Create a recipe#
To create a bitbake recipe, we are going to make use of recipetool, that will help you do the heavy lifting of creating
a valid bitbake recipe.
## On your computer run
$ scotty command recipetool create --help
usage: recipetool create [-h] [-o OUTFILE] [-p PROVIDES] [-m] [-x EXTRACTPATH] [-N NAME] [-V VERSION] [-b] [--also-native] [--src-subdir SUBDIR] [-a | -S SRCREV] [-B SRCBRANCH] [--keep-temp]
[--npm-dev] [--mirrors]
source
Creates a new recipe from a source tree
arguments:
source Path or URL to source
options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-o OUTFILE, --outfile OUTFILE
Specify filename for recipe to create
-p PROVIDES, --provides PROVIDES
Specify an alias for the item provided by the recipe
-m, --machine Make recipe machine-specific as opposed to architecture-specific
-x EXTRACTPATH, --extract-to EXTRACTPATH
Assuming source is a URL, fetch it and extract it to the directory specified as EXTRACTPATH
-N NAME, --name NAME Name to use within recipe (PN)
-V VERSION, --version VERSION
Version to use within recipe (PV)
-b, --binary Treat the source tree as something that should be installed verbatim (no compilation, same directory structure)
--also-native Also add native variant (i.e. support building recipe for the build host as well as the target machine)
--src-subdir SUBDIR Specify subdirectory within source tree to use
-a, --autorev When fetching from a git repository, set SRCREV in the recipe to a floating revision instead of fixed
-S SRCREV, --srcrev SRCREV
Source revision to fetch if fetching from an SCM such as git (default latest)
-B SRCBRANCH, --srcbranch SRCBRANCH
Branch in source repository if fetching from an SCM such as git (default master)
--keep-temp Keep temporary directory (for debugging)
--npm-dev For npm, also fetch devDependencies
--mirrors Enable PREMIRRORS and MIRRORS for source tree fetching (disabled by default).
## On your computer run
$ recipetool create --help
usage: recipetool create [-h] [-o OUTFILE] [-p PROVIDES] [-m] [-x EXTRACTPATH] [-N NAME] [-V VERSION] [-b] [--also-native] [--src-subdir SUBDIR] [-a | -S SRCREV] [-B SRCBRANCH] [--keep-temp]
[--npm-dev] [--mirrors]
source
Creates a new recipe from a source tree
arguments:
source Path or URL to source
options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-o OUTFILE, --outfile OUTFILE
Specify filename for recipe to create
-p PROVIDES, --provides PROVIDES
Specify an alias for the item provided by the recipe
-m, --machine Make recipe machine-specific as opposed to architecture-specific
-x EXTRACTPATH, --extract-to EXTRACTPATH
Assuming source is a URL, fetch it and extract it to the directory specified as EXTRACTPATH
-N NAME, --name NAME Name to use within recipe (PN)
-V VERSION, --version VERSION
Version to use within recipe (PV)
-b, --binary Treat the source tree as something that should be installed verbatim (no compilation, same directory structure)
--also-native Also add native variant (i.e. support building recipe for the build host as well as the target machine)
--src-subdir SUBDIR Specify subdirectory within source tree to use
-a, --autorev When fetching from a git repository, set SRCREV in the recipe to a floating revision instead of fixed
-S SRCREV, --srcrev SRCREV
Source revision to fetch if fetching from an SCM such as git (default latest)
-B SRCBRANCH, --srcbranch SRCBRANCH
Branch in source repository if fetching from an SCM such as git (default master)
--keep-temp Keep temporary directory (for debugging)
--npm-dev For npm, also fetch devDependencies
--mirrors Enable PREMIRRORS and MIRRORS for source tree fetching (disabled by default).
Let’s say we want to create a recipe of cmake-examples we need to run
$ scotty command recipetool create -B master https://github.com/bast/cmake-example.git
$ recipetool create -B master https://github.com/bast/cmake-example.git
this will create a recipe at build/example_git.bb with the following content
# Recipe created by recipetool
# This is the basis of a recipe and may need further editing in order to be fully functional.
# (Feel free to remove these comments when editing.)
# WARNING: the following LICENSE and LIC_FILES_CHKSUM values are best guesses - it is
# your responsibility to verify that the values are complete and correct.
#
# The following license files were not able to be identified and are
# represented as "Unknown" below, you will need to check them yourself:
# LICENSE
LICENSE = "Unknown"
LIC_FILES_CHKSUM = "file://LICENSE;md5=564aeaf6168b4efd16d2afaf83419333"
SRC_URI = "git://github.com/bast/cmake-example.git;protocol=https;branch=master"
# Modify these as desired
PV = "1.0+git${SRCPV}"
SRCREV = "3fe18373d11b7801df7db0474045d027e46af43b"
S = "${WORKDIR}/git"
inherit cmake python3native
# Specify any options you want to pass to cmake using EXTRA_OECMAKE:
EXTRA_OECMAKE = ""
now we need to fine tune a few things
remove the leading comment lines starting with
#`a look at the license reveals the repository being licensed under
BSD-3-Clause, so we need to setLICENSE = "BSD-3-Clause"a look at CMakeLists.txt does not show any cmake options we could use. So it’s safe to remove
EXTRA_OECMAKE = ""we should add a
SUMMARY = "..."entry at the top to describe what this recipe is about
our recipe now looks like this
SUMMARY = "CMake example repository"
LICENSE = "BSD-3-Clause"
LIC_FILES_CHKSUM = "file://LICENSE;md5=564aeaf6168b4efd16d2afaf83419333"
SRC_URI = "git://github.com/bast/cmake-example.git;protocol=https;branch=master"
# Modify these as desired
PV = "1.0+git${SRCPV}"
SRCREV = "3fe18373d11b7801df7db0474045d027e46af43b"
S = "${WORKDIR}/git"
inherit cmake python3native
now move the file to your layer (see Create your project layer for more details). E.g.
