This chapter provides explanations for Yocto Project concepts that go beyond the surface of "how-to" information and reference (or look-up) material. Concepts such as components, the OpenEmbedded build system workflow, cross-development toolchains, shared state cache, and so forth are explained.

The configuration files ( .conf ) define various configuration variables that govern the OpenEmbedded build process. These files fall into several areas that define machine configuration options, distribution configuration options, compiler tuning options, general common configuration options, and user configuration options in conf/local.conf , which is found in the Build Directory .

Class files ( .bbclass ) contain information that is useful to share between recipes files. An example is the autotools class, which contains common settings for any application that Autotools uses. The " Classes " chapter in the Yocto Project Reference Manual provides details about classes and how to use them.

The term "package" is sometimes used to refer to recipes. However, since the word "package" is used for the packaged output from the OpenEmbedded build system (i.e. .ipk or .deb files), this document avoids using the term "package" when referring to recipes.

Files that have the .bb suffix are "recipes" files. In general, a recipe contains information about a single piece of software. This information includes the location from which to download the unaltered source, any source patches to be applied to that source (if needed), which special configuration options to apply, how to compile the source files, and how to package the compiled output.

A useful BitBake option to consider is the -k or --continue option. This option instructs BitBake to try and continue processing the job as long as possible even after encountering an error. When an error occurs, the target that failed and those that depend on it cannot be remade. However, when you use this option other dependencies can still be processed.

BitBake also tries to execute any dependent tasks first. So for example, before building matchbox-desktop , BitBake would build a cross compiler and glibc if they had not already been built.

Several different versions of matchbox-desktop might exist. BitBake chooses the one selected by the distribution configuration. You can get more details about how BitBake chooses between different target versions and providers in the " Preferences " section of the BitBake User Manual.

The most common usage for BitBake is bitbake packagename , where packagename is the name of the package you want to build (referred to as the "target"). The target often equates to the first part of a recipe's filename (e.g. "foo" for a recipe named foo_1.3.0-r0.bb ). So, to process the matchbox-desktop_1.2.3.bb recipe file, you might type the following:

To see a list of the options BitBake supports, use either of the following commands:

This section briefly introduces BitBake. If you want more information on BitBake, see the BitBake User Manual .

BitBake is the tool at the heart of the OpenEmbedded build system and is responsible for parsing the Metadata , generating a list of tasks from it, and then executing those tasks.

Following are some brief details on these core components. For additional information on how these components interact during a build, see the " OpenEmbedded Build System Concepts " section.

BitBake knows how to combine multiple data sources together and refers to each data source as a layer. For information on layers, see the " Understanding and Creating Layers " section of the Yocto Project Development Tasks Manual.

Configuration Data: Defines machine-specific settings, policy decisions, and so forth. Configuration data acts as the glue to bind everything together.

BitBake handles the parsing and execution of the data files. The data itself is of various types:

The BitBake task executor together with various types of configuration files form the OpenEmbedded-Core . This section overviews these components by describing their use and how they interact.

By convention, layers in the Yocto Project follow a specific form. Conforming to a known structure allows BitBake to make assumptions during builds on where to find types of metadata. You can find procedures and learn about tools (i.e. bitbake-layers ) for creating layers suitable for the Yocto Project in the " Understanding and Creating Layers " section of the Yocto Project Development Tasks Manual.

Many layers exist that work in the Yocto Project development environment. The Yocto Project Curated Layer Index and OpenEmbedded Layer Index both contain layers from which you can use or leverage.

Layers are repositories that contain related metadata (i.e. sets of instructions) that tell the OpenEmbedded build system how to build a target. Yocto Project's layer model facilitates collaboration, sharing, customization, and reuse within the Yocto Project development environment. Layers logically separate information for your project. For example, you can use a layer to hold all the configurations for a particular piece of hardware. Isolating hardware-specific configurations allows you to share other metadata by using a different layer where that metadata might be common across several pieces of hardware.

SDK_TARGET_MANIFEST : Lists all the installed packages that make up the target part of the SDK. This variable also plays a minor role for extensible SDK development as well. However, it is mainly used for the standard SDK.

SDK_HOST_MANIFEST : Lists all the installed packages that make up the host part of the SDK. This variable also plays a minor role for extensible SDK development as well. However, it is mainly used for the standard SDK.

TOOLCHAIN_TARGET_TASK : Lists packages that make up the target part of the SDK (i.e. the part built for the target hardware).

TOOLCHAIN_HOST_TASK : Lists packages that make up the host part of the SDK (i.e. the part that runs on the SDKMACHINE ). When you use bitbake -c populate_sdk imagename to create the SDK, a set of default packages apply. This variable allows you to add more packages.

SDKMACHINE : Specifies the architecture of the machine on which the cross-development tools are run to create packages for the target hardware.

SDK_INHERIT_BLACKLIST : A list of classes to remove from the INHERIT value globally within the extensible SDK configuration.

SDK_LOCAL_CONF_BLACKLIST : A list of variables not allowed through from the build system configuration into the extensible SDK configuration.

SDK_INCLUDE_TOOLCHAIN : Specifies whether or not the toolchain is included when building the extensible SDK.

SDK_INCLUDE_PKGDATA : Specifies whether or not packagedata is included in the extensible SDK for all recipes in the "world" target.

SDK_EXT_TYPE : Controls whether or not shared state artifacts are copied into the extensible SDK. By default, all required shared state artifacts are copied into the SDK.

All the output files for an SDK are written to the deploy/sdk folder inside the Build Directory as shown in the previous figure. Depending on the type of SDK, several variables exist that help configure these files. The following list shows the variables associated with an extensible SDK:

For information on setting up a cross-development environment, see the Yocto Project Application Development and the Extensible Software Development Kit (eSDK) manual.

The Yocto Project supports several methods by which you can set up this cross-development environment. These methods include downloading pre-built SDK installers or building and installing your own SDK installer.

