Using CMake

A more modern approach instead of using hand-crafted Makefiles & configure scripts to build & install software.

Installing the library

Using a package manager

The RF24Log library has pre-built packages (*.deb or *.rpm files) that can be installed on a Raspberry Pi. These packages can be found on the library's GitHub release page

Warning

If you have previously installed the library from source code, then you will need to uninstall it manually to avoid runtime conflicts.

sudo rm /usr/local/lib/librf24log.*
sudo rm -r /usr/local/include/RF24Log

1. Download the appropriate package for your machine

   Go to the library's GitHub release page, and look for the latest release's assets.

   For all Raspberry Pi variants using the Raspberry Pi OS (aka Raspbian), you need the file marked for armhf architecture.

   For Raspberry Pi 4 variants using a 64-bit OS (like Ubuntu), you need the file marked for arm64 architecture.

2. Install the downloaded pkg

   If you downloaded the file directly from your target machine using the desktop environment, then you only need to double-click the package (deb or rpm) file, and the OS should do the rest.
   

   If you downloaded the file remotely and want to copy it over ssh, then use the scp command in a terminal.

   scp pkg_filename.deb pi@host_name:~/Downloads

   Note

   You do not need to do this from within an ssh session. Also, you can use the target machine's IP address instead of its host name.
   

   The scp command will ask you for a password belonging to the user's name on the remote machine (we used pi in the above example).
   Now you can open up a ssh session and install the copied package from the terminal.

   ssh pi@host_name
   cd Downloads
   dpkg -i pkg_filename.deb

Building from source code

1. CMake may need to be installed

   sudo apt-get install cmake

2. Make a directory to contain the RF24Log lib and enter it

   mkdir ~/rf24libs
   cd ~/rf24libs

3. Clone the RF24Log repo and navigate to it

   git clone https://github.com/nRF24/RF24Log.git RF24Log
   cd RF24Log

4. Create a build directory inside the RF24Log directory and navigate to it.

   mkdir build
   cd build

5. Configure build environment

   cmake ../src

6. Build and install the library

   make
   sudo make install

7. Build the examples

   Navigate to the examples directory

   cd ../examples

   Create a build directory in the examples_linux directory and navigate to it.

   mkdir build
   cd build

   Now you are ready to build the examples.

   cmake ..
   make

8. Run an example file

   sudo ./Gettingstarted

Cross-compiling the library

The RF24Log library comes with some pre-made toolchain files (located in the RF24/cmake/toolchains directory) to use in CMake. To use these toolchain files, additional command line options are needed when configuring CMake to build the library (step 5 in the above instructions to build from source).

cmake ../src -D CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=cmake/toolchains/armhf.cmake
make

If you plan on using the cross-compiled library with your personal cross-compiled project, then it is advised to specify the path that your project will look in when linking to the RF24Log library:

cmake ../src -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf -D CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=cmake/toolchains/armhf.cmake
make
sudo make install

Installing the library remotely

To install remotely, you can create an installable package file using CMake's built-in program called CPack.

cmake ../src -D CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=cmake/toolchains/armhf.cmake
make
cpack

This will create a deb file and a rpm file in a new sub-directory called "pkgs" within the build directory. You can use to install to your target machine (see the above instructions about using a package manager).