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Arduino CMake

https://travis-ci.org/arduino-cmake/arduino-cmake.svg?branch=master

Arduino is a great development platform, which is easy to use. It has everything a beginner should need. The Arduino IDE simplifies a lot of things for the standard user, but if you are a professional programmer the IDE can feel simplistic and restrictive.

One major drawback of the Arduino IDE is that you cannot do anything without it, which for me is a complete buzz kill. Thats why queezythegreat created an alternative build system for the Arduino using CMake. With the original repository not being updated since 2014 and lacking some important features like support for the latest Arduino SDKs, we decided to fix things up for 1.6; now that some people have started using this as their preferred fork, we decided to accept our fate of being the current maintainers.

CMake is great cross-platform build system that works on practically any operating system. With it you are not constrained to a single build system. CMake lets you generate the build system that fits your needs, using the tools you like. It can generate any type of build system, from simple Makefiles, to complete projects for Eclipse, Visual Studio, XCode, etc.

The Arduino CMake build system integrates tightly with the Arduino SDK.

Arduino SDK version 0.19 or higher is required.

So if you like to do things from the command line (using make), or to build your firmware where you're in control, or if you would like to use an IDE such as Eclipse, KDevelop, XCode, CodeBlocks or something similar, then Arduino CMake is the system for you.

Features

  • Integrates with Arduino SDK
  • Supports all Arduino boards.
  • Supports Arduino type libraries.
  • Automatic detection of Arduino libraries.
  • Generates firmware images.
  • Generates built-in examples.
  • Generates libraries.
  • Sketch support.
  • Upload support.
  • Hardware Platform support.
  • Programmer support (with bootloader upload).
  • Supports multiple build system types (Makefiles, Eclipse, KDevelop, CodeBlocks, XCode, etc).
  • Cross-platform: Windows, Linux, Mac.
  • Extensible build system, thanks to CMake.

Feedback

Arduino CMake is hosted on GitHub and is available on multiple forks (At the time of writing up to 161(!)), with one the more advanced and maintainable being the following:

https://github.com/arduino-cmake/arduino-cmake/

However, none of this would have been possible with the generous bunch of work the original author queezythegreat invested into this project, who definately earns most of the credit for getting things running:

https://github.com/queezythegreat/arduino-cmake

We want to stress again that he did all the initial work to even make CMake spit out Arduino firmwares. Without the effort queezythegreat put into this, we would not have been able to even think about getting an Arduino 1.6 project running. This is by no means a hostile fork and we would give him ownership of the organization as well at any time, should he wish so.

Did you find a bug or would like a specific feature, please report it at:

https://github.com/arduino-cmake/arduino-cmake/issues

If you would like to hack on this project, don't hesitate to fork it on GitHub. We will be glad to integrate your changes if you send me a Pull Request.

Requirements

Contributors

I would like to thank the following people for contributing to Arduino CMake:

License

This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.

TODO

  • Test more complex configurations and error handling

Contents

  1. Getting Started
  2. Using Arduino CMake
    1. Creating Firmware Images
    2. Creating Libraries
    3. Arduino Sketches
    4. Arduino Built-in Examples
    5. Arduino Libraries
    6. Arduino Library Examples
    7. Compiler and Linker Flags
    8. Programmers
    9. Pure AVR Development
    10. Advanced Options
    11. Miscellaneous Functions
    12. Bundling Arduino CMake
  3. Linux Environment
    1. Linux Serial Naming
    2. Linux Serial Terminals
  4. Mac OS X Environment
    1. Mac Serial Naming
    2. Mac Serial Terminals
  5. Windows Environment
    1. CMake Generators
    2. Windows Serial Naming
    3. Windows Serial Terminals
  6. Eclipse Environment
  7. Troubleshooting
    1. undefined reference to `__cxa_pure_virtual'
    2. Arduino Mega 2560 image does not work
    3. Library not detected automatically
    4. error: attempt to use poisoned "SIG_USART0_RECV"
  8. Resources

Getting Started

The following instructions are for *nix type systems, specifically this is a Linux example.

In short you can get up and running using the following commands:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
make upload              # to upload all firmware images             [optional]
make blink-serial  # to get a serial terminal to wire_serial   [optional]

For a more detailed explanation, please read on...

  1. Toolchain file

    In order to build firmware for the Arduino you have to specify a toolchain file to enable cross-compilation. There are two ways of specifying the file, either at the command line or from within the CMakeLists.txt configuration files. The bundled example uses the second approach like so:

    set(CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake/ArduinoToolchain.cmake)

    Please note that this must be before the project(...) command.

