dev-manual: split common-tasks.rst

Reusing content from the master branch which underwent
this change earlier.

This change makes it much easier to backport manual
updates to the kirkstone LTS branch.

To make the change and future updates simpler, reused file contents
from master, only excluding changes which don't apply to kirkstone.

(From yocto-docs rev: 95171233f0e96c00d55ed40cf713c62e6df57b8d)

Signed-off-by: Michael Opdenacker <michael.opdenacker@bootlin.com>
Signed-off-by: Steve Sakoman <steve@sakoman.com>

1 files changed, 50 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/documentation/dev-manual/python-development-shell.rst b/documentation/dev-manual/python-development-shell.rst
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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-SA-2.0-UK
+
+Using a Python Development Shell
+********************************
+
+Similar to working within a development shell as described in the
+previous section, you can also spawn and work within an interactive
+Python development shell. When debugging certain commands or even when
+just editing packages, ``pydevshell`` can be a useful tool. When you
+invoke the ``pydevshell`` task, all tasks up to and including
+:ref:`ref-tasks-patch` are run for the
+specified target. Then a new terminal is opened. Additionally, key
+Python objects and code are available in the same way they are to
+BitBake tasks, in particular, the data store 'd'. So, commands such as
+the following are useful when exploring the data store and running
+functions::
+
+   pydevshell> d.getVar("STAGING_DIR")
+   '/media/build1/poky/build/tmp/sysroots'
+   pydevshell> d.getVar("STAGING_DIR", False)
+   '${TMPDIR}/sysroots'
+   pydevshell> d.setVar("FOO", "bar")
+   pydevshell> d.getVar("FOO")
+   'bar'
+   pydevshell> d.delVar("FOO")
+   pydevshell> d.getVar("FOO")
+   pydevshell> bb.build.exec_func("do_unpack", d)
+   pydevshell>
+
+See the ":ref:`bitbake-user-manual/bitbake-user-manual-metadata:functions you can call from within python`"
+section in the BitBake User Manual for details about available functions.
+
+The commands execute just as if the OpenEmbedded build
+system were executing them. Consequently, working this way can be
+helpful when debugging a build or preparing software to be used with the
+OpenEmbedded build system.
+
+Following is an example that uses ``pydevshell`` on a target named
+``matchbox-desktop``::
+
+   $ bitbake matchbox-desktop -c pydevshell
+
+This command spawns a terminal and places you in an interactive Python
+interpreter within the OpenEmbedded build environment. The
+:term:`OE_TERMINAL` variable
+controls what type of shell is opened.
+
+When you are finished using ``pydevshell``, you can exit the shell
+either by using Ctrl+d or closing the terminal window.
+