how2homebrew

Toolchain setup

It's recommended to use vdpm to set up the toolchain: https://github.com/vitasdk/vdpm. In addition to setting up the toolchain, vdpm allows you to install dependencies such as libpng/libjpeg/vita2dlib/etc without any hassle. -- note that at the moment toolchain downloaded via vdpm will be horribly outdated, so this is no longer recommended
Prebuilt toolchain binaries (Windows, Linux, OSX): https://github.com/vitasdk/autobuilds/releases
Another option is to build the toolchain from source, check out https://github.com/vitasdk/buildscripts

Build process

Check out these samples for how to work with Makefiles and the build process: https://github.com/vitasdk/samples

tl;dr:

Compile your .c/.cpp files to .o with arm-vita-eabi-gcc -c -o file.obj file.c
Link your .o files into an .elf file, using -Wl,-q option: arm-vita-eabi-gcc -Wl,-q -o homebrew.elf file1.o file2.o file3.o
Make a .velf file out of the .elf file: vita-elf-create homebrew.elf homebrew.velf
Make a eboot.bin file out of the .velf file: vita-make-fself homebrew.velf eboot.bin

Making a .vpk

Homebrew installer uses a .vpk format which is just a ZIP file, start from this template: https://github.com/xyzz/Vita_Doom/releases/download/1.0/vitadoom.vpk (try installing it from the shell)

replace eboot.bin with your eboot.bin
you can also add template.xml and stuff like icon/background/etc that will be displayed in livearea, check out how it's done in molecular shell (launch it and go to app0)
make sure to run pngquant on all your png images https://pngquant.org/
to make param.sfo, use vita-mksfoex -s TITLE_ID=XXXX00001 "homebrew name" output/param.sfo

When developing homebrew instead of rebuilding the vpk and reinstalling it on every change, you can upload your new eboot.bin to ux0:app/TITLE_ID/eboot.bin over ftp

NB: all files you place to .vpk will be available as read-only inside app0:. For example, you can add vpk/something.txt and later in your app read app0:something.txt. In the same way, you can read app0:sce_sys/param.sfo and app0:eboot.bin.

Working with core dumps

When your homebrew crashes (normally, with error C2-12828-1), a core dump will be generated and saved to ux0:data. You can transfer this core dump to PC, gunzip it, and then analyze it with https://github.com/xyzz/vita-parse-core

Question/Problem?

If you're having any issues with the toolchain or your homebrew, feel free to join #vitasdk on Freenode, where the VitaSDK discussion happens. You can join this channel by using any IRC client, or via a web client: http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=vitasdk