Just run fpcup, e.g. on Windows: 

fpcup

On *nix: 

#replace fpcup_linux_x86 with your actual fpcup filename of course if not on linux x86
chmod u+rx fpcup_linux_x86 #make executable (one time only action)
./fpcup_linux_x86 #run

Next time, you can either run the exact same command, or run the fpcup_update desktop shortcut or home directory shell script/batch file.

Documentation

fpcup has a -h option, a readme.txt and fpcup.html with development notes (see the source code repository for the latest readme.txt and fpcup.html).

To make it easier to get user contributions for documentation/tips, this wiki page has been created. Please feel free to add your own examples etc.

Cross compilers

When you want to run a cross compiler, you need to have the relevant binutils that are specific for the host<>target system.

Often, you will also need libraries in target system format if you want to compile programs (e.g. Linux Qt or Gtk libraries for the relevant CPU if you're crosscompiling for Linux).

When you run a crosscompiler, fpcup briefly checks if it can find required binutils and libraries and will warn you if they can't be found.

Status

  • Built in means no additional files are needed
  • Needs binutils/libs: means that you need to supply those (see above)
  • N/A: means non-applicable/impossible
  • No: means no plans to implement this. However, contributions are welcome, as always
From\To DOS GO32v2 Windows x86 Windows x64 Linux x64 Linux x86 Android ARM FreeBSD x64 FreeBSD x86
Windows x86 needs FPC trunk yes, built in N/A yes needs binutils,libs needs binutils,libs
Windows x64 no needs binutils yes N/A needs binutils,libs needs binutils,libs
Linux x64 no N/A no plans no plans
Linux x86 N/A no plans no plans
Android ARM
FreeBSD x64 no no plans
FreeBSD x86 no plans

(With thanks to FPSpreadsheet's spreadsheet to wikitable conversion tool, see e.g. examples\fpsgrid)

DOS crosscompiler

Using 32 bit fpcup.exe on Windows, once you have set up a regular FPC trunk/2.7.1 compiler, you can add a DOS cross compiler. Note: the DOS cross compiler is still in development.

Required files

Download the required binaries as mentioned in DOS, currently: 

msdos-nasm.exe
msdos-wlib.exe
msdos-wlink.exe
nasm.exe
wlibd.dll
wlinkd.dll
wlsystem.lnk

and put them in your cross binutils directory for the right platform - e.g. on a standard Windows fpcup install: 

c:\development\cross\bin\i8086-msdos

There are no files needed in the corresponding library directory, 

C:\development\cross\lib\i8086-msdos

Tips

Building only FPC

You can build FPC without Lazarus if you want (or the other way round). The example below builds FPC from the fixes 2.6 SVN branch.

Settings

Open your settings file or add a new file, settings.ini: 

[fixes26]
; FPC 2.6 fixes only (no Lazarus)
fpcdir=c:\development\fpcfixes26
fpcurl=http://svn.freepascal.org/svn/fpc/branches/fixes_2_6
; Let's specify Lazarus info in case we ever want to add lazarus
lazdir=c:\development\lazarus12_fixes26
; Just an example: build Lazarus 1.2:
lazurl=http://svn.freepascal.org/svn/lazarus/tags/lazarus_1_2
primary-config-path=c:\development\configlazarus12_fixes26
; If we ever build Lazarus, do create a link/shortcut:
lazlinkname=lazarus12_fixes26
; Do not create a batch file with shortcut
fpcuplinkname=""
; We can use the binutils/bootstrap dirs that we usually use:
binutilsdir=c:\development\fpcbootstrap
fpcbootstrapdir=c:\development\fpcbootstrap
; Just install/update, no questions asked:
noconfirm=true
; In case you want to submit patches, it's nice to be able to update
; without overwriting your fixes:
keeplocalchanges=true
; Specify we only want FPC, not Lazarus
; in case of fpc patches FPCBuildOnly
only=FPC,FPCCrossWin32-64
skip=helplazarus,lazarus,lazbuild,bigide,useride

Then get FPC and build it with: 

fpcup --inifile=settings.ini --inisection=fixes26

Now you can run your compiler: 

c:\development\fpcfixes26\bin\i386-win32\fpc.exe -h

Cross-compile for win64, e.g.: 

c:\development\fpcfixes26\bin\i386-win32\fpc.exe -Px86_64 yourfile.pas

Avoid lengthy lcl.chm documentation generation

By default, fpcup tries to compile the $(lazarusdir)\docs\chm\lcl.chm Lazarus help file every day or so. This can take a long time due to the fpdoc being quite slow.

