# BitBake

BitBake is a program written in Python that interprets the Metadata used by the OpenEmbedded build system. At some point, developers wonder what actually happens when you enter:

         $ bitbake core-image-sato

This chapter provides an overview of what happens behind the scenes from BitBake's perspective.

BitBake strives to be a generic "task" executor that is capable of handling complex dependency relationships. As such, it has no real knowledge of what the tasks being executed actually do. BitBake just considers a list of tasks with dependencies and handles Metadata consisting of variables in a certain format that get passed to the tasks.

## Parsing

BitBake parses configuration files, classes, and `.bb` files.

The first thing BitBake does is look for the `bitbake.conf` file. This file resides in the Source Directory within the `meta/conf/` directory. BitBake finds it by examining its `BBPATH` environment variable and looking for the `meta/conf/` directory.

The `bitbake.conf` file lists other configuration files to include from a `conf/` directory below the directories listed in `BBPATH`. In general, the most important configuration file from a user's perspective is `local.conf`, which contains a user's customized settings for the OpenEmbedded build environment. Other notable configuration files are the distribution configuration file (set by the `DISTRO` variable) and the machine configuration file (set by the `MACHINE` variable). The `DISTRO` and `MACHINE` BitBake environment variables are both usually set in the `local.conf` file. Valid distribution configuration files are available in the `meta/conf/distro/` directory and valid machine configuration files in the `meta/conf/machine/` directory. Within the `meta/conf/machine/include/` directory are various `tune-*.inc` configuration files that provide common "tuning" settings specific to and shared between particular architectures and machines.

After the parsing of the configuration files, some standard classes are included. The `base.bbclass` file is always included. Other classes that are specified in the configuration using the `INHERIT` variable are also included. Class files are searched for in a `classes` subdirectory under the paths in `BBPATH` in the same way as configuration files.

After classes are included, the variable `BBFILES` is set, usually in `local.conf`, and defines the list of places to search for `.bb` files. By default, the `BBFILES` variable specifies the `meta/recipes-*/` directory within Poky. Adding extra content to `BBFILES` is best achieved through the use of BitBake layers as described in the "Understanding and Creating Layers" section of the Yocto Project Development Manual.

BitBake parses each `.bb` file in `BBFILES` and stores the values of various variables. In summary, for each `.bb` file the configuration plus the base class of variables are set, followed by the data in the `.bb` file itself, followed by any inherit commands that `.bb` file might contain.

Because parsing `.bb` files is a time consuming process, a cache is kept to speed up subsequent parsing. This cache is invalid if the timestamp of the `.bb` file itself changes, or if the timestamps of any of the include, configuration files or class files on which the `.bb` file depends change.

You need to be aware of how BitBake parses curly braces. If a recipe uses a closing curly brace within the function and the character has no leading spaces, BitBake produces a parsing error. If you use a pair of curly brace in a shell function, the closing curly brace must not be located at the start of the line without leading spaces.

Here is an example that causes BitBake to produce a parsing error:

         fakeroot create_shar() {
             cat << "EOF" > ${SDK_DEPLOY}/${TOOLCHAIN_OUTPUTNAME}.sh
         usage()
         {
           echo "test"
           ###### The following "}" at the start of the line causes a parsing error ######
         }
         EOF
         }

Writing the recipe this way avoids the error:

         fakeroot create_shar() {
             cat << "EOF" > ${SDK_DEPLOY}/${TOOLCHAIN_OUTPUTNAME}.sh
         usage()
         {
           echo "test"
           ######The following "}" with a leading space at the start of the line avoids the error ######
          }
         EOF
         }

## Preferences and Providers

Once all the `.bb` files have been parsed, BitBake starts to build the target (`core-image-sato` in the previous section's example) and looks for providers of that target. Once a provider is selected, BitBake resolves all the dependencies for the target. In the case of `core-image-sato`, it would lead to `packagegroup-core-x11-sato`, which in turn leads to recipes like `matchbox-terminal`, `pcmanfm` and `gthumb`. These recipes in turn depend on `glibc` and the toolchain.

