edk2/BaseTools
Michael Kubacki 0e6d10de1c BaseTools: Replace include guards with #pragma once
Replace traditional `#ifndef`/`#define`/`#endif` include guards with
`#pragma` once.

`#pragma once` is a widely supported preprocessor directive that
prevents header files from being included multiple times. It is
supported by all toolchains used to build edk2: GCC, Clang/LLVM, and
MSVC.

Note: Some files in BaseTools are excluded from the change if they
are autogenerated or direcly related to a header from a subproject,
etc. In particular, headers in these directories were ignored:

- BaseTools/Source/C/LzmaCompress/Sdk/
- BaseTools/Source/C/VfrCompile/Pccts/

Compared to macro-based include guards, `#pragma once`:

- Eliminates the risk of macro name collisions or copy/paste errors
  where two headers inadvertently use the same guard macro.
- Eliminate inconsistency in the way include guard macros are named
  (e.g., some files use `__FILE_H__`, others use `FILE_H_`, etc.).
- Reduces boilerplate (three lines replaced by one).
- Avoids polluting the macro namespace with guard symbols.
- Can improve build times as the preprocessor can skip re-opening the
  file entirely, rather than re-reading it to find the matching
  `#endif` ("multiple-include optimization").
  - Note that some compilers may already optimize traditional include
    guards, by recognzining the idiomatic pattern.

This change is made acknowledging that overall portability of the
code will technically be reduced, as `#pragma once` is not part of the
C/C++ standards.

However, this is considered acceptable given:

1. edk2 already defines a subset of supported compilers in
   BaseTools/Conf/tools_def.template, all of which have supported
   `#pragma once` for over two decades.
2. There have been concerns raised to the project about inconsistent
   include guard naming and potential macro collisions.

Approximate compiler support dates:

- MSVC: Supported since Visual C++ 4.2 (1996)
- GCC: Supported since 3.4 (2004)
  (http://gnu.ist.utl.pt/software/gcc/gcc-3.4/changes.html)
- Clang (LLVM based): Since initial release in 2007

Signed-off-by: Michael Kubacki <michael.kubacki@microsoft.com>
2026-02-23 21:01:28 +00:00
..
Bin BaseTools: Update nasm to 2.16.01 2025-12-09 04:56:10 +00:00
BinWrappers Revert "BaseTools: Add support for out-of-tree builds" 2026-02-11 22:53:29 +00:00
Conf BaseTools/Conf: CLANGDWARF remove -mno-sse -mno-mmx 2026-01-23 06:44:51 +00:00
Plugin BaseTools/Plugin/WindowsVsToolChain: Add WindowsSDKLibVersion 2026-01-29 01:03:38 +00:00
Scripts BaseTools: Update wiki links 2026-02-10 05:44:46 +00:00
Source BaseTools: Replace include guards with #pragma once 2026-02-23 21:01:28 +00:00
Tests BaseTools/Tests: Generate interim files in temp directory 2026-02-02 08:56:31 +00:00
UserManuals BaseTools: Remove DXE_SAL_DRIVER 2025-10-30 10:00:32 +00:00
.gitignore BaseTools: Adding cross compilation of BaseTool for Windows ARM/ARM64 2024-12-20 22:57:04 +00:00
basetools_calling_path_env.yaml BaseTools: Add YAML files with path env and tool extdeps 2019-11-11 13:01:53 -08:00
basetools_path_env.yaml BaseTools: Add YAML files with path env and tool extdeps 2019-11-11 13:01:53 -08:00
BuildEnv BaseTools: Remove Pip BaseTools 2024-09-10 00:41:53 +00:00
Edk2ToolsBuild.py BaseTools: Add CLANG support to Edk2ToolsBuild.py 2025-12-26 18:47:08 +00:00
get_vsvars.bat BaseTools: Remove VS2008-VS2013 remnants 2023-05-05 11:41:35 +00:00
GNUmakefile BaseTools: Replace BSD License with BSD+Patent License 2019-04-09 09:10:20 -07:00
Makefile BaseTools: Add support for mingw-w64 2025-06-07 17:56:04 +00:00
ReadMe.rst BaseTools: Add reference to new build instructions 2022-12-16 22:17:18 +00:00
set_vsprefix_envs.bat BaseTools: Add VS2026 support. 2026-01-07 20:19:12 +00:00
toolsetup.bat BaseTools: Add VS2026 support. 2026-01-07 20:19:12 +00:00

::

  Note: New build instructions are available. It is recommended to start with
  the new instructions if learning how to build edk2 and/or BaseTools for the
  first time. This page is retained for reference.

New instructions: `Build Instructions`_

.. _`Build Instructions`: https://github.com/tianocore/tianocore.github.io/wiki/Build-Instructions

This directory contains the EDK II build tools and template files.
Templates are located in the Conf directory, while the tools executables for
Microsoft Windows Operating Systems are located in the Bin\\Win32 directory, other
directory contains tools source.

Build step to generate the binary tools
---------------------------------------

Windows/Visual Studio Notes
===========================

To build the BaseTools, you should run the standard vsvars32.bat script
from your preferred Visual Studio installation or you can run get_vsvars.bat
to use latest automatically detected version.

In addition to this, you should set the following environment variables::

 * EDK_TOOLS_PATH - Path to the BaseTools sub directory under the edk2 tree
 * BASE_TOOLS_PATH - The directory where the BaseTools source is located.
   (It is the same directory where this README.rst is located.)

After this, you can run the toolsetup.bat file, which is in the same
directory as this file.  It should setup the remainder of the environment,
and build the tools if necessary.

Unix-like operating systems
===========================

To build on Unix-like operating systems, you only need to type ``make`` in
the base directory of the project.

Ubuntu Notes
============

On Ubuntu, the following command should install all the necessary build
packages to build all the C BaseTools::

 sudo apt install build-essential uuid-dev