    If you would like to specify it from the command line, heres how:

    cmake -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=../path/to/toolchain/file.cmake PATH_TO_SOURCE_DIR

  2. Creating a build directory

    The second order of business is creating a build directory. CMake has a great feature called out-of-source builds, what this means is the building is done in a completely separate directory from where the sources are. The benefit of this is you don't have any clutter in you source directory and you won't accidentally commit something that is auto-generated.

    So let's create that build directory:

    mkdir build
cd build

  3. Creating the build system

    Now let's create the build system that will create our firmware:

    cmake ..

    To specify the build system type, use the -G option, for example:

    cmake -G"Eclipse CDT4 - Unix Makefiles" ..

    If you rather use a GUI, use:

    cmake-gui ..

  4. Building

    Next we will build everything:

    make

  5. Uploading

    Once everything built correctly we can upload. Depending on your Arduino you will have to update the serial port used for uploading the firmware. To change the port please edit the following variable in CMakeLists.txt:

    set(${FIRMWARE_NAME}_PORT /path/to/device)

    Ok lets do a upload of all firmware images:

    make upload

    If you have an upload sync error then try resetting/ power cycling the board before starting the upload process.

  6. Serial output

    If you have some serial output, you can launch a serial terminal from the build system. The command used for executing the serial terminal is user configurable by the following setting:

    set(${FIRMWARE_NAME}_SERIAL serial command goes here)

    In order to get access to the serial port use the following in your command:

    @SERIAL_PORT@

    That constant will get replaced with the actual serial port used (see uploading). In the case of our example configuration we can get the serial terminal by executing the following:

    make blink-serial

Using Arduino CMake

In order to use Arduino CMake just include the toolchain file, everything will get set up for building. You can set the toolchain in CMakeList.txt like so:

set(CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake/ArduinoToolchain.cmake)

Please note that this must be before the project(...) command.

You can also specify it at build configuration time:

cmake -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=../path/to/toolchain/file.cmake PATH_TO_SOURCE_DIR

Creating Firmware Images

Once you have the Arduino CMake loaded you can start defining firmware images.

To create Arduino firmware in CMake you use the generate_arduino_firmware command. The full syntax of the command is:

generate_arduino_firmware(target_name
     [BOARD board_name]
     [BOARD_CPU board_cpu]
     [SKETCH sketch_path | SRCS  src1 src2 ... srcN]
     [HDRS  hdr1 hdr2 ... hdrN]
     [LIBS  lib1 lib2 ... libN]
     [PORT  port]
     [SERIAL serial_cmd]
     [PROGRAMMER programmer_id]
     [AFLAGS flags]
     [NO_AUTOLIBS])

The options are:

Name Description REQUIRED
BOARD Board name (such as uno, mega2560, ...) REQUIRED
BOARD_CPU Board CPU (such as atmega328, atmega168, ...) REQUIRED if board cpu is ambiguous
SKETCH Sketch path (see Arduino Sketches) SKETCH or SRCS are REQUIRED
SRCS Source files SKETCH or SRCS are REQUIRED
HDRS Headers files (for project based build systems)  
LIBS Libraries to link (see Creating libraries)  
PORT Serial port, for upload and serial targets (see Upload Firmware)  
SERIAL Serial command for serial target (see Serial Terminal)  
PROGRAMMER Programmer ID, enables programmer burning (see Programmers).  
ARDLIBS Manual list of Arduino type libraries, common use case is when the library header name does not match the librarie's directory name. ADVANCED OPTION! Can be used in conjuction with NO_AUTOLIBS.  
AFLAGS avrdude flags for target  
NO_AUTOLIBS Disable Arduino library detection (default On)  
MANUAL Disable Arduino Core (enables pure AVR development)  

You can specify the options in two ways, either as the command arguments or as variables. When specifying the options as variables they must be named:

${TARGET_NAME}_${OPTION_NAME}

Where ${TARGET_NAME} is the name of you target and ${OPTION_NAME} is the name of the option.

So to create a target (firmware image) called blink, composed of blink.h and blink.cpp source files for the Arduino Uno, you write the following:

set(blink_SRCS  blink.cpp)
set(blink_HDRS  blink.h)
set(blink_BOARD uno)

generate_arduino_firmware(blink)

The previous example can be rewritten as:

generate_arduino_firmware(blink
      SRCS  blink.cpp
      HDRS  blink.h
      BOARD uno)

Upload Firmware

To enable firmware upload functionality, you need to add the PORT option:

set(blink_SRCS  blink.cpp)
set(blink_HDRS  blink.h)
set(blink_PORT /dev/ttyUSB0)
set(blink_BOARD nano)
set(blink_BOARD_CPU atmega328) # required because nano has atmega328 and atmega168 models

generate_arduino_firmware(blink)

