No .bld file generated

Question

I created a bootloader project following the guide &ldquo;RA4 Secure Bootloader Using MCUboot and Internal Code Flash&rdquo;. After building, I found that no .bld file was generated in the Debug/ directory. And then I checked the ra4m3_overwrite_with_bootloader example. Its bootloader project also did not generate a .bld file in my environment, yet the application project references it in its build variables and eventually produces a correctly signed .bin file. If I change the BootloaderDataFile value to something else the project doesn't work. Why isn&rsquo;t the .bld file generated, and How does the example projects work? 
 My e&sup2; studio version is 2025-04 (25.4.0) and the selected FSP version is 5.8.0.

IK_Renesas · Accepted Answer

Hello qag , 
 As already mentioned from Mark this is not a bug in e2studio 2025-04. The file .bld is no longer generated in e2studio 2025-04 since the smart bundle .sbd file will be now used to link the bootloader project with the application project. 
 Simply all you have to do is: 
 1. Create your bootloader project as you already know using MCUboot port. Build your bootloader project. 
 2. When you will create your application project, you will be asked to set a preceding project. Change from None to Preceding Project and select your bootloader project: 
 
 This will automatically add the .sbd file in the Build Variables of your application project. As you can understand the .bld file has now been replaced from .sbd file. 
 
 3. Later to sign your application image and get the final signed binary image you need to add : 
 MCUBOOT_IMAGE_VERSION : set to the number of the version you want your project to have. 
 MCUBOOT_IMAGE_SIGNING_KEY: set to the path where the key use to generate the final signed image is. 
 As you can see below: 
 
 And this is it the python command to generate the signed image runs and you can see the results while building application image is completed: 
 
 Also for your reference find attached one bootloader and one blinky app project I created and tested on EK-RA6M4 in e2studio 2025-04 and FSP 5.9.0. 
 EK_RA6M4_bootloader.zip 
 EK_RA6M4_blinky.zip 
 
 Hope it helps. 
 Thanks and Regards, 
 IK

Mark Goodchild · Answer

The .bld file is now included inside the Smart Bundle file. So this is the reason the file is not being generated as expected.

No .bld file generated

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