[yocto] The term Package as used in the YP docs

[Rifenbark, Scott M]

This post will have some strong opinions and responses.  But, I want to throw this out as a re-write of the term "Package" as defined in the YP Development Manual's "Terms" section.  I gave this a shot based on my brief understanding and on some email that was tossed about a while back on the term.  What I would like to ultimately come up with is a definition that works for the term as we want to use it in the YP docs and also as an explanation for some of our older variable names like PR, PV, and so forth that really refer to recipes.  Please thrash over it....


*         Package: In the context of the Yocto Project, this term refers to the packaged output from a baked recipe. A package is generally the compiled binaries produced from the recipe's sources. You 'bake' something by running it through BitBake.

It is worth noting that the term "package" can, in general, have subtle meanings. For example, the packages refered to in the "The Packages<http://www.yoctoproject.org/docs/1.3/yocto-project-qs/yocto-project-qs.html#packages>" section are compiled binaries that when installed add functionality to your Linux distribution.

Another point worth noting is that historically within the Yocto Project, recipes were referred to as packages - thus, the existence of several BitBake variables that are seemingly mis-named, (e.g. PR<http://www.yoctoproject.org/docs/1.3/poky-ref-manual/poky-ref-manual.html#var-PR>, PRINC<http://www.yoctoproject.org/docs/1.3/poky-ref-manual/poky-ref-manual.html#var-PRINC>, PV<http://www.yoctoproject.org/docs/1.3/poky-ref-manual/poky-ref-manual.html#var-PV>, and PE<http://www.yoctoproject.org/docs/1.3/poky-ref-manual/poky-ref-manual.html#var-PE>).


Scott Rifenbark
Intel Corporation
Yocto Project Documentation
503.712.2702
503.341.0418 (cell)

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