Or:

generate_arduino_firmware(blink
      SRCS  blink.cpp
      HDRS  blink.h
      PORT  /dev/ttyUSB0
      BOARD_CPU atmega328
      BOARD nano)

Once defined there will be two targets available for uploading, ${TARGET_NAME}-upload and a global upload target (which will depend on all other upload targets defined in the build):

  • blink-upload - will upload just the blink firmware
  • upload - upload all firmware images registered for uploading

Serial Terminal

To enable serial terminal, use the SERIAL option (@SERIAL_PORT@ will be replaced with the PORT option):

set(blink_SRCS  blink.cpp)
set(blink_HDRS  blink.h)
set(blink_PORT  /dev/ttyUSB0)
set(blink_SERIAL picocom @SERIAL_PORT@ -b 9600 -l)
set(blink_BOARD uno)

generate_arduino_firmware(blink)

Alternatively:

generate_arduino_firmware(blink
      SRCS  blink.cpp
      HDRS  blink.h
      PORT  /dev/ttyUSB0
      SERIAL picocom @SERIAL_PORT@ -b 9600 -l
      BOARD uno)

This will create a target named ${TARGET_NAME}-serial (in this example: blink-serial).

Creating Libraries

Creating libraries is very similar to defining a firmware image, except we use the generate_arduino_library command. This command creates static libraries, and are not to be confused with Arduino Libraries. The full command syntax:

generate_arduino_library(name
     [BOARD board_name]
     [BOARD_CPU board_cpu]
     [SRCS  src1 src2 ... srcN]
     [HDRS  hdr1 hdr2 ... hdrN]
     [LIBS  lib1 lib2 ... libN]
     [NO_AUTOLIBS])

The options are:

Name Description REQUIRED
BOARD Board name (such as uno, mega2560, ...) REQUIRED
BOARD_CPU Board CPU (such as atmega328, atmega168, ...) REQUIRED if board cpu is ambiguous
SRCS Source files REQUIRED
HDRS Headers files (for project based build systems)  
LIBS Libraries to link (sets up dependency tracking)  
NO_AUTOLIBS Disable Arduino library detection (default On)  
MANUAL Disable Arduino Core (enables pure AVR development)  

You can specify the options in two ways, either as the command arguments or as variables. When specifying the options as variables they must be named:

${TARGET_NAME}_${OPTION_NAME}

Where ${TARGET_NAME} is the name of you target and ${OPTION_NAME} is the name of the option.

Let's define a simple library called blink_lib with two sources files for the Arduino Uno:

set(blink_lib_SRCS  blink_lib.cpp)
set(blink_lib_HDRS  blink_lib.h)
set(blink_lib_BOARD uno)

generate_arduino_library(blink_lib)

The other way of defining the same thing is:

generate_arduino_library(blink_lib
    SRCS  blink_lib.cpp
    HDRS  blink_lib.h
    BOARD uno)

Once that library is defined we can use it in our other firmware images... Let's add blink_lib to the blink firmware:

set(blink_SRCS  blink.cpp)
set(blink_HDRS  blink.h)
set(blink_LIBS  blink_lib)
set(blink_BOARD uno)

generate_arduino_firmware(blink)

CMake has automatic dependency tracking, so when you build the blink target, blink_lib will automatically get built, in the right order.

Arduino Sketches

To build a Arduino sketch use the SKETCH option (see Creating firmware images). For example:

set(blink_SKETCH  ${ARDUINO_SDK_PATH}/examples/1.Basics/Blink) # Path to sketch directory
set(blink_BOARD   uno)

generate_arduino_firmware(blink)

This will build the blink example from the Arduino SDK.

Note: When specifying the sketch directory path, arduino-cmake is expecting to find a sketch file named after the directory (with a extension of .pde or .ino).

You can also specify the path to the main sketch file, then the parent directory of that sketch will be search for additional sketch files.

Arduino Built-in Examples

The Arduino SDK comes with a handful of code examples, providing an easy setup for simple operations. Since there are many examples, they were categorized, making each example be under a certain category. Each example consists of at least one source file, named after the example and has the .ino or .pde extension, and sits under a directory which is also named after the example. Each category is a directory named after it, having all its examples as sub-directories, named after them. One such example is Blink, probrably the most popular one as well. It's located under the Basics category and has a source file named Blink.ino.