The specific form of this output is a set of files that includes a self-extracting SDK installer ( *.sh ), host and target manifest files, and files used for SDK testing. When the SDK installer file is run, it installs the SDK. The SDK consists of a cross-development toolchain, a set of libraries and headers, and an SDK environment setup script. Running this installer essentially sets up your cross-development environment. You can think of the cross-toolchain as the "host" part because it runs on the SDK machine. You can think of the libraries and headers as the "target" part because they are built for the target hardware. The environment setup script is added so that you can initialize the environment before using the tools.

In the general workflow figure , the output labeled "Application Development SDK" represents an SDK. The SDK generation process differs depending on whether you build an extensible SDK (e.g. bitbake -c populate_sdk_ext imagename ) or a standard SDK (e.g. bitbake -c populate_sdk imagename ). This section takes a closer look at this output:

symlinks : The deploy/images/ machine folder contains a symbolic link that points to the most recently built file for each machine. These links might be useful for external scripts that need to obtain the latest version of each file.

bootloaders : If applicable to the target machine, bootloaders supporting the image. The deploy/images/ machine directory can contain multiple bootloaders for the machine.

kernel-modules : Tarballs that contain all the modules built for the kernel. Kernel module tarballs exist for legacy purposes and can be suppressed by setting the MODULE_TARBALL_DEPLOY variable to "0". The deploy/images/ machine directory can contain multiple kernel module tarballs for the machine.

root-filesystem-image : Root filesystems for the target device (e.g. *.ext3 or *.bz2 files). The IMAGE_FSTYPES variable determines the root filesystem image type. The deploy/images/ machine directory can contain multiple root filesystems for the machine.

kernel-image : A kernel binary file. The KERNEL_IMAGETYPE variable determines the naming scheme for the kernel image file. Depending on this variable, the file could begin with a variety of naming strings. The deploy/images/ machine directory can contain multiple image files for the machine.

The build process writes images out to the Build Directory inside the tmp/deploy/images/ machine / folder as shown in the figure. This folder contains any files expected to be loaded on the target device. The DEPLOY_DIR variable points to the deploy directory, while the DEPLOY_DIR_IMAGE variable points to the appropriate directory containing images for the current configuration.

For a list of example images that the Yocto Project provides, see the " Images " chapter in the Yocto Project Reference Manual.

The images produced by the build system are compressed forms of the root filesystem and are ready to boot on a target device. You can see from the general workflow figure that BitBake output, in part, consists of images. This section takes a closer look at this output:

The availability of objects in the sstate cache is handled by the function specified by the BB_HASHCHECK_FUNCTION variable and returns a list of available objects. The function specified by the BB_SETSCENE_DEPVALID variable is the function that determines whether a given dependency needs to be followed, and whether for any given relationship the function needs to be passed. The function returns a True or False value.

If objects are found in the sstate cache, the build system works backwards from the end targets specified by the user. For example, if an image is being built, the build system first looks for the packages needed for that image and the tools needed to construct an image. If those are available, the compiler is not needed. Thus, the compiler is not even downloaded. If something was found to be unavailable, or the download or setscene task fails, the build system then tries to install dependencies, such as the compiler, from the cache.

To handle all these complexities, BitBake runs in two phases. The first is the "setscene" stage. During this stage, BitBake first checks the sstate cache for any targets it is planning to build. BitBake does a fast check to see if the object exists rather than a complete download. If nothing exists, the second phase, which is the setscene stage, completes and the main build proceeds.

It becomes more complicated if everything can come from an sstate cache because some objects are simply not required at all. For example, you do not need a compiler or native tools, such as quilt, if nothing exists to compile or patch. If the do_package_write_* packages are available from sstate, BitBake does not need the do_package task data.

The build system has knowledge of the relationship between these tasks and other preceding tasks. For example, if BitBake runs do_populate_sysroot_setscene for something, it does not make sense to run any of the do_fetch , do_unpack , do_patch , do_configure , do_compile , and do_install tasks. However, if do_package needs to be run, BitBake needs to run those other tasks.

In the build system, the common tasks that have setscene variants are do_package , do_package_write_* , do_deploy , do_packagedata , and do_populate_sysroot . Notice that these tasks represent most of the tasks whose output is an end result.

The idea of a setscene task (i.e do_ taskname _setscene ) is a version of the task where instead of building something, BitBake can skip to the end result and simply place a set of files into specific locations as needed. In some cases, it makes sense to have a setscene task variant (e.g. generating package files in the do_package_write_* task). In other cases, it does not make sense (e.g. a do_patch task or a do_unpack task) since the work involved would be equal to or greater than the underlying task.

The description of tasks so far assumes that BitBake needs to build everything and no available prebuilt objects exist. BitBake does support skipping tasks if prebuilt objects are available. These objects are usually made available in the form of a shared state (sstate) cache.

For details on how to view information about a task's signature, see the " Viewing Task Variable Dependencies " section in the Yocto Project Development Tasks Manual.

If you want some task to always be considered "out of date", you can mark it with the nostamp varflag. If some other task depends on such a task, then that task will also always be considered out of date, which might not be what you want.

Since STAMPS_DIR is usually a subdirectory of TMPDIR , removing TMPDIR will also remove STAMPS_DIR , which means tasks will properly be rerun to repopulate TMPDIR .

However, you should realize that stamp files only serve as a marker that some work has been done and that these files do not record task output. The actual task output would usually be somewhere in TMPDIR (e.g. in some recipe's WORKDIR .) What the sstate cache mechanism adds is a way to cache task output that can then be shared between build machines.

The stamp mechanism is more general than the shared state (sstate) cache mechanism described in the " Setscene Tasks and Shared State " section. BitBake avoids rerunning any task that has a valid stamp file, not just tasks that can be accelerated through the sstate cache.

To determine if a task needs to be rerun, BitBake checks if a stamp file with a matching input checksum exists for the task. If such a stamp file exists, the task's output is assumed to exist and still be valid. If the file does not exist, the task is rerun.