Sometimes a target might have multiple providers. A common example is "virtual/kernel", which is provided by each kernel package. Each machine often selects the best kernel provider by using a line similar to the following in the machine configuration file:

         PREFERRED_PROVIDER_virtual/kernel = "linux-yocto"

The default `PREFERRED_PROVIDER` is the provider with the same name as the target.

Understanding how providers are chosen is made complicated by the fact that multiple versions might exist. BitBake defaults to the highest version of a provider. Version comparisons are made using the same method as Debian. You can use the `PREFERRED_VERSION` variable to specify a particular version (usually in the distro configuration). You can influence the order by using the `DEFAULT_PREFERENCE` variable. By default, files have a preference of "0". Setting the `DEFAULT_PREFERENCE` to "-1" makes the package unlikely to be used unless it is explicitly referenced. Setting the `DEFAULT_PREFERENCE` to "1" makes it likely the package is used. `PREFERRED_VERSION` overrides any `DEFAULT_PREFERENCE` setting. `DEFAULT_PREFERENCE` is often used to mark newer and more experimental package versions until they have undergone sufficient testing to be considered stable.

In summary, BitBake has created a list of providers, which is prioritized, for each target.

## Dependencies

Each target BitBake builds consists of multiple tasks such as `fetch`, `unpack`, `patch`, `configure`, and `compile`. For best performance on multi-core systems, BitBake considers each task as an independent entity with its own set of dependencies.

Dependencies are defined through several variables. You can find information about variables BitBake uses in the BitBake documentation, which is found in the `bitbake/doc/manual` directory within the Source Directory. At a basic level, it is sufficient to know that BitBake uses the `DEPENDS` and `RDEPENDS` variables when calculating dependencies.

## The Task List

Based on the generated list of providers and the dependency information, BitBake can now calculate exactly what tasks it needs to run and in what order it needs to run them. The build now starts with BitBake forking off threads up to the limit set in the `BB_NUMBER_THREADS` variable. BitBake continues to fork threads as long as there are tasks ready to run, those tasks have all their dependencies met, and the thread threshold has not been exceeded.

It is worth noting that you can greatly speed up the build time by properly setting the `BB_NUMBER_THREADS` variable. See the "Building an Image" section in the Yocto Project Quick Start for more information.

As each task completes, a timestamp is written to the directory specified by the `STAMP` variable. On subsequent runs, BitBake looks within the `build/tmp/stamps` directory and does not rerun tasks that are already completed unless a timestamp is found to be invalid. Currently, invalid timestamps are only considered on a per `.bb` file basis. So, for example, if the configure stamp has a timestamp greater than the compile timestamp for a given target, then the compile task would rerun. Running the compile task again, however, has no effect on other providers that depend on that target. This behavior could change or become configurable in future versions of BitBake.

Some tasks are marked as "nostamp" tasks. No timestamp file is created when these tasks are run. Consequently, "nostamp" tasks are always rerun.

## Running a Task

Tasks can either be a shell task or a Python task. For shell tasks, BitBake writes a shell script to `${WORKDIR}/temp/run.do_taskname.pid` and then executes the script. The generated shell script contains all the exported variables, and the shell functions with all variables expanded. Output from the shell script goes to the file `${WORKDIR}/temp/log.do_taskname.pid`. Looking at the expanded shell functions in the run file and the output in the log files is a useful debugging technique.

For Python tasks, BitBake executes the task internally and logs information to the controlling terminal. Future versions of BitBake will write the functions to files similar to the way shell tasks are handled. Logging will be handled in a way similar to shell tasks as well.

Once all the tasks have been completed BitBake exits.

