If you use U-Boot’s buildman tool frequently, you are likely familiar with the standard two-step dance. First, you run the build. Then, to really understand what happened—checking for code bloat, size changes, or new warnings—you run buildman -s to generate the summary.
While buildman effectively has two modes (building and summarising), treating them as mutually exclusive steps can be a hassle when you just want a quick health check on a branch.
A new patch aims to smooth out this workflow by adding a Build and Summary option.
The New -z Flag
The patch introduces a new command-line flag: -z (or --build-summary).
Previously, if you wanted to build a branch and immediately see the stats, you had to chain commands. Now, buildman can handle the compilation and immediately transition into generating the summary report within a single execution.
How it works
When you run buildman -z, the tool performs the build as usual. Once the build completes—regardless of whether it succeeded or failed—it automatically invokes the summary logic.
This is particularly useful for quickly iterating on a branch to reduce size growth.
The return code of the command still reflects the success or failure of the build.
Example
To build a branch for a specific board and see the size changes immediately:
buildman -b exph firefly-rk3399 -zSB
This simple addition removes friction from the development cycle, making it easier to keep an eye on binary sizes and warnings as you iterate.