This naming scheme assumes that BB_SIGNATURE_HANDLER is "OEBasicHash", which is almost always the case in current OpenEmbedded.

For each task that completes successfully, BitBake writes a stamp file into the STAMPS_DIR directory. The beginning of the stamp file's filename is determined by the STAMP variable, and the end of the name consists of the task's name and current input checksum .

Regardless of the type of SDK being constructed, the tasks perform some cleanup after which a cross-development environment setup script and any needed configuration files are created. The final output is the Cross-development toolchain installation script ( .sh file), which includes the environment setup script.

The do_populate_sdk_ext task helps create the extensible SDK and handles host and target parts differently than its counter part does for the standard SDK. For the extensible SDK, the task encapsulates the build system, which includes everything needed (host and target) for the SDK.

The do_populate_sdk task helps create the standard SDK and handles two parts: a target part and a host part. The target part is the part built for the target hardware and includes libraries and headers. The host part is the part of the SDK that runs on the SDKMACHINE .

Like image generation, the SDK script process consists of several stages and depends on many variables. The do_populate_sdk and do_populate_sdk_ext tasks use these key variables to help create the list of packages to actually install. For information on the variables listed in the figure, see the " Application Development SDK " section.

For more information on the cross-development toolchain generation, see the " Cross-Development Toolchain Generation " section. For information on advantages gained when building a cross-development toolchain using the do_populate_sdk task, see the " Building an SDK Installer " section in the Yocto Project Application Development and the Extensible Software Development Kit (eSDK) manual.

The OpenEmbedded build system uses BitBake to generate the Software Development Kit (SDK) installer scripts for both the standard SDK and the extensible SDK (eSDK):

The entire image generation process is run under Pseudo . Running under Pseudo ensures that the files in the root filesystem have correct ownership.

The final task involved in image creation is the do_image_complete task. This task completes the image by applying any image post processing as defined through the IMAGE_POSTPROCESS_COMMAND variable. The variable specifies a list of functions to call once the build system has created the final image output files.

So, if the type as specified by the IMAGE_FSTYPES were ext4 , the dynamically generated task would be as follows:

As an example, a dynamically created task when creating a particular image type would take the following form:

The build system dynamically creates do_image_* tasks as needed, based on the image types specified in the IMAGE_FSTYPES variable. The process turns everything into an image file or a set of image files and can compress the root filesystem image to reduce the overall size of the image. The formats used for the root filesystem depend on the IMAGE_FSTYPES variable. Compression depends on whether the formats support compression.

After the root filesystem is built, processing begins on the image through the do_image task. The build system runs any pre-processing commands as defined by the IMAGE_PREPROCESS_COMMAND variable. This variable specifies a list of functions to call before the build system creates the final image output files.

Optimizing processes that are run across the image include mklibs , prelink , and any other post-processing commands as defined by the ROOTFS_POSTPROCESS_COMMAND variable. The mklibs process optimizes the size of the libraries, while the prelink process optimizes the dynamic linking of shared libraries to reduce start up time of executables.

The manifest file ( .manifest ) resides in the same directory as the root filesystem image. This file lists out, line-by-line, the installed packages. The manifest file is useful for the testimage class, for example, to determine whether or not to run specific tests. See the IMAGE_MANIFEST variable for additional information.

Package installation is under control of the package manager (e.g. dnf/rpm, opkg, or apt/dpkg) regardless of whether or not package management is enabled for the target. At the end of the process, if package management is not enabled for the target, the package manager's data files are deleted from the root filesystem. As part of the final stage of package installation, post installation scripts that are part of the packages are run. Any scripts that fail to run on the build host are run on the target when the target system is first booted. If you are using a read-only root filesystem , all the post installation scripts must succeed on the build host during the package installation phase since the root filesystem on the target is read-only.

With IMAGE_ROOTFS pointing to the location of the filesystem under construction and the PACKAGE_INSTALL variable providing the final list of packages to install, the root file system is created.

PACKAGE_INSTALL : The final list of packages passed to the package manager for installation into the image.

PACKAGE_CLASSES : Specifies the package backend (e.g. RPM, DEB, or IPK) to use and consequently helps determine where to locate packages within the Package Feeds area.

IMAGE_FEATURES : Specifies features to include in the image. Most of these features map to additional packages for installation.

IMAGE_INSTALL : Lists out the base set of packages from which to install from the Package Feeds area.

The image generation process consists of several stages and depends on several tasks and variables. The do_rootfs task creates the root filesystem (file and directory structure) for an image. This task uses several key variables to help create the list of packages to actually install:

Once packages are split and stored in the Package Feeds area, the build system uses BitBake to generate the root filesystem image:

Note Support for creating feeds directly from the deploy/* directories does not exist. Creating such feeds usually requires some kind of feed maintenance mechanism that would upload the new packages into an official package feed (e.g. the Ångström distribution). This functionality is highly distribution-specific and thus is not provided out of the box.

Depending on the type of packages being created (RPM, DEB, or IPK), the do_package_write_* task creates the actual packages and places them in the Package Feed area, which is ${TMPDIR}/deploy . You can see the " Package Feeds " section for more detail on that part of the build process.

The FILES variable defines the files that go into each package in PACKAGES . If you want details on how this is accomplished, you can look at package.bbclass .

STAGING_DIR_TARGET : The path for the sysroot used when a component that is built to execute on a system and it generates code for yet another machine (e.g. cross-canadian recipes).

STAGING_DIR_NATIVE : The path for the sysroot used when building components for the build host (i.e. recipe-sysroot-native ).

STAGING_DIR_HOST : The path for the sysroot for the system on which a component is built to run (i.e. recipe-sysroot ).

PKGDATA_DIR : A shared, global-state directory that holds packaging metadata generated during the packaging process. The packaging process copies metadata from PKGDESTWORK to the PKGDATA_DIR area where it becomes globally available.

