diff --git a/docs/manual/rebuilding-packages.txt b/docs/manual/rebuilding-packages.txt index da8d2308f7..4872e8830b 100644 --- a/docs/manual/rebuilding-packages.txt +++ b/docs/manual/rebuilding-packages.txt @@ -51,23 +51,25 @@ its build directory in +output/build+. Buildroot will then re-extract, re-configure, re-compile and re-install this package from scratch. You can ask buildroot to do this with the +make -dirclean+ command. -For convenience, the special make targets --reconfigure and -rebuild repeat the configure -resp. build steps. +On the other hand, if you only want to restart the build process of a +package from its compilation step, you can run +make +-rebuild+, followed by +make+ or +make +. It will +restart the compilation and installation of the package, but not from +scratch: it basically simply re-executes +make+ and +make install+ +inside the package, so it will only rebuild files that changed. -However, if you don't want to rebuild the package completely from -scratch, a better understanding of the Buildroot internals is -needed. Internally, to keep track of which steps have been done and -which steps remain to be done, Buildroot maintains stamp files (empty -files that just tell whether this or that action has been done): +If you want to restart the build process of a package from its +configuration step, you can run +make -reconfigure+, followed +by +make+ or +make +. It will restart the configuration, +compilation and installation of the package. -* +output/build/-/.stamp_configured+. If removed, - Buildroot will trigger the recompilation of the package from the - configuration step (execution of +./configure+). - -* +output/build/-/.stamp_built+. If removed, - Buildroot will trigger the recompilation of the package from the - compilation step (execution of +make+). +Internally, Buildroot creates so-called _stamp files_ to keep track of +which build steps have been completed for each package. They are +stored in the package build directory, ++output/build/-/+ and are named ++.stamp_+. The commands detailed above simply manipulate +these stamp files to force Buildroot to restart a specific set of +steps of a package build process. Further details about package special make targets are explained in xref:pkg-build-steps[].