Changing where mkifs looks for files

You can change where mkifs gets the files it includes in the OS image.

To include files from locations other than those specified in the MKIFS_PATH environment variable, you have a number of options:

Modify the MKIFS_PATH environment variable.
Modify the search path with the [search=] attribute.
Specify the pathname explicitly (i.e. with a leading “/” character).
Create the contents of the file in line.
Add a command line option that modifies the search path to the mkifs command in the Makefile.

Note: The examples below are for a Linux host. Commands on a Windows host may differ.

Modify MKIFS_PATH

To set MKIFS_PATH, on your host system use the shell command export MKIFS_PATH=newpath. For example:

export MKIFS_PATH=/usr/nto/x86/bin: /usr/nto/x86/sys:/usr/nto/x86/dll:
                /usr/nto/x86/lib:/project/bin

Modify the search path

By specifying the [search=newpath] attribute, you cause mkifs to look in places other than what the environment variable MKIFS_PATH specifies. The newpath component is a colon-separated list of pathnames, which can include environment variable expansion.

For example, to augment the existing MKIFS_PATH pathname to also include the directory /mystuff, you would specify:

[search=${MKIFS_PATH}:/mystuff]

Specify the pathname explicitly

You can explicity specify the pathname for a file you want mkifs to include in the OS image. For example: /release/data1. Note, however that with this instruction, mkifs places the file data1 at the default path in the OS image: /proc/boot/data1. To place it at another location, you must also specify the target location. For example:

/release/data1 = /release/data1

/some_other_location/data1 = /release/data1

See also “Location of files on the target” above.

Create the contents of the file in line

In some cases it may be easiest to simply create the contents of a file in line. That is, instead of having an external file on the host system and instructing mkifs is to include it in the image, you can include an in-line file and its contents right in the buildfile.

For example:

data1 = {
This is a data file, called data1, contained in the image.
Note that this is a convenient way of associating data
files with your programs.
}

CAUTION:

If your in-line file includes special characters, such as a closing brace (“}”) or a backslash (“\”), then you must escape these characters (see “In-line files” in this chapter).