The do_packagedata task creates package metadata based on the analysis such that the build system can generate the final packages. The do_populate_sysroot task stages (copies) a subset of the files installed by the do_install task into the appropriate sysroot. Working, staged, and intermediate results of the analysis and package splitting process use several areas:

The do_package and do_packagedata tasks combine to analyze the files found in the D directory and split them into subsets based on available packages and files. Analysis involves the following as well as other items: splitting out debugging symbols, looking at shared library dependencies between packages, and looking at package relationships.

After source code is configured, compiled, and staged, the build system analyzes the results and splits the output into packages:

do_install : After compilation completes, BitBake executes the do_install task. This task copies files from the B directory and places them in a holding area pointed to by the D variable. Packaging occurs later using files from this holding directory.

do_compile : Once a configuration task has been satisfied, BitBake compiles the source using the do_compile task. Compilation occurs in the directory pointed to by the B variable. Realize that the B directory is, by default, the same as the S directory.

If you are using the autotools class, you can add additional configuration options by using the EXTRA_OECONF or PACKAGECONFIG_CONFARGS variables. For information on how this variable works within that class, see the autotools class here .

The configurations handled by the do_configure task are specific to configurations for the source code being built by the recipe.

do_configure : This task configures the source by enabling and disabling any build-time and configuration options for the software being built. Configurations can come from the recipe itself as well as from an inherited class. Additionally, the software itself might configure itself depending on the target for which it is being built.

do_prepare_recipe_sysroot : This task sets up the two sysroots in ${ WORKDIR } (i.e. recipe-sysroot and recipe-sysroot-native ) so that during the packaging phase the sysroots can contain the contents of the do_populate_sysroot tasks of the recipes on which the recipe containing the tasks depends. A sysroot exists for both the target and for the native binaries, which run on the host system.

After source code is patched, BitBake executes tasks that configure and compile the source code. Once compilation occurs, the files are copied to a holding area (staged) in preparation for packaging:

For more information on how the source directories are created, see the " Source Fetching " section. For more information on how to create patches and how the build system processes patches, see the " Patching Code " section in the Yocto Project Development Tasks Manual. You can also see the " Use devtool modify to Modify the Source of an Existing Component " section in the Yocto Project Application Development and the Extensible Software Development Kit (SDK) manual and the " Using Traditional Kernel Development to Patch the Kernel " section in the Yocto Project Linux Kernel Development Manual.

BitBake finds and applies multiple patches for a single recipe in the order in which it locates the patches. The FILESPATH variable defines the default set of directories that the build system uses to search for patch files. Once found, patches are applied to the recipe's source files, which are located in the S directory.

Default processing for patch files assumes the files have either *.patch or *.diff file types. You can use SRC_URI parameters to change the way the build system recognizes patch files. See the do_patch task for more information.

Once source code is fetched and unpacked, BitBake locates patch files and applies them to the source files:

Note In the previous figure, notice that two sample hierarchies exist: one based on package architecture (i.e. PACKAGE_ARCH ) and one based on a machine (i.e. MACHINE ). The underlying structures are identical. The differentiator being what the OpenEmbedded build system is using as a build target (e.g. general architecture, a build host, an SDK, or a specific machine).

BPN : The name of the recipe used to build the package. The BPN variable is a version of the PN variable but with common prefixes and suffixes removed.

WORKDIR : The location where the OpenEmbedded build system builds a recipe (i.e. does the work to create the package).

PN : The name of the recipe used to build the package. This variable can have multiple meanings. However, when used in the context of input files, PN represents the the name of the recipe.

PACKAGE_ARCH : The architecture of the built package or packages. Depending on the eventual destination of the package or packages (i.e. machine architecture, build host , SDK, or specific machine), PACKAGE_ARCH varies. See the variable's description for details.

TMPDIR : The base directory where the OpenEmbedded build system performs all its work during the build. The default base directory is the tmp directory.

Each recipe has an area in the Build Directory where the unpacked source code resides. The S variable points to this area for a recipe's unpacked source code. The name of that directory for any given recipe is defined from several different variables. The preceding figure and the following list describe the Build Directory's hierarchy:

By default, everything is accomplished in the Build Directory, which has a defined structure. For additional general information on the Build Directory, see the " build/ " section in the Yocto Project Reference Manual.

For every local file (e.g.) that is part of a recipe's SRC_URI statement, the OpenEmbedded build system takes a checksum of the file for the recipe and inserts the checksum into the signature for thetask. If any local file has been modified, thetask and all tasks that depend on it are re-executed.

The do_fetch and do_unpack tasks fetch the source files and unpack them into the Build Directory .

The first stages of building a recipe are to fetch and unpack the source code:

The OpenEmbedded build system uses BitBake to produce images and Software Development Kits (SDKs). You can see from the general workflow figure , the BitBake area consists of several functional areas. This section takes a closer look at each of those areas.

BitBake uses the do_package_write_* tasks to generate packages and place them into the package holding area (e.g. do_package_write_ipk for IPK packages). See the " do_package_write_deb ", " do_package_write_ipk ", " do_package_write_rpm ", and " do_package_write_tar " sections in the Yocto Project Reference Manual for additional information. As an example, consider a scenario where an IPK packaging manager is being used and package architecture support for both i586 and qemux86 exist. Packages for the i586 architecture are placed in build/tmp/deploy/ipk/i586 , while packages for the qemux86 architecture are placed in build/tmp/deploy/ipk/qemux86 .

DEPLOY_DIR_* : Depending on the package manager used, the package type sub-folder. Given RPM, IPK, or DEB packaging and tarball creation, the DEPLOY_DIR_RPM , DEPLOY_DIR_IPK , DEPLOY_DIR_DEB , or DEPLOY_DIR_TAR , variables are used, respectively.

The package feed area resides in the Build Directory. The directory the build system uses to temporarily store packages is determined by a combination of variables and the particular package manager in use. See the "Package Feeds" box in the illustration and note the information to the right of that area. In particular, the following defines where package files are kept:

Package feeds are an intermediary step in the build process. The OpenEmbedded build system provides classes to generate different package types, and you specify which classes to enable through the PACKAGE_CLASSES variable. Before placing the packages into package feeds, the build process validates them with generated output quality assurance checks through the insane class.

