Builds with macOS SDK are failing

[Sn0wfreezeDev]

Describe the bug

When building anything on macOS I receive an error.

west build -p auto -b nrf52dk_nrf52832 samples/basic/blinky

/zephyrproject/zephyr/arch/arm/include/aarch32/cortex_m/stack.h:29:8: error: argument to 'section' attribute is not valid for this target: mach-o section specifier requires a segment whose length is between 1 and 16 characters
extern K_KERNEL_STACK_ARRAY_DEFINE(z_interrupt_stacks, CONFIG_MP_NUM_CPUS,
       ^

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

I downloaded the SDK and installed the toolchain for macOS.
I strictly followed the tutorial on the Zephyr Website, which seems outdated for macOS, as it says it's not supported.

So I followed the Nordic getting started guide for setting up the toolchain.

I set the environment to ZEPHYR_TOOLCHAIN_VARIANT=host

Expected behavior
The build should complete

Impact
This is a showstopper since the Toolchain does not run

Logs and console output
Can be found above.

Environment (please complete the following information):

• OS macOS
• Toolchain Zephyr SDK
• Commit cd5357c

[carlescufi]

I strictly followed the tutorial on the Zephyr Website, which seems outdated for macOS, as it says it's not supported.

That doesn't sound right. The current docs clearly state that macOS is supported:
https://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/getting_started/index.html

I set the environment to ZEPHYR_TOOLCHAIN_VARIANT=host

I am not quite sure this is right. @tejlmand ?

[Sn0wfreezeDev]

In a later section the websites states

Follow the instructions in Set Up a Toolchain. Note that the Zephyr SDK is not available on macOS.
Do not forget to set the required environment variables (ZEPHYR_TOOLCHAIN_VARIANT and toolchain specific ones).

But the newest SDK is available on macOS and a very similar setup compared to Linux is necessary.

[stephanosio]

But the newest SDK is available on macOS and a very similar setup compared to Linux is necessary.

As noted earlier, the macOS SDK is currently experimental and not really "available" for production use; though, we could probably make this more clear.

cc @galak

[stephanosio]

There are quite a few problems here:

I set the environment to ZEPHYR_TOOLCHAIN_VARIANT=host
...
Toolchain Zephyr SDK

If you set ZEPHYR_TOOLCHAIN_VARIANT to host, you are not using the Zephyr SDK.

west build -p auto -b nrf52dk_nrf52832 samples/basic/blinky

You cannot use the host toolchain to build ARM boards.

p.s. you should be able to build for the nrf52dk_nrf52832 on macOS if you use the macOS Zephyr SDK (with ZEPHYR_TOOLCHAIN_VARIANT=zephyr); though, we have not tested it, and it is still very much experimental.

[Sn0wfreezeDev]

Thank you for the clarification here.

The environment variable ZEPHYR_TOOLCHAIN_VARIANT was a bit unclear to me. I understand that host should not work for ARM boards, but I did not find other options to set on the website. It just states:

You configure the Zephyr build system to use a specific toolchain by setting environment variables such as ZEPHYR_TOOLCHAIN_VARIANT to a supported value, along with additional variable(s) specific to the toolchain variant.

Setting the toolchain to zephyr, cleaning the build folder and rebuilding worked!

I also installed the Zephyr SDK on Linux and it does not require to set the ZEPHYR_TOOLCHAIN_VARIANT. On macOS starting a build without a specified toolchain would result this error:

 ZEPHYR_TOOLCHAIN_VARIANT not specified and no Zephyr SDK is installed.

  Please set ZEPHYR_TOOLCHAIN_VARIANT to the toolchain to use or install the
  Zephyr SDK.

This is after the Zephyr SDK was installed

[stephanosio]

The environment variable ZEPHYR_TOOLCHAIN_VARIANT was a bit unclear to me. I understand that host should not work for ARM boards, but I did not find other options to set on the website.

Officially, Zephyr SDK is currently not supported on macOS (it is experimental) right now.

There is work being done to improve multi-platform support (see #37255) -- once that is done, we will update the "Getting Started Guide" with more beginner-friendly and consistent set-up procedures.