You can avoid compiling lcl.chm by generating it one time (or copying over an existing file) and making the file read-only.

Download

The official site is at: https://bitbucket.org/reiniero/fpcup/downloads

License

fpcup is open source software released under the LGPL with linking exception (same as FreePascal/LCL).

Troubleshooting

When you hit errors with fpcup:

  • Make sure any edits you may have made in fpc and laz source files don't mess up compiling. Run e.g. svn revert . --recursive to remove all local edits
  • Try running fpcup with --verbose to see what's going on exactly
  • Look into the error message fpcup generates; it also shows some troubleshooting steps you may perform
  • Sometimes, the build process leaves incorrect files; you can delete all .ppu files from your FPC and Lazarus directories and run fpcup again.
  • Try removing all intermediate files by running fpcup with the --clean option
  • If compiling Lazarus, make sure lazarus and lhelp are not running.
  • Try running 
    svn revert THEDIRECTORY --recursive
    followed by 
    svn update THEDIRECTORY
    for your Lazarus and FPC directories to remove local modifications, if any
  • Remove possible stale files:
    • the bootstrap compiler and any binutils: remove all files in the fpcbootstrap directory
    • if you haven't modified fpcup.ini, remove it and let fpcup regenerate it
    • same for settings.ini
  • See if there's a newer version available that may have fixed your problem

If the steps before do not work: use the --uninstall option to remove all files including your FPC and Lazarus directories, then run fpcup with the same commands.

Light bulb  Note: Of course, errors introduced in FPC and Lazarus source code/repository may also influence builds. There's nothing fpcup can do to fix incorrect code breaking the build...

Info: Error running fpcup. Technical details: error executing sequence helplazarus; line: 4, param: helplazarus

HelpLazarus is often the first module that will be built after building lazbuild and the other core IDE units. However, the actual problem may be that lazbuild itself was not generated due to an error. Try running with --verbose to pinpoint where the problem is and follow the troubleshooting steps above.

Error finding (e.g.) system.ppu when compiling with FPC/Lazarus

Errors like this may be caused by an fpc.cfg from an older/different version of FPC that remains in your fpc/bin/<platform> directory. Because you can customise fpc.cfg, fpcup will not just replace it.

If you have not customised fpc.cfg, you can remove it and let fpcup regenerate it when rebuilding FPC.

Support and bug reporting

Please post support requests on the forum (e.g. in the thread dedicated to FPCUP in the Third-Party announcements section).

If you report problems, please be sure to mention

  1. operating system
  2. fpcup version (as printed in its output)
  3. description of what went wrong/error messge
  4. run fpcup with the --verbose --noconfirm arguments (or the equivalents in settings.ini) as well as the other arguments you used, redirect the output to file, and attach the file, e.g.: 
    fpcup --verbose --noconfirm > fpcupverbose.txt
    ; if you post on the forum, please zip it and attach the result to your post

You can report bugs on the forum or directly on the issue tracker: https://bitbucket.org/reiniero/fpcup/issues?status=new&status=open

Current progress

  • Support for Windows 2000-7 (untested, probably works on 8). Bare metal install currently needs MS Visual C++ runtime for the subversion client.
  • Linux x86: works
  • Linux x64: works
  • OSX 10.?: experimental support
  • FreeBSD 9: lightly tested; seems to work

Changelog

This log tracks fpcup binaries as available on the download page. Note that not all binaries may be updated at the same time; fpcup prints a version string at the beginning which you can check.

For more details, please see the Mercurial commit log in https://bitbucket.org/reiniero/fpcup/commits/all

  • 20131122:
    • New SVN URL for RXfpc components. Please delete your fpcup.ini (if not modified) to let it regenarate and remove the extras\rx directory before running the new fpcup so the new repository can be downloaded.
  • 20131118:
    • Initial stab at support for http proxy: --httpproxy=user:password@host:port (user and password are optional). Also picks up http_proxy variable. Used in http, svn, hg over http downloads; not supported for git over http downloads. Needs testing.
    • Bug fix: Ini file parameters should not be stored in fpcup start shell script/batch file
    • Added fpc only example to settings.ini.
    • Changed settings.ini: make full install/update default
    • Split win32->win64 cross compile into FPC and Lazarus parts
    • Reinstate bare metal install on Windows XP+. Windows 2000 users will get a warning that they should install SVN themselves.
  • 20131023: Win32=>DOS crosscompiler support for FPC trunk

Earlier releases: please see the fpcup forum thread

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