This section looks a little closer into the package feeds area used by the build system. Here is a more detailed look at the area:

When the OpenEmbedded build system generates an image or an SDK, it gets the packages from a package feed area located in the Build Directory . The general workflow figure shows this package feeds area in the upper-right corner.

Regular mirrors can be any site across the Internet that is used as an alternative location for source code should the primary site not be functioning for some reason or another.

Two kinds of mirrors exist: pre-mirrors and regular mirrors. The PREMIRRORS and MIRRORS variables point to these, respectively. BitBake checks pre-mirrors before looking upstream for any source files. Pre-mirrors are appropriate when you have a shared directory that is not a directory defined by the DL_DIR variable. A Pre-mirror typically points to a shared directory that is local to your organization.

When fetching a repository, BitBake uses the SRCREV variable to determine the specific revision from which to build.

For information on how to have the OpenEmbedded build system generate tarballs for Git repositories and place them in the DL_DIR directory, see the BB_GENERATE_MIRROR_TARBALLS variable in the Yocto Project Reference Manual.

Another place from which the build system can get source files is with fetchers employing various Source Control Managers (SCMs) such as Git or Subversion. In such cases, a repository is cloned or checked out. The do_fetch task inside BitBake uses the SRC_URI variable and the argument's prefix to determine the correct fetcher module.

The canonical method through which to include a local project is to use the externalsrc class to include that local project. You use either the local.conf or a recipe's append file to override or set the recipe to point to the local directory on your disk to pull in the whole source tree.

Local projects are custom bits of software the user provides. These bits reside somewhere local to a project - perhaps a directory into which the user checks in items (e.g. a local directory containing a development source tree used by the group).

Upstream project releases exist anywhere in the form of an archived file (e.g. tarball or zip file). These files correspond to individual recipes. For example, the figure uses specific releases each for BusyBox, Qt, and Dbus. An archive file can be for any released product that can be built using a recipe.

The remainder of this section provides a deeper look into the source files and the mirrors. Here is a more detailed look at the source file area of the general workflow figure :

Judicious use of a DL_DIR directory can save the build system a trip across the Internet when looking for files. A good method for using a download directory is to have DL_DIR point to an area outside of your Build Directory. Doing so allows you to safely delete the Build Directory if needed without fear of removing any downloaded source file.

Another area that plays a significant role in where source files come from is pointed to by the DL_DIR variable. This area is a cache that can hold previously downloaded source. You can also instruct the OpenEmbedded build system to create tarballs from Git repositories, which is not the default behavior, and store them in the DL_DIR by using the BB_GENERATE_MIRROR_TARBALLS variable.

BitBake uses the SRC_URI variable to point to source files regardless of their location. Each recipe must have a SRC_URI variable that points to the source.

The method by which source files are ultimately organized is a function of the project. For example, for released software, projects tend to use tarballs or other archived files that can capture the state of a release guaranteeing that it is statically represented. On the other hand, for a project that is more dynamic or experimental in nature, a project might keep source files in a repository controlled by a Source Control Manager (SCM) such as Git. Pulling source from a repository allows you to control the point in the repository (the revision) from which you want to build software. Finally, a combination of the two might exist, which would give the consumer a choice when deciding where to get source files.

In order for the OpenEmbedded build system to create an image or any target, it must be able to access source files. The general workflow figure represents source files using the "Upstream Project Releases", "Local Projects", and "SCMs (optional)" boxes. The figure represents mirrors, which also play a role in locating source files, with the "Source Materials" box.

This layer contains any recipes, append files, and patches, that your project needs.

The software layer provides the Metadata for additional software packages used during the build. This layer does not include Metadata that is specific to the distribution or the machine, which are found in their respective layers.

Note While the figure shows several recipes-* directories, not all these directories appear in all BSP layers.

The remainder of the layer is dedicated to specific recipes by function: recipes-bsp , recipes-core , recipes-graphics , recipes-kernel , and so forth. Metadata can exist for multiple formfactors, graphics support systems, and so forth.

The BSP Layer's configuration directory contains configuration files for the machine ( conf/machine/ machine .conf ) and, of course, the layer ( conf/layer.conf ).

Note In order for a BSP layer to be considered compliant with the Yocto Project, it must meet some structural requirements.

The BSP Layer provides machine configurations that target specific hardware. Everything in this layer is specific to the machine for which you are building the image or the SDK. A common structure or form is defined for BSP layers. You can learn more about this structure in the Yocto Project Board Support Package (BSP) Developer's Guide .

recipes-*: Recipes and append files that affect common functionality across the distribution. This area could include recipes and append files to add distribution-specific configuration, initialization scripts, custom image recipes, and so forth. Examples of recipes-* directories are recipes-core and recipes-extra . Hierarchy and contents within a recipes-* directory can vary. Generally, these directories contain recipe files ( *.bb ), recipe append files ( *.bbappend ), directories that are distro-specific for configuration files, and so forth.

classes: Class files ( .bbclass ) hold common functionality that can be shared among recipes in the distribution. When your recipes inherit a class, they take on the settings and functions for that class. You can read more about class files in the " Classes " chapter of the Yocto Reference Manual.

The following list provides some explanation and references for what you typically find in the distribution layer:

The distribution layer provides policy configurations for your distribution. Best practices dictate that you isolate these types of configurations into their own layer. Settings you provide in conf/distro/ distro .conf override similar settings that BitBake finds in your conf/local.conf file in the Build Directory.

BitBake uses the conf/bblayers.conf file, which is part of the user configuration, to find what layers it should be using as part of the build.

Note Layers exist in the Yocto Project Source Repositories that cannot be found in the OpenEmbedded Layer Index. These layers are either deprecated or experimental in nature.

