What is Bitbake and Poky?

Question

Can someone please briefly explain what is Bitbake, Poky, Recipes in simple words? I just want a basic understanding of what these are. Thanks.

Answer 1

Let's create a simple relationship of Bitbake, poky and recipes.

Poky is the Yocto Project reference system and is composed of collection of tools and metadata. Poky is platform-independent and performs cross-compiling, using Bitbake Tool, OpenEmbedded Core, and a default set of metadata. The main objective of Poky is to provide all the features an embedded developer needs.

Bitbake is a task scheduler that parses Python and Shell script mixed code, which we called Recipes. The code parsed generates and runs tasks. They are a set of steps orders according to the code's dependencies.

Metadata is where all the Recipes are located. Metadata is composed of a mix of Python and Shell Script text files. Poky uses this to extend OpenEmbeddded Core, meta-yocto, and meta-yocto-bsp

Sources: Embedded Linux Development with Yocto Project by Otavio Salvador and Daiane Angolini

Answer 2

• Bitbake is a generic task execution engine that allows shell and Python tasks to be run efficiently and in parallel while working within complex inter-task dependency constraints. More details: what is bitbake

• Poky provides an open source, full-platform build tool based on Linux, X11, Matchbox, GTK+, Pimlico, Clutter, and other GNOME Mobile technologies. Poky is primarily a platform builder that generates filesystem images based on open source software. More details: what is poky

• Recipes (.bb files) are fundamental components in the Yocto Project environment. Each software component built by the OpenEmbedded build system requires a recipe to define the component. More details: how to create a recipe