NSPR: Build System and Supported Platforms

NSPR has been implemented on over 20 platforms. A platform may have more than one implementation strategy of its multi threading and I/O facilities. This article explains the NSPR build system and how to specify a particular implementation strategy, compiler or compiler switches, or the target OS for your build on each platform.

Implementation Strategies

• Classic NSPR (This is our first code base, hence the term "classic NSPR"):

• Local threads only: All threads are user-level threads implemented by NSPR.
• Global threads only: All threads are native threads supplied by the OS vendor. For example, Solaris UI (Unix International) threads and Win32 threads.
• Combined: NSPR multiplexes user-level threads on top of native, kernel-level threads. This is also called the MxN model. At present, there are three implementations of the combined model.
• IRIX: sprocs + NSPR user-level threads
• Windows NT: Win32 threads + NT fibers
• Pthreads-user: kernel-level pthreads + NSPR user-level threads
• Pthreads: All threads are pthreads. The relevant code is in mozilla/nsprpub/pr/src/pthreads (threads and I/O).

• Classic NSPR: mozilla/nsprpub/pr/src/threads/combined (threads), mozilla/nsprpub/pr/src/io (I/O)
• Pthreads: mozilla/nsprpub/pr/src/pthreads (threads and I/O)

Compilers

NSPR Build System

Inside Netscape, we use GNU make 3.74 on Unix, but our makefiles should work fine under newer versions of GNU make. On Win32, we use an internal Win32 port of GNU make 3.74 and a homegrown stripped-down version of Bourne shell called shmsdos.exe. Our own Win32 port of GNU make and shmsdos.exe are distributed with the NSPR source. Our makefiles also work under the official Win32 port of GNU make (3.75 and above) and the Korn shell sh.exe in MKS Toolkit.

Every directory in NSPR has a makefile named Makefile, which includes the makefile fragments in mozilla/nsprpub/config. NSPR makefiles implement the common Netscape makefile targets such as export, libs, and install. However, some makefiles targets are no-op in NSPR because they are not necessary for NSPR.

To build NSPR, change directory to the root of our source tree
cd mozilla/nsprpub
and then issue the command
gmake
Make will recursively go into all the subdirectories and the right things will happen.

The table below lists the common NSPR makefile targets..

all	The default target. Same as export libs install.
export	Do a complete build.
libs	No-op.
install	No-op.
depend	No-op. This means that NSPR makefiles do not have header file dependencies.
clean	Remove .o files.
clobber	Remove .o files, libraries, and executable programs.
realclean	Remove all generated files and directories.
clobber_all	Same as realclean.

The table below lists common makefile variables that one can specify on the command line to customize a build..

BUILD_OPT	Optimized build (default: debug build).
OS_TARGET	Set to the target OS (WIN95 or WIN16) when doing cross-compilation on NT (default: same as the host OS).
NS_USE_GCC	Use gcc and g++ (default: native compilers).
USE_PTHREADS	Build pthreads version.
CLASSIC_NSPR	Build classic NSPR version (usually local threads only).
PTHREADS_USER	Build pthreads-user version.
LOCAL_THREADS_ONLY	Build local threads only version.
USE_DEBUG_RTL	On Win32, compile with /MDd in the debug build (default: /MD). Optimized build always uses /MD.
USE_N32	On IRIX, compile with -n32 (default: -32).
USE_IPV6	Enable IPv6.
MOZILLA_CLIENT	Adjust NSPR build system for Netscape Client (mozilla).

Platforms

Unix

The default implementation strategy is pthreads. Local threads only and pthreads-user versions are also available. To build the local threads only version, use the command
gmake CLASSIC_NSPR=1
To build the pthreads-user version, use the command
gmake PTHREADS_USER=1

The default implementation strategy is local threads only.

The default implementation strategy is pthreads. To build the local threads only version, use the command
gmake CLASSIC_NSPR=1

The default implementation strategy is local threads only.

The default implementation strategy is pthreads, or rather DCE threads (Posix thread draft 4). To build the local threads only version, use the command
gmake CLASSIC_NSPR=1

The default implementation strategy is pthreads. Local threads only and pthreads-user versions are also available. To build the local threads only version, use the command
gmake CLASSIC_NSPR=1
To build the pthreads-user version, use the command
gmake PTHREADS_USER=1

The default implementation strategy is combined (MxN). A global thread is mapped to an Irix sproc. Local threads are implemented using user-level context switching in NSPR. The primordial thread, which executes the main() function, is a local thread.
The pthreads version is also available. To build the pthreads version, use the command
gmake USE_PTHREADS=1

The default implementation strategy is local threads only. The pthreads version, based on LinuxThreads, is mostly working. To build the pthreads version, use the command
gmake USE_PTHREADS=1

The default implementation strategy is local threads only.

The default implementation strategy is local threads only.

The default implementation strategy is local threads only.

The default implementation strategy is local threads only.

The default implementation strategy is local threads only.

The default implementation strategy is global threads only, in which every NSPR thread is mapped to a native Solaris UI thread. Local threads only and pthreads versions are also available. To build the local threads only version, use the command
gmake LOCAL_THREADS_ONLY=1
To build the pthreads version, use the command
gmake USE_PTHREADS=1
To build with gcc and g++, use the command
gmake NS_USE_GCC=1

The default implementation strategy is local threads only.

The default implementation strategy is local threads only.

Windows

The default implementation strategy is combined (MxN). A global thread is mapped to a Win32 native thread. A local thread is an NT fiber. The primordial thread, which executes main(), is a local thread.

NSPR requires NT 3.51 Service Pack 5 or NT 4.0 Service Pack 3. The service packs can be downloaded from Microsoft's ftp site at ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/fixes/usa.

The default implementation strategy is global threads only. Note that the Windows 95 binary is the generic Win32 binary that runs on both Windows 95 and NT.
Windows 95 version of NSPR can be built on an NT machine with the command
gmake OS_TARGET=WIN95

The default implementation strategy is local threads only. Windows 3.1 version of NSPR can be built on an NT machine with the command
gmake OS_TARGET=WIN16

Mac

The default implementation strategy is local threads only.