If you explored the previous links, you discovered some areas where many layers that work with the Yocto Project exist. The Source Repositories also shows layers categorized under "Yocto Metadata Layers."

In general, all layers have a similar structure. They all contain a licensing file (e.g. COPYING.MIT ) if the layer is to be distributed, a README file as good practice and especially if the layer is to be distributed, a configuration directory, and recipe directories. You can learn about the general structure for layers used with the Yocto Project in the " Creating Your Own Layer " section in the Yocto Project Development Tasks Manual. For a general discussion on layers and the many layers from which you can draw, see the " Layers " and " The Yocto Project Layer Model " sections both earlier in this manual.

The following figure shows an expanded representation of these three layers from the general workflow figure :

Policy Configuration: Distribution Layers (i.e. "Distro Layer" in the following figure) providing top-level or general policies for the images or SDKs being built for a particular distribution. For example, in the Poky Reference Distribution the distro layer is the meta-poky layer. Within the distro layer is a conf/distro directory that contains distro configuration files (e.g. poky.conf that contain many policy configurations for the Poky distribution.

Machine BSP Configuration: Board Support Package (BSP) layers (i.e. "BSP Layer" in the following figure) providing machine-specific configurations. This type of information is specific to a particular target architecture. A good example of a BSP layer from the Poky Reference Distribution is the meta-yocto-bsp layer.

Metadata ( .bb + Patches): Software layers containing user-supplied recipe files, patches, and append files. A good example of a software layer might be the meta-qt5 layer from the OpenEmbedded Layer Index . This layer is for version 5.0 of the popular Qt cross-platform application development framework for desktop, embedded and mobile.

In general, three types of layer input exists. You can see them below the "User Configuration" box in the general workflow figure :

The previous section described the user configurations that define BitBake's global behavior. This section takes a closer look at the layers the build system uses to further control the build. These layers provide Metadata for the software, machine, and policies.

When you launch your build with the bitbake target command, BitBake sorts out the configurations to ultimately define your build environment. It is important to understand that the OpenEmbedded build system reads the configuration files in a specific order: site.conf , auto.conf , and local.conf . And, the build system applies the normal assignment statement rules as described in the " Syntax and Operators " chapter of the BitBake User Manual. Because the files are parsed in a specific order, variable assignments for the same variable could be affected. For example, if the auto.conf file and the local.conf set variable1 to different values, because the build system parses local.conf after auto.conf , variable1 is assigned the value from the local.conf file.

You can edit all configuration files to further define any particular build environment. This process is represented by the "User Configuration Edits" box in the figure.

auto.conf : The file is usually created and written to by an autobuilder. The settings put into the file are typically the same as you would find in the conf/local.conf or the conf/site.conf files.

One useful scenario for using the conf/site.conf file is to extend your BBPATH variable to include the path to a conf/site.conf . Then, when BitBake looks for Metadata using BBPATH , it finds the conf/site.conf file and applies your common configurations found in the file. To override configurations in a particular build directory, alter the similar configurations within that build directory's conf/local.conf file.

site.conf : You can use the conf/site.conf configuration file to configure multiple build directories. For example, suppose you had several build environments and they shared some common features. You can set these default build properties here. A good example is perhaps the packaging format to use through the PACKAGE_CLASSES variable.

The files site.conf and auto.conf are not created by the environment initialization script. If you want the site.conf file, you need to create that yourself. The auto.conf file is typically created by an autobuilder:

The bblayers.conf file tells BitBake what layers you want considered during the build. By default, the layers listed in this file include layers minimally needed by the build system. However, you must manually add any custom layers you have created. You can find more information on working with the bblayers.conf file in the " Enabling Your Layer " section in the Yocto Project Development Tasks Manual.

Note Configurations set in the conf/local.conf file can also be set in the conf/site.conf and conf/auto.conf configuration files.

The local.conf file provides many basic variables that define a build environment. Here is a list of a few. To see the default configurations in a local.conf file created by the build environment script, see the local.conf.sample in the meta-poky layer:

Depending on where the script is sourced, different sub-scripts are called to set up the Build Directory (Yocto or OpenEmbedded). Specifically, the script scripts/oe-setup-builddir inside the poky directory sets up the Build Directory and seeds the directory (if necessary) with configuration files appropriate for the Yocto Project development environment.

Because the Poky repository is fundamentally an aggregation of existing repositories, some users might be familiar with running the oe-init-build-env script in the context of separate OpenEmbedded-Core and BitBake repositories rather than a single Poky repository. This discussion assumes the script is executed from within a cloned or unpacked version of Poky.

Sourcing the build environment script creates a Build Directory if one does not already exist. BitBake uses the Build Directory for all its work during builds. The Build Directory has a conf directory that contains default versions of your local.conf and bblayers.conf configuration files. These default configuration files are created only if versions do not already exist in the Build Directory at the time you source the build environment setup script.

The meta-poky layer inside Poky contains a conf directory that has example configuration files. These example files are used as a basis for creating actual configuration files when you source oe-init-build-env , which is the build environment script.

Note The Poky repository is primarily an aggregation of existing repositories. It is not a canonical upstream source.

When you clone the Poky Git repository or you download and unpack a Yocto Project release, you can set up the Source Directory to be named anything you want. For this discussion, the cloned repository uses the default name poky .

BitBake needs some basic configuration files in order to complete a build. These files are *.conf files. The minimally necessary ones reside as example files in the build/conf directory of the Source Directory . For simplicity, this section refers to the Source Directory as the "Poky Directory."

The following figure shows an expanded representation of the "User Configuration" box of the general workflow figure :

User configuration helps define the build. Through user configuration, you can tell BitBake the target architecture for which you are building the image, where to store downloaded source, and other build properties.

Application Development SDK: Cross-development tools that are produced along with an image or separately with BitBake.

Package Feeds: Directories containing output packages (RPM, DEB or IPK), which are subsequently used in the construction of an image or Software Development Kit (SDK), produced by the build system. These feeds can also be copied and shared using a web server or other means to facilitate extending or updating existing images on devices at runtime if runtime package management is enabled.