Arduino CMake has the abillity to automatically generate these examples, simply by passing their name and optionally their category, as some sort of an optimization. It supports case-insensitive names If you would like to generate and upload some of those examples you can use the generate_arduino_example command. The syntax of the command is:

generate_arduino_example(target_name
                         [EXAMPLE example_name]
                         [BOARD board_name]
                         [BOARD_CPU board_cpu]
                         [CATEGORY category_name]
                         [PORT port]
                         [SERIAL serial command]
                         [PORGRAMMER programmer_id]
                         [AFLAGS avrdude_flags])

The options are:

Name Description REQUIRED
EXAMPLE Example name. REQUIRED
BOARD Board name (such as uno, mega2560, ...) REQUIRED
BOARD_CPU Board CPU (such as atmega328, atmega168, ...) REQUIRED if board cpu is ambiguous
CATEGORY Category name.  
PORT Serial port, for upload and serial targets (see Upload Firmware)  
SERIAL Serial command for serial target (see Serial Terminal)  
PROGRAMMER Programmer ID, enables programmer burning (see Programmers).  
AFLAGS avrdude flags for target  

To generate a target for the blink example from the Basics category for the Uno board:

generate_arduino_example(blink_example
                         CATEGORY Basics
                         EXAMPLE Blink
                         BOARD uno
                         PORT  /dev/ttyUSB0)

You can also rewrite the previous like so:

set(blink_example_CATEGORY Basics)
set(blink_example_EXAMPLE Blink)
set(blink_example_BOARD uno)
set(blink_example_PORT /dev/ttyUSB0)

generate_arduino_example(blink_example)

The previous example will generate the following two target:

blink_example
blink_example-upload

Note: The above example will work perfectly fine even if the Basics category hadn't been passed.

Arduino Libraries

Libraries are one of the more powerful features which the Arduino offers to users. Instead of rewriting code, people bundle their code in libraries and share them with others. The structure of these libraries is very simple, which makes them easy to create.

An Arduino library is any directory which contains a header named after the directory, simple. Any source files contained within that directory are part of the library. Here is a example of library a called ExampleLib:

ExampleLib/
  |-- ExampleLib.h
  |-- ExampleLib.cpp
  `-- OtherLibSource.cpp

Now because the power of Arduino lies within those user-created libraries, support for them is built right into Arduino CMake. The Arduino SDK comes with a large number of default libraries and adding new libraries is simple.

To incorporate a library into your firmware, you can do one of three things:

  1. Place the library next to the default Arduino libraries (located at ${ARDUINO_SDK}/libraries)

  2. Place the library next to the firmware configuration file (same directory as the CMakeLists.txt)

  3. Place the library in a separate folder and tell Arduino CMake the path to that directory.

    To tell CMake where to search for libraries use the link_directories command. The command has to be used before defining any firmware or libraries requiring those libraries.

    For example:

    link_directories(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/libraries)
link_directories(/home/username/arduino_libraries)

If a library contains nested sources, a special option must be defined to enable recursion. For example to enable recursion for the Arduino Wire library use:

set(Wire_RECURSE True)

The option name should be ${LIBRARY_NAME}_RECURSE, where in this case LIBRARY_NAME is equal to Wire.

Arduino Libraries are not to be confused with normal static libraries (for exmaple system libraries or libraries created using generate_arduino_library). The LIBS option only accepts static libraries, so do not list the Arduino Libraries in that option (as you will get an error).

Arduino Library Examples

Most Arduino libraries have examples bundled with them. If you would like to generate and upload some of those examples you can use the generate_arduino_library_example command. The syntax of the command is:

generate_arduino_library_example(target_name
                         [LIBRARY library_name]
                         [EXAMPLE example_name]
                         [BOARD  board_name]
                         [BOARD_CPU board_cpu]
                         [PORT port]
                         [SERIAL serial command]
                         [PORGRAMMER programmer_id]
                         [AFLAGS avrdude_flags])

The options are:

Name Description REQUIRED
LIBRARY Library name. REQUIRED
EXAMPLE Example name. REQUIRED
BOARD Board name (such as uno, mega2560, ...) REQUIRED
BOARD_CPU Board CPU (such as atmega328, atmega168, ...) REQUIRED if board cpu is ambiguous
PORT Serial port, for upload and serial targets (see Upload Firmware)  
SERIAL Serial command for serial target (see Serial Terminal)  
PROGRAMMER Programmer ID, enables programmer burning (see Programmers).  
AFLAGS avrdude flags for target  

To generate a target for the master_writer example from the Wire library for the Uno:

generate_arduino_library_example(wire_example
                         LIBRARY Wire
                         EXAMPLE master_writer
                         BOARD uno
                         PORT  /dev/ttyUSB0)

