support for distro packaging

[midnightveil]

If the SDK were to be packaged as a distro package, the bin/microkit and board folder is not colocated in the way the SDK expects.

e.g.

$ microkit --help
Error: SDK directory '/usr' does not have a 'board' sub-directory.
$ MICROKIT_SDK=/usr/share/microkit-sdk microkit --help
usage: microkit [-h] [-o OUTPUT] [--image-type {binary,elf,uimage}] [-r REPORT] --board BOARD --config CONFIG [--capdl-json CAPDL_SPEC] --search-path [SEARCH_PATH ...] system

The traditional way this is handled for distro packaging is passing something like ./configure --libdir <blah> and that passes information through the build system to the build C program with the define. We don't have a way to do this, except by packaging a wrapper script that sets MICROKIT_SDK. (this might work?)

LLVM/clang compilers pass through the relative path from the clang binary to the lib true: https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/blob/main/clang/lib/Options/OptionUtils.cpp#L209-L237.

Example fedora (rpm) .spec package

Build with rpmbuild -bb microkit-sdk.spec. This generates a package with /usr/bin/microkit (for the tool) and /usr/share/microkit-sdk/board, /usr/share/microkit-sdk/example, /usr/share/licenses/microkit-sdk/LICENSE.md and /usr/share/doc/microkit-sdk/microkit_user_manual.pdf.

%define __spec_install_post %{nil}
%define __os_install_post %{nil}
%define debug_package %{nil}

Name:       microkit-sdk
Version:    2.1.0
Release:    1%{?dist}
Summary:    A simple operating system framework for the seL4 microkernel
BuildArch:  x86_64

Group:      System
URL:        https://github.com/au-ts/microkit

%define SEL4_VERSION 14.0.0

# https://github.com/seL4/microkit/releases/download/2.1.0/microkit-sdk-2.1.0-linux-x86-64.tar.gz
# https://github.com/seL4/microkit/releases/download/2.1.0/microkit-sdk-2.1.0-linux-aarch64.tar.gz
Source:    microkit-sdk-%{version}-linux-x86-64.tar.gz
License:    BSD AND CC-BY-SA-4.0 AND GPL-2.0-only

%description
A simple operating system framework for the seL4 microkernel

%prep
%autosetup

%build
# nothing

%install
if [[ "%{version}" != "$(< VERSION)" ]]; then
    echo "version mismatch" >&2
    exit 1
fi

mkdir -p %{buildroot}/%{_bindir}
install -m 0755 bin/microkit %{buildroot}%{_bindir}/microkit

mkdir -p %{buildroot}%{_datadir}/%{name}
cp -ar board/ example/ %{buildroot}%{_datadir}/%{name}

%files
%license LICENSE.md
%doc doc/microkit_user_manual.pdf
%{_bindir}/microkit
%{_datadir}/%{name}/*


%changelog
* Wed Feb 11 2026 Julia Vassiliki <julia.vassiliki@unsw.edu.au>
- Init