Both OpenTitan hardware and software is built with Bazel. While our Getting Started guides detail some of the Bazel commands that can be used to build both types of artifacts, below are detailed notes on:
- how Bazel is configured for our project, and
- brief examples of Bazel commands that are useful for:
- querying,
- building, and
- running tests with Bazel.
The rules for Bazel are described in a language called Starlark, which looks a lot like Python.
The $REPO_TOP
directory is defined as a Bazel workspace by the //WORKSPACE
file.
BUILD
files provide the information Bazel needs to build the targets in a directory.
BUILD
files also manage any subdirectories that don't have their own BUILD
files.
OpenTitan uses .bzl files to specify custom rules to build artifacts that require specific attention like on-device test rules and project specific binaries.
The WORKSPACE
file controls external dependencies such that builds can be made reproducible and hermetic.
Bazel loads specific external dependencies, such as various language toolchains.
It uses them to build OpenTitan targets (like it does with bazel_embedded) or to satisfy dependencies (as it does with abseil).
To produce increasingly stable releases the external dependencies loaded in WORKSPACE
file attempts to fix a all external http_archive
s to a specific SHA.
As we add more dependencies to the workspace, builds and tests will become less sensitive to external updates, and we will vastly simplify the Getting Started instructions.
Throughout the OpenTitan repository, BUILD
files describe targets and dependencies in the same directory (and subdirectories that lack their own BUILD
files).
BUILD
files are mostly hand-written.
To maintain the invariant that hand-written files not be included in autogen directories, there are BUILD
files that describe how to build and depend on auto-generated files in autogen subdirectories.
- Build everything (software and Verilator hardware):
bazel build //...
- Build and run all tests (on-host tests, and Verilator/FPGA on-device tests):
Note: this will take several hours.
bazel test --test_tag_filters=-broken,-dv //sw/...
- Clean all build outputs and reclaim all disk and memory traces of a Bazel instance:
Note: you should rarely need to run this, see below for when this may be necessary.
bazel clean --expunge
When Bazel builds a target, or the dependencies of a target, it places them in a Bazel-managed output directory.
This can make them difficult to find manually, however, Bazel also provides a mechanism to query for built artifacts that is demonstrated below.
Note, the outquery-*
command shown below is a special command that is parsed via our bazelisk.sh
script.
Therefore, it cannot be run with a standalone bazel ...
invocation.
- Query the locations of all Bazel-built artifacts for all OpenTitan devices for an
opentitan_{rom,flash}_binary
macro:./bazelisk.sh outquery-all <target>
- Query the locations of all Bazel-built artifacts for a specific OpenTitan device for an
opentitan_{rom,flash}_binary
macro:Note:./bazelisk.sh outquery-all <target>_<device>
<device>
will be in {sim_dv
,sim_verilator
,fpga_cw310
}.
See Building (and Testing) Software, device software can be built for multiple OpenTitan devices and memories, using OpenTitan-specific Bazel macros.
As described Building (and Testing) Software, device software can be built for multiple OpenTitan devices and memories, using OpenTitan-specific Bazel macros.
Since running tests on multiple OpenTitan devices (whether DV or Verilator simulation, or an FPGA) involves building several software images for multiple memories, we provide a Bazel macro for this.
This macro is called opentitan_functest
.
- List all
sh_test
targets instantiated by aopentitan_functest
, e.g. the UART smoketest:bazel query 'labels(tests, //sw/device/tests:uart_smoketest)'
- Query the HW and SW dependencies of a specific
opentitan_functest
for thefpga_cw310
device, e.g. the UART smoketest:or for anybazel query 'labels(data, //sw/device/tests:uart_smoketest_fpga_cw310)'
opentitan_functest
target and<device>
in {sim_dv
,sim_verilator
,fpga_cw310
}bazel query 'labels(data, <target>_<device>)'
- Query the software artifacts built for the
opentitan_flash_binary
that is a dependency of anopentitan_functest
for thefpga_cw310
device, e.g. the UART smoketest:or for anybazel query 'labels(srcs, //sw/device/tests:uart_smoketest_prog_fpga_cw310)'
opentitan_functest
<target>
and<device>
in {sim_dv
,sim_verilator
,fpga_cw310
}Note: if anbazel query 'labels(srcs, <target>_prog_<device>)'
opentitan_functest
target has the namefoo
, then theopentitan_flash_binary
target that is instantiated by theopentitan_functest
will be namedfoo_prog_<device>
.
- To build OpenTitan software see here, or run
bazel build <target>
- To query-for/run on-host software tests see here.
All device software, regardless of the device, is built with Bazel. However, only Verilator simulation and FPGA device software tests can be run with Bazel.
- Query for all ROM functional and E2E tests for FPGA:
and for Verilator:
bazel query 'filter(".*_fpga_cw310", kind(".*test rule", //sw/device/silicon_creator/...))'
bazel query 'filter(".*_sim_verilator", kind(".*test rule", //sw/device/silicon_creator/...))'