You can also rewrite the previous like so:

set(wire_example_LIBRARY Wire)
set(wire_example_EXAMPLE master_writer)
set(wire_example_BOARD uno)
set(wire_example_PORT /dev/ttyUSB0)

generate_arduino_library_example(wire_example)

The previous example will generate the following two target:

wire_example
wire_example-upload

Compiler and Linker Flags

The default compiler and linker flags should be fine for most projects. If you required specific compiler/linker flags, use the following options to change them:

Name Description
ARDUINO_C_FLAGS C compiler flags
ARDUINO_CXX_FLAGS C++ compiler flags
ARDUINO_LINKER_FLAGS Linker flags

Set these option either before the project() like so:

set(ARDUINO_C_FLAGS      "-ffunction-sections -fdata-sections")
set(ARDUINO_CXX_FLAGS    "${ARDUINO_C_FLAGS} -fno-exceptions")
set(ARDUINO_LINKER_FLAGS "-Wl,--gc-sections")

project(ArduinoExample C CXX)

or when configuring the project:

cmake -D"ARDUINO_C_FLAGS=-ffunction-sections -fdata-sections" ../path/to/sources/

Programmers

Arduino CMake fully supports programmers for burning firmware and bootloader images directly onto the Arduino. If you have a programmer that is supported by the Arduino SDK, everything should work out of the box. As of version 1.0 of the Arduino SDK, the following programmers are supported:

Programmer ID Description
avrisp AVR ISP
avrispmkii AVRISP mkII
usbtinyisp USBtinyISP
parallel Parallel Programmer
arduinoisp Arduino as ISP

The programmers.txt file located in ${ARDUINO_SDK_PATH}/hardware/arduino/ lists all supported programmers by the Arduino SDK.

In order to enable programmer support, you have to use the PROGRAMMER option (see Creating firmware images):

set(${TARGET_NAME}_PROGRAMMER programmer_id)

where programmer_id is the name of the programmer supported by the Arduino SDK.

Once you have enabled programmer support, two new targets are available in the build system:

  • ${TARGET_NAME}-burn - burns the firmware image via the programmer
  • ${TARGET_NAME}-burn-bootloader - burns the original Arduino bootloader image via the programmer

If you need to restore the original Arduino bootloader onto your Arduino, so that you can use the traditional way of uploading firmware images via the bootloader, use ${TARGET_NAME}-burn-bootloader to restore it.

Pure AVR Development

For those developers who don't want any Arduino magic, but still want to utilize the hardware platform you are in luck. This section will outline the generate_avr_firmware() and generate_avr_library() commands, which enables you to compile sources for the given Arduino board.

No Arduino Core or Arduino libraries will get generated, this is for manual compilation of sources. These commands are for people that know what they are doing, or have done pure AVR development. People starting out, or just familiar with Arduino should not use these commands.

The generate_avr_firmware() command:

generate_avr_firmware(name
     [BOARD board_name]
     [BOARD_CPU board_cpu]
     [SRCS  src1 src2 ... srcN]
     [HDRS  hdr1 hdr2 ... hdrN]
     [LIBS  lib1 lib2 ... libN]
     [PORT  port]
     [SERIAL serial_cmd]
     [PROGRAMMER programmer_id]
     [AFLAGS flags])

This will compile the sources for the specified Arduino board type.

The options:

Name Description REQUIRED
BOARD Board name (such as uno, mega2560, ...) REQUIRED
BOARD_CPU Board CPU (such as atmega328, atmega168, ...) REQUIRED if board cpu is ambiguous
SRCS Source files REQUIRED
HDRS Headers files (for project based build systems)  
LIBS Libraries to link (sets up dependency tracking)  
PORT Serial port, for upload and serial targets (see Upload Firmware)  
SERIAL Serial command for serial target (see Serial Terminal)  
PROGRAMMER Programmer ID, enables programmer burning (see Programmers).  
AFLAGS avrdude flags for target  

You can specify the options in two ways, either as the command arguments or as variables. When specifying the options as variables they must be named:

${TARGET_NAME}_${OPTION_NAME}

Where ${TARGET_NAME} is the name of you target and ${OPTION_NAME} is the name of the option.

The generate_avr_library() command:

generate_avr_library(name
     [BOARD board_name]
     [BOARD_CPU board_cpu]
     [SRCS  src1 src2 ... srcN]
     [HDRS  hdr1 hdr2 ... hdrN]
     [LIBS  lib1 lib2 ... libN])

This will compile a static library for the specified Arduino board type.

