[yocto] [OE-core] RFC: Improving the developer workflow

[Nicolas Dechesne]

On Thu, Aug 7, 2014 at 11:10 AM, Paul Eggleton
<paul.eggleton at linux.intel.com> wrote:
> Example workflow
> ================
>
> I won't give a workflow for every possible usage, but just to give a basic
> example - let's assume you want to build a "new" piece of software for which
> you have your own source tree on your machine. The rough set of steps required
> would be something like this (rough, e.g. the command names given shouldn't be
> read as final):
>
> 1. Install the SDK
>
> 2. Run a setup script to make the SDK tools available
>
> 3. Add a new recipe with "sdktool add <recipename>" - interactive process. The
> tool records that <recipename> is being worked on, creates a recipe that can
> be used to build the software using your external source tree, and places the
> recipe where it will be used automatically by other steps.
>
> 4. Build the recipe with "sdktool build <recipename>". This probably only goes
> as far as do_install or possibly do_package_qa; in any case the QA process
> would be less stringent than with the standard build system however in order
> to avoid putting too many barriers in the way of testing on the target.
>
> 5. Fix any failures and repeat from the previous step as necessary.
>
> 6. Deploy changes to target with "sdktool deploy-target <ip address>" assuming
> SSH is available on the target. Alternatively "sdktool build-image
> <imagename>" can be used to regenerate an image with the changes in it;
> "sdktool runqemu" could do that (if necessary) and then run the result within
> QEMU with the appropriate options set.

coincidentally, i was giving an OE workshop this week, and when I
explained about the OE SDK, someone immediately brought up that it was
quite limited because:

 1- SDK cannot be used to generate deployable packages, e.g.  using
the SDK to create ipk/deb/rpm that can be delivered to
targets/clients, not just for debugging, but also for production when
production system has package management support.
 2- SDK cannot be used to regenerate updated images. e.g. Company A
delivers a SDK + board, Company B is making a product using the SDK
(adding content) and wants to be able to make new images with the new
content in order to sell/deploy it.
 3- SDK itself cannot be upgraded when the 'base image' and SDK are updated
 4- SDK users cannot add content to the SDK. e.g. I am a SDK user I
create a library and I want that library to be in the SDK now.