- Run all ROM functional and E2E tests on FPGA:
and for Verilator:
bazel test --test_tag_filters=cw310 //sw/device/silicon_creator/...
bazel test --test_tag_filters=verilator //sw/device/silicon_creator/...
- Run a single ROM functional or E2E test on FPGA and see the output in real time:
or, remove the define/filtering flags and just append the
bazel test \ --define DISABLE_VERILATOR_BUILD=true \ --test_tag_filters=cw310 \ --test_output=streamed \ //sw/device/silicon_creator/lib:boot_data_functest
<device>
name like:and similarly for Verilator:bazel test --test_output=streamed //sw/device/silicon_creator/lib:boot_data_functest_fpga_cw310
bazel test --test_output=streamed //sw/device/silicon_creator/lib:boot_data_functest_sim_verilator
- Query for all chip-level tests for FPGA:
and for Verilator:
bazel query 'filter(".*_fpga_cw310", kind(".*test rule", //sw/device/tests/...))'
bazel query 'filter(".*_sim_verilator", kind(".*test rule", //sw/device/tests/...))'
- Run all chip-level tests on FPGA:
and for Verilator:
bazel test --define DISABLE_VERILATOR_BUILD=true --test_tag_filters=cw310 //sw/device/tests/...
bazel test --test_tag_filters=verilator //sw/device/tests/...
- Run a single chip-level test on FPGA and see the output in real time:
or, remove the define/filtering flags and just append the
bazel test \ --define DISABLE_VERILATOR_BUILD=true --test_tag_filters=cw310 \ --test_output=streamed \ //sw/device/tests:uart_smoketest
<device>
name like:and similarly for Verilator:bazel test --test_output=streamed //sw/device/tests:uart_smoketest_fpga_cw310
bazel test --test_output=streamed //sw/device/tests:uart_smoketest_sim_verilator
There are several Bazel rules that enable running quality checks and fixers on code. They can be listed by running the following:
bazel query //quality:all
The subsections below describe how to use them. All of the tools described below are run in CI on every pull request, so it is best to run them before committing code.
The OpenTitan supported linter for C/C++ files is clang-format
.
It can be run with Bazel as shown below.
Run the following to check if all C/C++ code as been formatted correctly:
bazel test //quality:clang_format_check --test_output=streamed
and run the following to fix it, if it is not formatted correctly.
bazel run //quality:clang_format_fix
The OpenTitan project uses rustfmt
to format Rust code.
It can be run with Bazel as shown below.
Run the following to check if all Rust code as been formatted correctly:
bazel test //quality:rustfmt_check --test_output=streamed
and run the following to fix it, if it is not formatted correctly.
bazel run //quality:rustfmt_fix
The OpenTitan project uses buildifier
to automatically format Bazel files.
Run the following to check if all BUILD files has been formatted correctly:
bazel test //quality:buildifier_check --test_output=streamed
and run the following to fix it, if it is not formatted correctly.
bazel run //quality:buildifier_fix
The OpenTitan supported linter for Bazel files is buildifier
.
It can be run with Bazel as shown below.
Run the following to check if all WORKSPACE
, BUILD
, and .bzl
files have been formatted correctly:
bazel test //quality:buildifier_check --test_output=streamed
and run the following to fix them, if they are not formatted correctly.
bazel run //quality:buildifier_fix
Lastly, the OpenTitan supported linter for checking that every source code file contains a license header may be run with:
bazel run //quality:license_check --test_output=streamed
Note, to run (software) tests on these OpenTitan hardware platforms does not require these Bazel commands be invoked before the test commands above. Bazel is aware of all dependency relationships, and knows what prerequisites to build to run a test.
- Build FPGA bitstream with (test) ROM, see here.
- Build FPGA bitstream with (production) ROM, see here.
- Build Verilator simulation binary:
bazel build //hw:verilator
If you encounter an unexplained error building or running any bazel
commands, you can issue a subsequent bazel clean
command to erase any existing building directories to yield a clean build.
Specifically, according to the Bazel documentation, issuing a
bazel clean
deletes all the output build directories, while running a
bazel clean --expunge
will wipe all disk and memory traces (i.e., any cached intermediate files) produced by Bazel. The latter sledgehammer is only intended to be used as a last resort when the existing configuration is seriously broken.
Create a .bazelrc
file in your home directory to simplify executing bazel commands.
For example, you can use a .bazelrc
to:
- set up a disk cache, or
- skip running tests on the CW310 FPGA if you don not have one.
A .bazelrc
file that would accomplish this would look like:
# Make Bazel use a local directory as a remote cache.
build --disk_cache=~/bazel_cache
# Skip CW310 FPGA tests, since I do not have said FPGA.
test --test_tag_filters=-cw310
See the .bazelrc
file in the OpenTitan repository for more examples.
Additionally, for more information see the Bazel documentation.