Build System: Processes under the control of BitBake . This block expands on how BitBake fetches source, applies patches, completes compilation, analyzes output for package generation, creates and tests packages, generates images, and generates cross-development tools.

The following diagram represents the high-level workflow of a build. The remainder of this section expands on the fundamental input, output, process, and metadata logical blocks that make up the workflow.

This section takes a more detailed look inside the build process used by the OpenEmbedded build system , which is the build system specific to the Yocto Project. At the heart of the build system is BitBake, the task executor.

For information on advantages gained when building a cross-development toolchain installer, see the " Building an SDK Installer " appendix in the Yocto Project Application Development and the Extensible Software Development Kit (eSDK) manual.

gcc-cross-canadian : The final relocatable cross-compiler. When run on the SDKMACHINE , this tool produces executable code that runs on the target device. Only one cross-canadian compiler is produced per architecture since they can be targeted at different processor optimizations using configurations passed to the compiler through the compile commands. This circumvents the need for multiple compilers and thus reduces the size of the toolchains.

gcc-crosssdk : The final stage of the bootstrap process for the relocatable cross-compiler. The gcc-crosssdk is a transitory compiler and never leaves the build host. Its purpose is to help in the bootstrap process to create the eventual gcc-cross-canadian compiler, which is relocatable. This tool is also a "native" package (i.e. it is designed to run on the build host).

gcc-crosssdk-initial : An early stage of the bootstrap process for creating the cross-compiler. This stage builds enough of the gcc-crosssdk and supporting pieces so that the final stage of the bootstrap process can produce the finished cross-compiler. This tool is a "native" binary that runs on the build host.

Note If your target architecture is supported by the Yocto Project, you can take advantage of pre-built images that ship with the Yocto Project and already contain cross-development toolchain installers.

You can use the OpenEmbedded build system to build an installer for the relocatable SDK used to develop applications. When you run the installer, it installs the toolchain, which contains the development tools (e.g., gcc-cross-canadian , binutils-cross-canadian , and other nativesdk-* tools), which are tools native to the SDK (i.e. native to SDK_ARCH ), you need to cross-compile and test your software. The figure shows the commands you use to easily build out this toolchain. This cross-development toolchain is built to execute on the SDKMACHINE , which might or might not be the same machine as the Build Host.

gcc-runtime : Runtime libraries resulting from the toolchain bootstrapping process. This tool produces a binary that consists of the runtime libraries need for the targeted device.

This tool is also a "native" package (i.e. it is designed to run on the build host).

Note If you are replacing this cross compiler toolchain with a custom version, you must replace gcc-cross .

gcc-cross : The final stage of the bootstrap process for the cross-compiler. This stage results in the actual cross-compiler that BitBake uses when it builds an image for a targeted device.

gcc-cross-initial : An early stage of the bootstrap process for creating the cross-compiler. This stage builds enough of the gcc-cross , the C library, and other pieces needed to finish building the final cross-compiler in later stages. This tool is a "native" package (i.e. it is designed to run on the build host).

The chain of events that occurs when gcc-cross is bootstrapped is as follows:

Note The extensible SDK does not use gcc-cross-canadian since this SDK ships a copy of the OpenEmbedded build system and the sysroot within it contains gcc-cross .

Most of the work occurs on the Build Host. This is the machine used to build images and generally work within the the Yocto Project environment. When you run BitBake to create an image, the OpenEmbedded build system uses the host gcc compiler to bootstrap a cross-compiler named gcc-cross . The gcc-cross compiler is what BitBake uses to compile source files when creating the target image. You can think of gcc-cross simply as an automatically generated cross-compiler that is used internally within BitBake only.

In the Yocto Project development environment, cross-development toolchains are used to build images and applications that run on the target hardware. With just a few commands, the OpenEmbedded build system creates these necessary toolchains for you.

The Yocto Project does most of the work for you when it comes to creating cross-development toolchains . This section provides some technical background on how cross-development toolchains are created and used. For more information on toolchains, you can also see the Yocto Project Application Development and the Extensible Software Development Kit (eSDK) manual.

4.5. Shared State Cache ¶

By design, the OpenEmbedded build system builds everything from scratch unless BitBake can determine that parts do not need to be rebuilt. Fundamentally, building from scratch is attractive as it means all parts are built fresh and no possibility of stale data exists that can cause problems. When developers hit problems, they typically default back to building from scratch so they have a know state from the start.

Building an image from scratch is both an advantage and a disadvantage to the process. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, building from scratch ensures that everything is current and starts from a known state. However, building from scratch also takes much longer as it generally means rebuilding things that do not necessarily need to be rebuilt.

The Yocto Project implements shared state code that supports incremental builds. The implementation of the shared state code answers the following questions that were fundamental roadblocks within the OpenEmbedded incremental build support system:

What pieces of the system have changed and what pieces have not changed?

How are changed pieces of software removed and replaced?

How are pre-built components that do not need to be rebuilt from scratch used when they are available?

For the first question, the build system detects changes in the "inputs" to a given task by creating a checksum (or signature) of the task's inputs. If the checksum changes, the system assumes the inputs have changed and the task needs to be rerun. For the second question, the shared state (sstate) code tracks which tasks add which output to the build process. This means the output from a given task can be removed, upgraded or otherwise manipulated. The third question is partly addressed by the solution for the second question assuming the build system can fetch the sstate objects from remote locations and install them if they are deemed to be valid.

Notes The build system does not maintain PR information as part of the shared state packages. Consequently, considerations exist that affect maintaining shared state feeds. For information on how the build system works with packages and can track incrementing PR information, see the "Automatically Incrementing a Binary Package Revision Number" section in the Yocto Project Development Tasks Manual.