The options:

Name Description REQUIRED
BOARD Board name (such as uno, mega2560, ...) REQUIRED
BOARD_CPU Board CPU (such as atmega328, atmega168, ...) REQUIRED if board cpu is ambiguous
SRCS Source files REQUIRED
HDRS Headers files (for project based build systems)  
LIBS Libraries to link (sets up dependency tracking)  

You can specify the options in two ways, either as the command arguments or as variables. When specifying the options as variables they must be named:

${TARGET_NAME}_${OPTION_NAME}

Where ${TARGET_NAME} is the name of you target and ${OPTION_NAME} is the name of the option.

Register Custom Hardware Platforms

Arduino development may involve the use of additional hardware platforms that behave differently, such as the Sagnuino e.g. Arduino CMake allows you to register those platforms without the need to copy their files locally, exactly as you would register the default Arduino platform. In fact, this is what happens behind the scenes:

  1. Platform's path is determined. By default it's Arduino's path. See: `Arduino Platforms PRE 1.5`_ and `Arduino Platforms 1.5`_.
  2. Platform's architecture is determined. By default it's avr.

If one would like to specify a custom platform and/or architecuture, it should set the following variables:

Name Description
PLATFORM_PATH Platform's path on the local file system.*
PLATFORM_ARCHITECTURE Platform's architecture*

Note: If variables are to be used, they MUST be set before including the Toolchain file.

A valid Hardware Platform is a directory containing the following:

HARDWARE_PLATFORM_PATH/
    |-- bootloaders/
    |-- cores/
    |-- variants/
    |-- boards.txt
    `-- programmers.txt

The board.txt describes the target boards and bootloaders, While programmers.txt the programmer defintions.

A good example of a Hardware Platform is in the Arduino SDK: ${ARDUINO_SDK_PATH}/hardware/arduino/ .. _Arduino Platforms PRE 1.5: http://code.google.com/p/arduino/wiki/Platforms .. _Arduino Platforms 1.5: http://code.google.com/p/arduino/wiki/Platforms1

Advanced Options

The following options control how Arduino CMake is configured:

Name Description
ARDUINO_SDK_PATH Full path to the Arduino SDK
ARDUINO_AVRDUDE_PROGRAM Full path to avrdude programmer
ARDUINO_AVRDUDE_CONFIG_PATH Full path to avrdude configuration file
ARDUINO_DEFAULT_BOARD Default Arduino Board ID, when not specified.
ARDUINO_DEFAULT_PORT Default Arduino port, when not specified.
ARDUINO_DEFAULT_SERIAL Default Arduino Serial command, when not specified.
ARDUINO_DEFAULT_PROGRAMMER Default Arduino Programmer ID, when not specified.

To force a specific version of Arduino SDK, configure the project like so:

cmake -DARDUINO_SDK_PATH=/path/to/arduino_sdk ../path/to/sources

Note: You must create a new build system if you change ARDUINO_SDK_PATH.

When Arduino CMake is configured properly, these options are defined:

Name Description
ARDUINO_FOUND Set to True when the Arduino SDK is detected and configured.
ARDUINO_SDK_VERSION Full version of the Arduino SDK (ex: 1.0.0)
ARDUINO_SDK_VERSION_MAJOR Major version of the Arduino SDK (ex: 1)
ARDUINO_SDK_VERSION_MINOR Minor version of the Arduino SDK (ex: 0)
ARDUINO_SDK_VERSION_PATCH Patch version of the Arduino SDK (ex: 0)

During compilation, you can enable the following environment variables.

Name Description
VERBOSE Enables verbose compilation, displays commands being executed. (Non empty value)
VERBOSE_SIZE Enables full/verbose output from avr-size. (Non empty value)

Miscellaneous Functions

This section will outlines some of the additional miscellaneous functions available to the user.

  • print_board_list():

    Print list of detected Arduino Boards.

  • print_programmer_list():

    Print list of detected Programmers.

  • print_programmer_settings(PROGRAMMER):

    PROGRAMMER - programmer id

    Print the detected Programmer settings.

  • print_board_settings(BOARD_NAME):

    BOARD_NAME - Board name (nano, uno, mega...)

    Print the detected Arduino board settings.

Bundling Arduino CMake

Using Arduino CMake in your own project is simple, you just need a single directory called cmake. Just copy that entire directory into you project and you are set.

Copying the cmake directory, although simple is not the best solution. If you are using GIT for source code versioning, the best solution is using a submodule. The submodule gives you the power of updating to the latest version of Arduino CMake without any effort. To add a submodule do:

git submodule add git://github.com/queezythegreat/arduino-cmake.git arduino-cmake

Then just set the CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE variable:

set(CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/arduino-cmake/cmake/ArduinoToolchain.cmake)

For more information on GIT submodules please read: GIT Book - Submodules

Linux Environment

Running the Arduino SDK on Linux is a little bit more involved, because not everything is bundled with the SDK. The AVR GCC toolchain is not distributed alongside the Arduino SDK, so it has to be installed seperately.

