cargo-acap

A tool to build Rust programs for the AXIS Camera Application Platform.

Example

$ cargo install cargo-acap
…
   Installed package `cargo-acap v0.1.0` (executable `cargo-acap`)
$ cargo new --bin your-app
     Created binary (application) `your-app` package
$ cd your-app/
$ cargo acap build
cargo-acap: building ACAP package `your-app` using Docker image trunnion/cargo-acap-build:1.60.0
…
    Finished release [optimized] target(s) in 0.56s
$ ls target/acap/*.* | cat
 target/acap/your-app_0.1.0_aarch64.eap
 target/acap/your-app_0.1.0_aarch64.elf
 target/acap/your-app_0.1.0_armv5tej.eap
 target/acap/your-app_0.1.0_armv5tej.elf
 target/acap/your-app_0.1.0_armv6.eap
 target/acap/your-app_0.1.0_armv6.elf
 target/acap/your-app_0.1.0_armv7.eap
 target/acap/your-app_0.1.0_armv7.elf
 target/acap/your-app_0.1.0_armv7hf.eap
 target/acap/your-app_0.1.0_armv7hf.elf
 target/acap/your-app_0.1.0_mips.eap
 target/acap/your-app_0.1.0_mips.elf

cargo-acap builds your application using a Docker image specialized for compiling Rust for AXIS devices. It therefore requires Docker to be installed and running in order to build.

Application organization

foo/
    Cargo.toml                      Rust project configuration + `[package.metadata.acap]`
    data/                           Copied to `/usr/local/packages/foo/data/`, i.e. `./data/`
    src/
        main.rs                     `fn main()`
    target/
        acap/
            foo_0.1.0_aarch64.eap   An ACAP package suitable for AArch64 devices
            foo_0.1.0_aarch64.elf   The executable inside foo_0.1.0_aarch64.eap prior to stripping symbols
            …4 more…
            foo_0.1.0_mips.eap      An ACAP package suitable for MIPS devices
            foo_0.1.0_mips.elf      The executable inside foo_0.1.0_mips.eap prior to stripping symbols

Conditional compilation

cargo acap builds your application with target_vendor = "axis", enabling one source tree to support both on- and off-device usage via conditional compilation.

#[cfg(target_vendor = "axis")]
fn foo() {
    // call on-device APIs
}

#[cfg(not(target_vendor = "axis"))]
fn foo() {
    // call off-device APIs
}

fn bar() {
    if cfg!(target_vendor = "axis") {
        // on-device
    } else {
        // off-device
    }
}

#[cfg_attr(target_vendor = "axis", path = "baz_on_device.rs")]
#[cfg_attr(not(target_vendor = "axis"), path = "baz_off_device.rs")]
mod baz;

#[test]
#[cfg_attr(not(target_vendor = "axis"), ignore)]
fn quxx() {
    // this test will run everywhere, but will be ignored if not on-device
}

Packaging

cargo acap builds your application's executable and then packages it into an .eap application package. The package contains metadata which is set to sensible defaults but can be overridden via Cargo.toml.

[package.metadata.acap]
# The machine-friendly name of the package. Used for:
#
# * Installation path: `/usr/local/packages/<app_name>`
# * Executable path: `/usr/local/packages/<app_name>/<app_name>`
# * Generated package names: `<app_name>_1_2_3_arch.eap`
# * Myriad related files
#
# app_name = ""

# A user-friendly package name. The name will be displayed in the Axis product's web pages.
# display_name = ""

# The application name that will be displayed in the web pages' left-hand side menu.
# menu_name = ""

# The name of the vendor that created the application.
# vendor = ""

# The URL of the vendor's home page, to be linked in the product's web pages.
# vendor_homepage_url = ""

# The command line arguments to pass when the application is launched normally.
# launch_arguments = ""

# The command line arguments to pass when the application is executed to perform a custom license check, if using custom
# licensing.
# license_check_arguments = ""

# The Axis-assigned application ID, if using Axis licensing.
# axis_application_id = ""

# The start mode to use for this application.
# (One of: "respawn", "once", "never")
# start_mode = ""

Targets

Different AXIS products use different SoCs which contain different processors. cargo acap provides a Docker build environment containing everything needed to build software for various AXIS devices. These targets are described in cargo acap targets table:

cargo acap is specialized for AXIS products, so it uses abbreviated target names on the left. The Rust target triples defined by the cargo-acap-build environment are presented here for completeness.

These targets correspond to the system-on-chips listed in cargo acap targets soc_table:

The AXIS product interface guide describes many hardware configurations in detail, though it is incomplete. Check your device's root.Properties.System.Soc and .Architecture parameter to see what your specific device uses.

cargo acap build enables every target by default. This can be overridden in Cargo.toml:

[package.metadata.acap]
targets = ["aarch64", "armv7", "armv7hf"]