The code in the build system that supports incremental builds is not simple code. For techniques that help you work around issues related to shared state code, see the "Viewing Metadata Used to Create the Input Signature of a Shared State Task" and "Invalidating Shared State to Force a Task to Run" sections both in the Yocto Project Development Tasks Manual.

The rest of this section goes into detail about the overall incremental build architecture, the checksums (signatures), and shared state.

4.5.1. Overall Architecture ¶ When determining what parts of the system need to be built, BitBake works on a per-task basis rather than a per-recipe basis. You might wonder why using a per-task basis is preferred over a per-recipe basis. To help explain, consider having the IPK packaging backend enabled and then switching to DEB. In this case, the do_install and do_package task outputs are still valid. However, with a per-recipe approach, the build would not include the .deb files. Consequently, you would have to invalidate the whole build and rerun it. Rerunning everything is not the best solution. Also, in this case, the core must be "taught" much about specific tasks. This methodology does not scale well and does not allow users to easily add new tasks in layers or as external recipes without touching the packaged-staging core.

4.5.2. Checksums (Signatures) ¶ The shared state code uses a checksum, which is a unique signature of a task's inputs, to determine if a task needs to be run again. Because it is a change in a task's inputs that triggers a rerun, the process needs to detect all the inputs to a given task. For shell tasks, this turns out to be fairly easy because the build process generates a "run" shell script for each task and it is possible to create a checksum that gives you a good idea of when the task's data changes. To complicate the problem, there are things that should not be included in the checksum. First, there is the actual specific build path of a given task - the WORKDIR . It does not matter if the work directory changes because it should not affect the output for target packages. Also, the build process has the objective of making native or cross packages relocatable. Note Both native and cross packages run on the Both native and cross packages run on the build host . However, cross packages generate output for the target architecture. The checksum therefore needs to exclude WORKDIR . The simplistic approach for excluding the work directory is to set WORKDIR to some fixed value and create the checksum for the "run" script. Another problem results from the "run" scripts containing functions that might or might not get called. The incremental build solution contains code that figures out dependencies between shell functions. This code is used to prune the "run" scripts down to the minimum set, thereby alleviating this problem and making the "run" scripts much more readable as a bonus. So far, solutions for shell scripts exist. What about Python tasks? The same approach applies even though these tasks are more difficult. The process needs to figure out what variables a Python function accesses and what functions it calls. Again, the incremental build solution contains code that first figures out the variable and function dependencies, and then creates a checksum for the data used as the input to the task. Like the WORKDIR case, situations exist where dependencies should be ignored. For these situations, you can instruct the build process to ignore a dependency by using a line like the following: PACKAGE_ARCHS[vardepsexclude] = "MACHINE" This example ensures that the PACKAGE_ARCHS variable does not depend on the value of MACHINE , even if it does reference it. Equally, there are cases where you need to add dependencies BitBake is not able to find. You can accomplish this by using a line like the following: PACKAGE_ARCHS[vardeps] = "MACHINE" This example explicitly adds the MACHINE variable as a dependency for PACKAGE_ARCHS . As an example, consider a case with in-line Python where BitBake is not able to figure out dependencies. When running in debug mode (i.e. using -DDD ), BitBake produces output when it discovers something for which it cannot figure out dependencies. The Yocto Project team has currently not managed to cover those dependencies in detail and is aware of the need to fix this situation. Thus far, this section has limited discussion to the direct inputs into a task. Information based on direct inputs is referred to as the "basehash" in the code. However, the question of a task's indirect inputs still exits - items already built and present in the Build Directory. The checksum (or signature) for a particular task needs to add the hashes of all the tasks on which the particular task depends. Choosing which dependencies to add is a policy decision. However, the effect is to generate a master checksum that combines the basehash and the hashes of the task's dependencies. At the code level, a variety of ways exist by which both the basehash and the dependent task hashes can be influenced. Within the BitBake configuration file, you can give BitBake some extra information to help it construct the basehash. The following statement effectively results in a list of global variable dependency excludes (i.e. variables never included in any checksum): BB_HASHBASE_WHITELIST ?= "TMPDIR FILE PATH PWD BB_TASKHASH BBPATH DL_DIR \ SSTATE_DIR THISDIR FILESEXTRAPATHS FILE_DIRNAME HOME LOGNAME SHELL TERM \ USER FILESPATH STAGING_DIR_HOST STAGING_DIR_TARGET COREBASE PRSERV_HOST \ PRSERV_DUMPDIR PRSERV_DUMPFILE PRSERV_LOCKDOWN PARALLEL_MAKE \ CCACHE_DIR EXTERNAL_TOOLCHAIN CCACHE CCACHE_DISABLE LICENSE_PATH SDKPKGSUFFIX" The previous example excludes WORKDIR since that variable is actually constructed as a path within TMPDIR , which is on the whitelist. The rules for deciding which hashes of dependent tasks to include through dependency chains are more complex and are generally accomplished with a Python function. The code in meta/lib/oe/sstatesig.py shows two examples of this and also illustrates how you can insert your own policy into the system if so desired. This file defines the two basic signature generators OE-Core uses: "OEBasic" and "OEBasicHash". By default, a dummy "noop" signature handler is enabled in BitBake. This means that behavior is unchanged from previous versions. OE-Core uses the "OEBasicHash" signature handler by default through this setting in the bitbake.conf file: BB_SIGNATURE_HANDLER ?= "OEBasicHash" The "OEBasicHash" BB_SIGNATURE_HANDLER is the same as the "OEBasic" version but adds the task hash to the stamp files. This results in any metadata change that changes the task hash, automatically causing the task to be run again. This removes the need to bump PR values, and changes to metadata automatically ripple across the build. It is also worth noting that the end result of these signature generators is to make some dependency and hash information available to the build. This information includes: BB_BASEHASH_task- taskname : The base hashes for each task in the recipe.

BB_BASEHASH_ filename : taskname : The base hashes for each dependent task.

BBHASHDEPS_ filename : taskname : The task dependencies for each task.

BB_TASKHASH : The hash of the currently running task.