[yocto] Alternative to _git.bb convention for unstable versions?

[keith.derrick]

I am currently creating a new layer (which will eventually be made generally available). I need to provide both a versioned recipe, and an "unstable"  one.


Currently I have somepackage_1.0.bb and somepackage_git.bb which are working fine.


However, using the "_git" approach (with DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-1") requires the use of PREFERRED_VERSION in either local.conf or a distro.conf. I've tried putting it in the image files, and that doesn't work.


If you are not creating your own DISTRO, and instead just adding the layer to a straight poky/meta build, you seem to be pretty much stuck with adding 3 PREFERRED_VERSION statements (target, -native, and nativesdk- variants) to local.conf. I'd rather not require that of users of the layer.


I'm considering instead using either "somepackage-unstable.bb" or "somepackage-devel.bb" instead of "sompackage_git.bb". This allows a simple selection of either  RDEPENDS = "somepackage" or RDEPENDS = "somepackage-devel" to add the desired one to an image.


However, neither "-devel" or "-unstable" have the right feel for the suffix. If, for example, you are picking up an older commit (between versions  say) it might well be completely stable.


Does the community have a naming convention for this type of recipe? Failing that, is there somewhere else in the met-data the PREFERRED_VERSION statement can go other than a configuration file?


Thanks

Keith Derrick

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