$ mkdir -p <path to my custom layer>/recipes-examples/
$ mv build/example_git.bb <path to my custom layer>/recipes-examples/
Note
You can also rename the recipe file to something more descriptive, e.g. cmake-example_git.bb
at this point we can start our first build of this new recipe
$ scotty build example
## or
$ scotty build cmake-example
$ bitbake example
## or
$ bitbake cmake-example
What do I do if the recipe doesn’t build?#
If the build now fails with an error during compilation, it is most likely that a dependency is missing. Those can be added by adding
DEPENDS += "<package name>"
to the recipe.
Note
if you do not know the name of the package providing the support you can try to find it by running
$ scotty command oe-pkgdata-util find-path '*/<file you are looking for>'
$ oe-pkgdata-util find-path '*/<file you are looking for>'
e.g. if the build complains about yaml missing run
$ scotty command oe-pkgdata-util find-path '*/libyaml*' libyaml: /usr/lib/libyaml-0.so.2 libyaml: /usr/lib/libyaml-0.so.2.0.9 libyaml-dbg: /usr/lib/.debug/libyaml-0.so.2.0.9 libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/include/yaml.h libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/api.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/dumper.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/emitter.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/loader.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/parser.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/reader.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/scanner.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/writer.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/yaml_private.h libyaml-lic: /usr/share/licenses/libyaml/License libyaml-lic: /usr/share/licenses/libyaml/generic_MIT libyaml-dev: /usr/lib/libyaml.so$ oe-pkgdata-util find-path '*/libyaml*' libyaml: /usr/lib/libyaml-0.so.2 libyaml: /usr/lib/libyaml-0.so.2.0.9 libyaml-dbg: /usr/lib/.debug/libyaml-0.so.2.0.9 libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/include/yaml.h libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/api.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/dumper.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/emitter.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/loader.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/parser.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/reader.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/scanner.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/writer.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/yaml_private.h libyaml-lic: /usr/share/licenses/libyaml/License libyaml-lic: /usr/share/licenses/libyaml/generic_MIT libyaml-dev: /usr/lib/libyaml.so
which shows libyaml is providing the file needed.
In this case add DEPENDS += "libyaml" to the recipe.
If the search does not show any results, you may want to search if there is a recipe available from a known layer. Visit OpenEmbedded Layer Index for that.
Add the recipe to your image#
Next step will be to add your new and compiling recipe to your custom image. For our example it can simply be done, by adding
IMAGE_INSTALL += "example"
# or
IMAGE_INSTALL += "cmake-example"
to your image recipe.
What do I do if the recipe does not work on the device?#
In that case it can be that packages needed to run your application are not installed to the running image. This can be easily fixed by adding
RDEPENDS:${PN} += "${PACKAGE}"
to your recipe.
Note
if you do not know the name of the package providing the support you can try to find it by running
$ scotty command oe-pkgdata-util find-path '*/<file you are looking for>'
$ oe-pkgdata-util find-path '*/<file you are looking for>'
e.g. if the application complains about libyaml missing run
$ scotty command oe-pkgdata-util find-path '*/libyaml*' libyaml: /usr/lib/libyaml-0.so.2 libyaml: /usr/lib/libyaml-0.so.2.0.9 libyaml-dbg: /usr/lib/.debug/libyaml-0.so.2.0.9 libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/include/yaml.h libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/api.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/dumper.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/emitter.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/loader.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/parser.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/reader.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/scanner.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/writer.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/yaml_private.h libyaml-lic: /usr/share/licenses/libyaml/License libyaml-lic: /usr/share/licenses/libyaml/generic_MIT libyaml-dev: /usr/lib/libyaml.so$ oe-pkgdata-util find-path '*/libyaml*' libyaml: /usr/lib/libyaml-0.so.2 libyaml: /usr/lib/libyaml-0.so.2.0.9 libyaml-dbg: /usr/lib/.debug/libyaml-0.so.2.0.9 libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/include/yaml.h libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/api.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/dumper.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/emitter.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/loader.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/parser.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/reader.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/scanner.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/writer.c libyaml-src: /usr/src/debug/libyaml/0.2.5-r0/yaml-0.2.5/src/yaml_private.h libyaml-lic: /usr/share/licenses/libyaml/License libyaml-lic: /usr/share/licenses/libyaml/generic_MIT libyaml-dev: /usr/lib/libyaml.so
which shows libyaml is providing the file needed.
In this case add RDEPENDS:${PN} += "libyaml" to the recipe.
If the search does not show any results, you may want to search if there is a recipe available from a known layer. Visit OpenEmbedded Layer Index for that.
Tip
For more ways to tune your recipe in the best possible way, we recommend having a look at this great free video playlist of Yocto tutorials.