To get Arduino CMake up and running follow these steps:

  1. Install the following packages using your package manager:

    • gcc-avr - AVR GNU GCC compiler
    • binutils-avr - AVR binary tools
    • avr-libc - AVR C library
    • avrdude - Firmware uploader

  2. Install the Arduino SDK.

    Depending on your distribution, the Arduino SDK may or may not be available.

    If it is available please install it using your packages manager otherwise do:

    1. Download the Arduino SDK
    2. Extract it into /usr/share

    NOTE: Arduino version 0.19 or newer is required!

  3. Install CMake:

    NOTE: CMake version 2.8 or newer is required!

Linux Serial Naming

On Linux the Arduino serial device is named as follows (where X is the device number):

/dev/ttyUSBX
/dev/ttyACMX

Where /dev/ttyACMX is for the new Uno and Mega Arduino's, while /dev/ttyUSBX is for the old ones.

CMake configuration example:

set(${FIRMWARE_NAME}_PORT /dev/ttyUSB0)

Linux Serial Terminals

On Linux a wide range on serial terminal are availabe. Here is a list of a couple:

  • minicom
  • picocom
  • gtkterm
  • screen

Mac OS X Environment

The Arduino SDK, as on Windows, is self contained and has everything needed for building. To get started do the following:

  1. Install the Arduino SDK

    1. Download Arduino SDK
    2. Copy Arduino into Applications
    3. Install FTDIUSBSerialDrviver* (for FTDI USB Serial)

  2. Install CMake

    1. Download CMake

    2. Install cmake-*.pkg

      NOTE: Make sure to click on `Install Command Line Links`

Mac Serial Naming

When specifying the serial port name on Mac OS X, use the following names (where XXX is a unique ID):

/dev/tty.usbmodemXXX
/dev/tty.usbserialXXX

Where tty.usbmodemXXX is for new Uno and Mega Arduino's, while tty.usbserialXXX are the older ones.

CMake configuration example:

set(${FIRMWARE_NAME}_PORT /dev/tty.usbmodem1d11)

Mac Serial Terminals

On Mac the easiest way to get a Serial Terminal is to use the screen terminal emulator. To start a screen serial session:

screen /dev/tty.usbmodemXXX

Where /dev/tty.usbmodemXXX is the terminal device. To exit press C-a C-\.

CMake configuration example:

set(${FIRMWARE_NAME}_SERIAL screen @SERIAL_PORT@)

Windows Environment

On Windows the Arduino SDK is self contained and has everything needed for building. To setup the environment do the following:

  1. Place the Arduino SDK either

    • into Program Files, or
    • onto the System Path

    NOTE: Don't change the default Arduino SDK directory name, otherwise auto detection will no work properly!

  2. Add to the System Path: ${ARDUINO_SDK_PATH}/hardware/tools/avr/utils/bin

  3. Install CMake 2.8

    NOTE: Make sure you check the option to add CMake to the System Path.

CMake Generators

Once installed, you can start using CMake the usual way, just make sure to chose either a MSYS Makefiles or Unix Makefiles type generator:

MSYS Makefiles              = Generates MSYS makefiles.
Unix Makefiles              = Generates standard UNIX makefiles.
CodeBlocks - Unix Makefiles = Generates CodeBlocks project files.
Eclipse CDT4 - Unix Makefiles
                            = Generates Eclipse CDT 4.0 project files.

If you want to use a MinGW Makefiles type generator, you must generate the build system the following way:

  1. Remove ${ARDUINO_SDK_PATH}/hardware/tools/avr/utils/bin from the System Path

  2. Generate the build system using CMake with the following option set (either through the GUI or from the command line):

    CMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM=${ARDIUNO_SDK_PATH}/hardware/tools/avr/utils/bin/make.exe

  3. Then build the normal way

The reason for doing this is the MinGW generator cannot have the sh.exe binary on the System Path during generation, otherwise you get an error.

Windows Serial Naming

When specifying the serial port name on Windows, use the following names:

com1 com2 ... comN

CMake configuration example:

set(${FIRMWARE_NAME}_PORT com3)

Windows Serial Terminals

Putty is a great multi-protocol terminal, which supports SSH, Telnet, Serial, and many more... The latest development snapshot supports command line options for launching a serial terminal, for example:

putty -serial COM3 -sercfg 9600,8,n,1,X

CMake configuration example (assuming putty is on the System Path):

set(${FIRMWARE_NAME}_SERIAL putty -serial @SERIAL_PORT@)

Putty - http://tartarus.org/~simon/putty-snapshots/x86/putty-installer.exe

Eclipse Environment

Eclipse is a great IDE which has a lot of functionality and is much more powerful than the Arduino IDE. In order to use Eclipse you will need the following:

  1. Eclipse
  2. Eclipse CDT extension (for C/C++ development)

On most Linux distribution you can install Eclipse + CDT using your package manager, otherwise you can download the Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers bundle.

