A debian package cross building tool using LXD

Crossbuilder aims at making cross compiling code and deploying projects to devices simple, reliable and most importantly fast. It uses LXD containers and ccache by default.

Initially developed in: https://launchpad.net/crossbuilder

To use it, clone the repository and just run it from there:

cd crossbuilder
./crossbuilder help

To build and deploy your project on the device connected to your computer all in one go:

cd yourproject/
crossbuilder

Crossbuilder by default builds for armhf architecture. If a device is connected, it should detect the devices architecture. In case for some reason the architecture needs to be explicitely specified, it can be set like this:

crossbuilder --architecture=arm64

To be able to install the deb on the device after building, the devices sudo password needs to be provided:

crossbuilder --password=PASSWORD

We can specify specific lxd images for the build process. This can be useful e.g. when building for specific target releases like 20.04.

crossbuilder --lxd-image=ubuntu:20.04

Change a line of code and type crossbuilder again to re-build and re-deploy.

To go even faster, bypass building Debian packages with:

crossbuilder --no-deb

For an even faster LXD setup, resetup LXD using ZFS:

crossbuilder setup-lxd

To enter the LXD container used to build:

crossbuilder shell

To use ssh instead of adb to deploy, use the --ssh option. If your device has ssh enabled on address let's say 192.168.0.5, use:

crossbuilder [email protected]