Yocto Project Components

This page lists the Yocto Project building blocks that the EDF build system relies on, plus naming rules that show up in BitBake recipes.

Components

  • BitBake: Core build tool and task scheduler, more flexible than traditional tools.

  • Metadata: Defines how software is built, configured, and packaged – organized in layers.

  • Poky: Yocto Project’s reference distribution, combining BitBake, OE-Core, and metadata to build custom Linux systems.

  • Yocto Project: Broader project providing tools and standards for building custom Linux distros.

  • Layers: Modular metadata organization.

  • Configuration files: Define build settings, layer structure, machine specifics, and distribution policies to control how the system is built.

  • Recipes: Metadata files (.bb) that define how to fetch, configure, build, and package software.

File Naming and Special Characters in Yocto

Yocto has specific use for some characters such as underscore.

  • Yocto does not support the use of underscores in recipe names (.bb).

  • Dash (-) is allowed.

  • Underscore (_) is reserved and used as a delimiter to separate package names and version strings. For example: my-package_34.bb.