dev-manual, ref-manual: Added section on index of releases procedure

Fixes [YOCTO #11630]

I have added a new procedure on using the Index of Releases area
to get snapshots of various tarballs.  I recommend that is not
the way you usually want to get files as using Git is recommended.
The section exists for completeness.

In the ref-manual, I cross-reference the procedures from the
associated conceptual areas.

(From yocto-docs rev: 812f344966966591d883fbebb4ae1f72c11dd483)

Signed-off-by: Scott Rifenbark <srifenbark@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Richard Purdie <richard.purdie@linuxfoundation.org>

1 files changed, 54 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/documentation/dev-manual/dev-manual-start.xml b/documentation/dev-manual/dev-manual-start.xml
index 48f49e05dd..e7049f9fa6 100644
--- a/documentation/dev-manual/dev-manual-start.xml
+++ b/documentation/dev-manual/dev-manual-start.xml
@@ -270,13 +270,13 @@
         </note>
     </para>
 
-    <section id='viewing-source-repositories-using-your-browser'>
-        <title>Viewing Source Repositories Using Your Browser</title>
+    <section id='accessing-source-repositories'>
+        <title>Accessing Source Repositories</title>
 
         <para>
             Yocto Project maintains upstream Git
             <ulink url='&YOCTO_DOCS_REF_URL;#source-repositories'>Source Repositories</ulink>
-            that you can examine using a browser-based UI:
+            that you can examine and access using a browser-based UI:
             <orderedlist>
                 <listitem><para>
                     Open a browser and go to
@@ -305,6 +305,57 @@
         </para>
     </section>
 
+    <section id='accessing-index-of-releases'>
+        <title>Accessing Index of Releases</title>
+
+        <para>
+            Yocto Project maintains an Index of Releases area that contains
+            related files that contribute to the Yocto Project.
+            Rather than Git repositories, these files represent snapshot
+            tarballs.
+            <note><title>Tip</title>
+                The recommended method for accessing Yocto Project
+                components is to use Git to clone a repository and work from
+                within that local repository.
+                The procedure in this section exists should you desire a
+                tarball snapshot of any given component.
+            </note>
+            <orderedlist>
+                <listitem><para>
+                    Open a browser and go to
+                    <ulink url='&YOCTO_DL_URL;/releases'></ulink> to access the
+                    Index of Releases.
+                    The list represents released components (e.g.
+                    <filename>eclipse-plugin</filename>,
+                    <filename>sato</filename>, and so on).
+                    <note>
+                        The <filename>yocto</filename> directory contains the
+                        full array of released Poky tarballs.
+                        The <filename>poky</filename> directory in the
+                        Index of Releases was historically used for very
+                        early releases and exists for retroactive
+                        completeness only.
+                    </note>
+                    </para></listitem>
+                <listitem><para>
+                    Click on any released component in which you are interested
+                    (e.g. <filename>yocto</filename>).
+                    </para></listitem>
+                <listitem><para>
+                    Drill down to find the associated tarball.
+                    For example, click on <filename>yocto-2.3</filename> to
+                    view files associated with the Yocto Project 2.3
+                    release (e.g. <filename>poky-pyro-17.0.0tar.bz2</filename>,
+                    which is the released Poky tarball).
+                    </para></listitem>
+                <listitem><para>
+                    Click a tarball to download and save a snapshot of a
+                    given component.
+                    </para></listitem>
+            </orderedlist>
+        </para>
+    </section>
+
     <section id='cloning-the-poky-repository'>
         <title>Cloning the <filename>poky</filename> Repository</title>