Once you have Eclipse, here is how to generate a project using CMake:

  1. Create a build directory that is next to your source directory, like this:

    build_directory/
source_directory/

  2. Run CMake with the Eclipse CDT4 - Unix Makefiles generator, inside the build directory:

    cd build_directory/
cmake -G"Eclipse CDT4 - Unix Makefiles" ../source_directory

  3. Open Eclipse and import the project from the build directory.

    1. File > Import
    2. Select Existing Project into Workspace, and click Next
    3. Select Browse, and select the build directoy.
    4. Select the project in the Projects: list
    5. Click Finish

Troubleshooting

The following section will outline some solutions to common problems that you may encounter.

undefined reference to `__cxa_pure_virtual'

When linking you'r firmware image you may encounter this error on some systems. An easy fix is to add the following to your firmware source code:

extern "C" void __cxa_pure_virtual(void);
void __cxa_pure_virtual(void) { while(1); }

The contents of the __cxa_pure_virtual function can be any error handling code; this function will be called whenever a pure virtual function is called.

Arduino Mega 2560 image does not work

If you are working on Linux, and have avr-gcc >= 4.5 you might have a unpatched version gcc which has the C++ constructor bug. This bug affects the Atmega2560 when using classes which causes the Arduino firmware to crash.

If you encounter this problem either downgrade avr-gcc to 4.3 or rebuild gcc with the following patch:

--- gcc-4.5.1.orig/gcc/config/avr/libgcc.S  2009-05-23 17:16:07 +1000
+++ gcc-4.5.1/gcc/config/avr/libgcc.S   2010-08-12 09:38:05 +1000
@@ -802,7 +802,9 @@
    mov_h   r31, r29
    mov_l   r30, r28
    out     __RAMPZ__, r20
+   push    r20
    XCALL   __tablejump_elpm__
+   pop r20
 .L__do_global_ctors_start:
    cpi r28, lo8(__ctors_start)
    cpc r29, r17
@@ -843,7 +845,9 @@
    mov_h   r31, r29
    mov_l   r30, r28
    out     __RAMPZ__, r20
+   push    r20
    XCALL   __tablejump_elpm__
+   pop r20
 .L__do_global_dtors_start:
    cpi r28, lo8(__dtors_end)
    cpc r29, r17

Library not detected automatically

When a Arduino library does not get detected automatically, it usually means CMake cannot find it (obvious).

One common reason why the library is not detected, is because the directory name of the library does not match the header. If I'm including a library header like so:

#include "my_library.h"

Based on this include, Arduino CMake is expecting to find a library that has a directory name my_libray. If the directory name does not match the header, it won't be consider a Arduino Library (see Arduino Libraries).

When a library being used is located in a non-standard location (not in the Arduino SDK or next to the firmware), then that directory must be registered. To register a non-standard directory containing Arduino libraries, use the following:

link_directories(path_to_directory_containing_libraries)

Remember to use this command before defining the firmware, which requires the library from that directory.

error: attempt to use poisoned "SIG_USART0_RECV"

If you get the following error:

/usr/share/arduino/hardware/arduino/cores/arduino/HardwareSerial.cpp:91:41: error: attempt to use poisoned "SIG_USART0_RECV"
/usr/share/arduino/hardware/arduino/cores/arduino/HardwareSerial.cpp:101:15: error: attempt to use poisoned "SIG_USART0_RECV"
/usr/share/arduino/hardware/arduino/cores/arduino/HardwareSerial.cpp:132:15: error: attempt to use poisoned "SIG_USART1_RECV"
/usr/share/arduino/hardware/arduino/cores/arduino/HardwareSerial.cpp:145:15: error: attempt to use poisoned "SIG_USART2_RECV"
/usr/share/arduino/hardware/arduino/cores/arduino/HardwareSerial.cpp:158:15: error: attempt to use poisoned "SIG_USART3_RECV"

You probably recently upgraded avr-libc to the latest version, which has deperecated the use of these symbols. There is a Arduino Patch which fixes these error, you can read more about this bug here: Arduino Bug ISSUE 955.

Resources

Here are some resources you might find useful in getting started.

  1. CMake:
  1. Arduino:

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