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QNX Software Development Platform
QNX SDP is a cross-compiling and debugging environment, including an IDE and command-line tools, for building binary images and programs for target boards running the QNX OS 8.0.
Programming
Programmer's Guide
The QNX OS Programmer's Guide covers a variety of topics that might interest developers who are building applications that will run under the QNX OS.
Conventions for Recursive Makefiles and Directories
In this chapter, we'll look at the supplementary files used in the QNX OS development environment. Although we use the standard make command to create libraries and executables, we also use some of our own conventions in the Makefile syntax.
Advanced topics
Performing partial builds
By using the LIST tag in the makefile, you can cause the make command to perform a partial build, even if you're at the top of the source tree.

QNX Momentics IDE User's Guide
This User's Guide describes version 8.0 of the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that's part of the QNX Tool Suite.
QNX Software Development Platform
QNX SDP is a cross-compiling and debugging environment, including an IDE and command-line tools, for building binary images and programs for target boards running the QNX OS 8.0.
- Quickstart Guide
- System Architecture
  The System Architecture guide accompanies the QNX OS and is intended for both application developers and end-users.
- OS Components & Operations
- Graphics
- Programming
  - Getting Started with the QNX OS
    Getting Started with the QNX OS: A Guide for Realtime Programmers is intended to introduce you to the QNX OS and help you develop applications and resource managers for it.
  - Programmer's Guide
    The QNX OS Programmer's Guide covers a variety of topics that might interest developers who are building applications that will run under the QNX OS.
    - Compiling and Debugging
      Let's start by looking at some things you should consider when you start to write a program for the QNX OS.
    - QNX OS Architecture and Concepts
      The QNX OS architecture consists of the microkernel and several cooperating processes. These processes communicate with each other via various forms of interprocess communication (IPC). Message passing is the primary form of IPC in QNX OS.
    - Processes
      Your applications should be written in a way that reflects the architecture of the QNX OS—as a set of cooperating processes. In this chapter, we see how to start processes (also known as creating processes) from code, how to terminate them, and how to detect their termination.
    - Multicore Processing
      Multiprocessing systems, whether discrete or multicore, can greatly improve your applications' performance.
    - Working with Access Control Lists (ACLs)
      Some filesystems, such as the Power-Safe (fs-qnx6.so) and QNX compressed filesystems, extend file permissions with Access Control Lists, which are based on the withdrawn IEEE POSIX 1003.1e and 1003.2c draft standards.
    - Understanding the Microkernel's Concept of Time
      Whether you're working with timers or simply getting the time of day, it's important that you understand how the OS works with time.
    - Handling Hardware Interrupts
      This chapter explains the QNX OS mechanisms for quickly reacting to hardware events.
    - Working with Memory
      (or The Persistence of Memory, with a nod to Salvador Dali) In the Process Manager chapter of the System Architecture guide, we looked at how the OS manages memory. This chapter describes how you can work with memory.
    - Freedom from Hardware and Platform Dependencies
      The QNX OS can run on many different hardware platforms. The way in which applications can access peripheral devices and how data is stored varies between platforms. This chapter explains our solutions for minimizing the impact of such platform dependencies.
    - Conventions for Recursive Makefiles and Directories
      In this chapter, we'll look at the supplementary files used in the QNX OS development environment. Although we use the standard make command to create libraries and executables, we also use some of our own conventions in the Makefile syntax.
      - Structure of a multiplatform source tree
      - Specifying options
      - Using the standard macros and include files
      - Advanced topics
        Collapsing unnecessary directory levels
        You can collapse unnecessary components out of the directory tree.
        Performing partial builds
        By using the LIST tag in the makefile, you can cause the make command to perform a partial build, even if you're at the top of the source tree.
        Performing parallel builds
        To get make to run more than one command in parallel, use the JLEVEL macro.
        More uses for LIST
        Besides using the standard LIST values that we use, you can also define your own.
        GNU configure
        The addvariant utility knows how to work with code that uses a GNU ./configure script for configuration.
      - Examples of creating Makefiles
        If you use our directory structure, you should use the addvariant command to create it. This section gives some examples of creating Makefiles for a single application, as well as for a library and an application.
    - Glossary
  - Writing a Resource Manager
- System Security Guide
  The QNX System Security Guide is intended for both system integrators who are responsible for the security of a QNX OS system and developers who want to create a QNX OS resource manager free from vulnerabilities.
- Utilities & Libraries
- Migrating to QNX OS 8.0
QNX Software in the Cloud
QNX Software in the Cloud enables developers to use the QNX OS in the Amazon cloud environment.
QNX Toolkit for Visual Studio Code
This User's Guide describes the QNX^® Toolkit for Visual Studio Code. The guide introduces you to the QNX Toolkit by explaining the QNX development environment and how to build, run, and debug your QNX^® Operating System (OS) applications and systems.
QNX Hypervisor User's Guide
This User's Guide explains the QNX hypervisor architecture and provides instructions for installing and running a QNX Hypervisor system, changing system components and configuration, and using hypervisor features such as virtual devices (vdevs).
Typographical Conventions, Support, and Licensing
This section describes the typographical conventions used throughout the documentation, explains how to obtain technical support, and provides some information about licensing.

Performing partial builds

QNX SDP8.0Programmer's GuideDeveloper

By using the LIST tag in the makefile, you can cause the make command to perform a partial build, even if you're at the top of the source tree.

If you were to simply type make without having used the LIST tag, all directories would be recursed into and everything would be built.

However, by defining a macro on make's command line, you can:

recurse into only the specified tagged directories
Or:
recurse into all of the directories except for the specified tagged ones

Let's consider an example. The following (issued from the top of the source tree):

make CPULIST=x86_64

causes only the directories that are at the CPU level and below (and tagged as LIST=CPU), and that are called x86_64, to be recursed into.

You can specify a space-separated list of directories (note the use of quoting in the shell to capture the space character):

make "CPULIST=x86_64 arm"

This causes the x86_64 and ARM versions to be built.

There's also the inverse form, which causes the specific lists not to be built:

make EXCLUDE_CPULIST=arm

This causes everything except the ARM versions to be built.

As you can see from the above examples, the following are all related to each other via the CPU portion:

LIST=CPU
CPULIST
EXCLUDE_CPULIST

Page updated: March 05, 2025