We use the term "compute site" to refer to a particular development host, or more broadly a collection of compute nodes, that is operated by an organization with its own unique compute requirements or IT policies. The experience of working in such an environment may be different than using an off-the-shelf Linux distribution, and so team members working on some compute sites may require the use of slightly different Bazel options.
In addition to each user's $HOME/.bazelrc
file and the project-level configurations in $REPO_TOP/.bazelrc
, there is the option to add site-specific configuration options, by adding them to the file $REPO_TOP/.bazelrc-site
.
The .bazelrc-site
file can be useful for enforcing site-specific policies such as:
- Default locations for build artifacts (e.g., new defaults for
--output_user_root
or perhaps--output_base
options, outside the$HOME
filesystem). - Site-specific, non-standard paths for build-tools, libraries, or package configuration data.
Putting Bazel options in this file adds another layer of configuration to help groups of individuals working on a common compute site share the same site-specific default options.
At a more fine-grained level, individual users can still place options in $HOME/.bazelrc
, potentially overriding the options used in .bazelrc-site
and $REPO_TOP/.bazelrc
.
However the "$HOME/.bazelrc" file is not specific to OpenTitan, which could create confusion for users working on a number of projects.
The policies and paths for each contributing site could vary greatly.
So in order to avoid accidental conflicts between sites, the .bazelrc-site
file is explicitly not included in the git repository and OpenTitan CI scripts will reject any commit that includes a .bazelrc-site
file.
Bazel can use a directory on the file system as a remote cache.
This is useful for sharing build artifacts across multiple git
worktrees or multiple workspaces of the same project, such as multiple checkouts.
Use the --disk_cache=<filename>
to specify a cache directory.
For example, running
bazel build //... --disk_cache=~/.cache/bazel-disk-cache
will cache all built artifacts.
Alternatively add the following to $HOME/.bazelrc
to avoid having automatically use the disk cache on every Bazel invocation, as shown above.
Note that Bazel does not perform any garbage collection on the disk cache.
To clean out the disk cache, you can set a cron job to periodically delete all files that have not been accessed for a certain amount of time.
For example add the following line with the path to your disk cache to your crontab (using crontab -e
) to delete all files that were last accessed over 60 days ago.
0 0 * * 0 /usr/bin/find /path/to/disk/cache -type f -atime +60 -delete
For more documentation on Bazel disk caches see the official documentation.
Many device software targets depend on the Verilator simulation binary,
The Verilator simulation binary is slow to build.
To avoid building it, use the
--define DISABLE_VERILATOR_BUILD=true
build option.
For example, to build the UART smoke test artifacts but not the Verilator simulation binary run
bazel build --define DISABLE_VERILATOR_BUILD=true //sw/device/tests:uart_smoketest
By default, Bazel does not write test outputs to STDOUT.
To see a test's output in real time, use the --test_output=streamed
flag, like:
bazel test --test_output=streamed //sw/device/tests:uart_smoketest_fpga_cw310
Some tests are marked known to be broken (and are in the process of being triaged).
To prevent running these tests when running a block of tests, use the test_tag_filters=-broken
flag.
For example, to run all chip-level tests except the broken ones on FPGA:
bazel test --test_tag_filters=cw310,-broken //sw/device/tests/...
Bazel was not optimized for the git
worktree workflow, but using worktrees can help with branch management and provides the advantage of being able to run multiple Bazel jobs simultaneously.
Here are some tips that can improve the developer experience when using worktrees.
- Follow the instructions above to enable the disk cache. Bazel uses the workspace's path when caching actions. Because each worktree is a separate workspace at a different path, different worktrees cannot share an action cache. They can, however, share a disk cache, which helps avoid rebuilding the same artifacts across different worktrees. Note that the repository cache is shared by default across all workspaces, so no additional configuration is needed there.
- Before deleting a worktree, be sure to run
bazel clean --expunge
to remove Bazel's generated files. Otherwise, files from old worktrees can accumulate in your output user root (located at~/.cache/bazel/_bazel_${USER}/
by default).
One issue encountered while using bazel is the following error message when attempting to build:
= note: collect2: fatal error: cannot find 'ld'
compilation terminated.
The reason this occurs is related to these issues:
Specifically, when the rustc compiler is invoked, it uses the LLVM linker that is not managed by the bazel flow.
This means bazel cannot ensure it is installed at a specific location, and instead just uses whatever is available on the host machine.
The issue above points out that rustc expects the linker to be located in the same directory as gcc
, so if on the host machine this statement is untrue, there can be build issues.
To resolve this problem, you can either:
- Install the LLVM linker with, e.g.,
sudo apt install lld
. - Symlink
lld
to wheregcc
is installed.
or,
- add the build flag
--@rules_rust//:extra_rustc_toolchain_dirs=/path/to/somewhere/else
to your.bazelrc-site
file to specify a different location on your system where host toolchain tools may be found.
Either of these workarounds will be needed until the rules_rust
issue is resolved.