[yocto] Best practice for files copied directly into sysroot?

[Bryan Evenson]

Michael,

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Habibi [mailto:mikehabibi at gmail.com]
> Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2015 5:54 PM
> To: Bryan Evenson <bevenson at melinkcorp.com>
> Cc: yocto at yoctoproject.org
> Subject: Re: [yocto] Best practice for files copied directly into sysroot?
> 
> Bryan,
> 
> I looked through the documentation and I'm a bit unclear on how to use
> bin_package, and haven't been able to find a good example. Where do I
> actually place my rootfs files/binaries to get copied to my image rootfs?
> Under ${THISDIR}/${PN} like other recipe artifacts? How does it copy them to
> ${S}? Or is this something I need to do?
> 

I just modified one of my recipes yesterday to use bin_package yesterday and found out a few nuances that make it easier to use.  Proper setup of the files to copy is key.  The manual states " The bin_package class works well when the files extracted into ${S} are already laid out in the way they should be laid out on the target."  By default, any files listed as "file://" in SRC_URI are copied to ${WORKDIR}, and if they are a compressed archive (.tar.gz, .zip) they are uncompressed under ${WORKDIR}.  If you create a tarball with the files in the locations (and permissions!) that you want on the final image, then the bin_package class will do the rest of the work.  However, you need the files in the tarball to be one directory level down so that they are installed on the image properly. 

Let's assume you have a recipe under meta-mylayer/recipes-mine/my-app/ called my-app_1.0.0.bb.  You have an executable called my-app that you want to install in /usr/bin/, a configuration file called my-app.conf that you want to install at /usr/share/my-app/ and documentation called my-app.pdf you want to install at /usr/share/info/.  You want all this to be under a directory so that when the tarball gets unpacked under ${WORKDIR} the files and directories you want on the final image are under ${S}.  ${S} defaults to ${WORKDIR}/${BP}, which in this case would be ${WORKDIR}/my-app-1.0.0.  So if you created the following directory structure:

my-app-1.0.0/
    usr/
        bin/
            my-app
        info/
            my-app.pdf
        my-app/
            my-app.conf

Again, remember to set the directory and file permissions as you want on the final image.  Then create a tarball from the directory you laid out called my-app-1.0.0.tar.gz and place it under meta-mylayer/recipes-mine/my-app/files/.  Then create your recipe as: 

SUMMARY = "summary here"
SECTION = "proper section name here"
LICENSE = "license name here"
LIC_FILES_CHKSUM = "license path and MD5sum here"

SRC_URI = "file://${BP}.tar.gz"
inherit bin_package

The system will then package your files and install them onto the image where they belong.  These are the only lines you need in your recipe other than the standard header variables.  In the future, if you have a new version then just recreate the tarball with the updated files and rename the tarball to match the new version.  Although I am having issues with the license; I haven't figured out where to put it and what to set LIC_FILES_CHKSUM to in the recipe so that bitbake can find the license.  If anyone has a good answer for that, let me know.

Regards,
Bryan

> Thanks,
> Michael
> 
> On Tue, Dec 1, 2015 at 2:03 PM, Michael Habibi <mikehabibi at gmail.com
> <mailto:mikehabibi at gmail.com> > wrote:
> 
> 
> 	Thanks Bryan!
> 
> 	On Tue, Dec 1, 2015 at 1:50 PM, Bryan Evenson
> <bevenson at melinkcorp.com <mailto:bevenson at melinkcorp.com> > wrote:
> 
> 
> 		Michael,
> 
> 
> 		> -----Original Message-----
> 		> From: yocto-bounces at yoctoproject.org <mailto:yocto-
> bounces at yoctoproject.org>  [mailto:yocto- <mailto:yocto->
> 		> bounces at yoctoproject.org
> <mailto:bounces at yoctoproject.org> ] On Behalf Of Michael Habibi
> 		> Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 10:26 AM
> 		> To: yocto at yoctoproject.org
> <mailto:yocto at yoctoproject.org>
> 		> Subject: [yocto] Best practice for files copied directly into
> sysroot?
> 		>
> 		> I am working on potentially migrating our distribution to
> Yocto (will be a long,
> 		> long process). We have an area of our filesystem where
> any file placed will go
> 		> directly into the rootfs of the target. This works well with
> our product, as we
> 		> have certain binaries and scripts that need to be copied
> directly, and there's
> 		> no other real step involved (no compilation, etc). Is there a
> best practice or
> 		> existing class that handles this? I saw mention of a binary/
> directory but I
> 		> wasn't sure if that was for this or something else.
> 		>
> 		> Thanks,
> 		> Michael
> 
> 
> 		I'm glad I decided to answer your question because I think I
> found an easier way to do it than I have been doing this in the past.  If you
> want to be able to update the files on your system at a later date, you will
> want to make your own recipe which installs the binaries and scripts onto the
> rootfs.  In general you create a recipe which does not have do_configure or
> do_compile tasks.  There is a class that does this already called "bin_package"
> that does this for you.  See the "Packaging Externally Produced Binaries"
> section of the manual here: http://www.yoctoproject.org/docs/2.0/mega-
> manual/mega-manual.html#new-recipe-testing-examples.   So if you include
> the line "inherit bin_package" and follow the instructions in that section of
> the manual, it should install all the files to the rootfs that are included in the
> recipe.
> 
> 		Regards,
> 		Bryan
> 
> 
> 
>