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Version: ACAP version 4

Build, install, run

ACAP Native SDK​

To build, install and run an ACAP application, use the ACAP Native SDK. You can use the ACAP Native SDK Docker image in two ways:

Build tool​

Use the acap-build tool to build and package your application.

The acap-build tool does the following:

  • Runs make, performing any required cross-compilation as defined in the available Makefile.
  • Validates the manifest file against the manifest schema.
  • Generates a package.conf file and related configuration files for backward compatibility. See Migrating from package.conf to manifest.json for more information.
  • Creates an EAP (Embedded Application Package) file with suffix .eap including:
    • application executable
    • LICENSE file
    • any available html and lib folder
    • other files listed in the acap-build request
    • generated backward compatibility files

For help on using the build tool, run acap-build -h.

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Systemd will start and stop the ACAP application. It then assumes execution failure if the main process dies, which means that the process must not fork off to a background process.

Build, install and run with custom application image​

For instructions on how to set up your build, to install, and to run with custom application image, use the Hello World example on GitHub.

Using the custom application image, all the building and packaging is done inside a Docker container. The application is then copied to a custom directory, meaning that the original application project directory is not changed.

The top structure for an ACAP application contains a Dockerfile and a directory called app where the application project files are placed.

To install, start, stop and remove the application, use the device’s web interface.

Build, install and run interactively inside container​

To be able to work interactively with your application, you can bind mount the application project directory into the container. In this way, you can build and package the application directly in this folder. You may also install, start, stop and remove the application on a device directly from inside the container.

The top structure for an ACAP application contains a directory called, for example app where the application project files are placed.

To run the acap-native-sdk container interactively and mount the application project, go to the directory that contains app and run:

docker run -v $PWD/app:/opt/app --rm -i -t axisecp/acap-native-sdk:1.0-armv7hf-ubuntu20.04

where:

  • axisecp/acap-native-sdk is the Docker Hub repository
  • 1.0-armv7hf-ubuntu20.04 is the tag that points out which SDK version and architecture to use
  • -v $PWD/app:/opt/app mounts the host directory $PWD/app into the container directory /opt/app
  • --rm removes the container after closing it
  • -i is to run the container interactively
  • -t which repository tag to use

You should end up in a container with a prompt similar to:

root@1e6b4f3d5a2c:/opt/app#

Now you’re ready to build and install the application. See Build the application, and Install the application

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The bind mount means that any changes made inside the container on /opt/app will be made to the host directory $PWD/app.

Build the application​

To build an application, stand in the application directory inside the container and run the acap-build tool as explained in Build tool.

Install the application​

The SDK helps with installing a built application on the device from a terminal. You can also install application packages, using the device's web interface, but that is less convenient during application development.

To install a built application on a device, run:

eap-install.sh

Run the command without any options to get help.

To install a built application on a device, run the following command (you must enter the IP address and username and password of the device the first time):

eap-install.sh <axis_device_ip> <admin_account> <password> install
eap-install.sh 192.168.0.90 admin-user admin-password install

The command remembers the device-ip and password after the first successful execution. After this you can simply run:

eap-install.sh install
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You must run the command from the application project directory, see Application project structure.

Start, stop, and remove the application​

Before you continue, make sure that you have done a first successful execution of shell script command eap-install.sh, see Install the application for more information.

To start, stop and remove an installed application, run:

eap-install.sh [start|stop|remove]

To start an installed application on the device, run:

eap-install.sh start

Now you can see the status of the application using the device's web interface.

To stop a running application, run:

eap-install.sh stop

To remove an installed application, run:

eap-install.sh remove
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