Skip to content
Commit 2eb5d7f2 authored by Masahiro Yamada's avatar Masahiro Yamada
Browse files

kbuild: doc: describe the -C option precisely for external module builds

Building external modules is typically done using this command:

  $ make -C <KERNEL_DIR> M=<EXTMOD_DIR>

Here, <KERNEL_DIR> refers to the output directory where the kernel was
built, not the kernel source directory.

When the kernel is built in the source tree, there is no ambiguity, as
the output directory and the source directory are the same.

If the kernel was built in a separate build directory, <KERNEL_DIR>
should be the kernel output directory. Otherwise, Kbuild cannot locate
necessary build artifacts. This has been the method for building
external modules against a pre-built kernel in a separate directory
for over 20 years. [1]

If you pass the kernel source directory to the -C option, you must also
specify the kernel build directory using the O= option. This approach
works as well, though it results in a slightly longer command:

  $ make -C <KERNEL_SOURCE_DIR> O=<KERNEL_BUILD_DIR> M=<EXTMOD_DIR>

Some people mistakenly believe that O= should specify a build directory
for external modules when used together with M=. This commit adds more
clarification to Documentation/kbuild/kbuild.rst.

[1]: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/history/history.git/commit/?id=e321b2ec2eb2993b3d0116e5163c78ad923e3c54



Signed-off-by: default avatarMasahiro Yamada <masahiroy@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: default avatarNicolas Schier <n.schier@avm.de>
parent e873fb94
Loading
Loading
Loading
Loading
0% Loading or .
You are about to add 0 people to the discussion. Proceed with caution.
Finish editing this message first!
Please register or to comment