When running a task, BitBake tightly controls the execution environment of the build tasks to make sure unwanted contamination from the build machine cannot influence the build. Consequently, if you do want something to get passed into the build task's environment, you must take a few steps:

1. Tell BitBake to load what you want from the environment into the data store. You can do so through the `BB_ENV_EXTRAWHITE` variable. For example, assume you want to prevent the build system from accessing your `$HOME/.ccache` directory. The following command tells BitBake to load `CCACHE_DIR` from the environment into the data store:

            export BB_ENV_EXTRAWHITE="$BB_ENV_EXTRAWHITE CCACHE_DIR"

2. Tell BitBake to export what you have loaded into the environment store to the task environment of every running task. Loading something from the environment into the data store (previous step) only makes it available in the datastore. To export it to the task environment of every running task, use a command similar to the following in your `local.conf` or distro configuration file:

            export CCACHE_DIR

A side effect of the previous steps is that BitBake records the variable as a dependency of the build process in things like the shared state checksums. If doing so results in unnecessary rebuilds of tasks, you can whitelist the variable so that the shared state code ignores the dependency when it creates checksums. For information on this process, see the `BB_HASHBASE_WHITELIST` example in the "Checksums (Signatures)" section.

## BitBake Command Line

Following is the BitBake help output:

    $ bitbake --help
    Usage: bitbake [options] [recipename/target ...]

        Executes the specified task (default is 'build') for a given set of target recipes (.bb files).
        It is assumed there is a conf/bblayers.conf available in cwd or in BBPATH which
        will provide the layer, BBFILES and other configuration information.

    Options:
      --version             show program's version number and exit
      -h, --help            show this help message and exit
      -b BUILDFILE, --buildfile=BUILDFILE
                            Execute tasks from a specific .bb recipe directly.
                            WARNING: Does not handle any dependencies from other
                            recipes.
      -k, --continue        Continue as much as possible after an error. While the
                            target that failed and anything depending on it cannot
                            be built, as much as possible will be built before
                            stopping.
      -a, --tryaltconfigs   Continue with builds by trying to use alternative
                            providers where possible.
      -f, --force           Force the specified targets/task to run (invalidating
                            any existing stamp file).
      -c CMD, --cmd=CMD     Specify the task to execute. The exact options
                            available depend on the metadata. Some examples might
                            be 'compile' or 'populate_sysroot' or 'listtasks' may
                            give a list of the tasks available.
      -C INVALIDATE_STAMP, --clear-stamp=INVALIDATE_STAMP
                            Invalidate the stamp for the specified task such as
                            'compile' and then run the default task for the
                            specified target(s).
      -r PREFILE, --read=PREFILE
                            Read the specified file before bitbake.conf.
      -R POSTFILE, --postread=POSTFILE
                            Read the specified file after bitbake.conf.
      -v, --verbose         Output more log message data to the terminal.
      -D, --debug           Increase the debug level. You can specify this more
                            than once.
      -n, --dry-run         Don't execute, just go through the motions.
      -S, --dump-signatures
                            Don't execute, just dump out the signature
                            construction information.
      -p, --parse-only      Quit after parsing the BB recipes.
      -s, --show-versions   Show current and preferred versions of all recipes.
      -e, --environment     Show the global or per-package environment complete
                            with information about where variables were
                            set/changed.
      -g, --graphviz        Save dependency tree information for the specified
                            targets in the dot syntax.
      -I EXTRA_ASSUME_PROVIDED, --ignore-deps=EXTRA_ASSUME_PROVIDED
                            Assume these dependencies don't exist and are already
                            provided (equivalent to ASSUME_PROVIDED). Useful to
                            make dependency graphs more appealing
      -l DEBUG_DOMAINS, --log-domains=DEBUG_DOMAINS
                            Show debug logging for the specified logging domains
      -P, --profile         Profile the command and save reports.
      -u UI, --ui=UI        The user interface to use (e.g. knotty, hob, depexp).
      -t SERVERTYPE, --servertype=SERVERTYPE
                            Choose which server to use, process or xmlrpc.
      --revisions-changed   Set the exit code depending on whether upstream
                            floating revisions have changed or not.
      --server-only         Run bitbake without a UI, only starting a server
                            (cooker) process.
      -B BIND, --bind=BIND  The name/address for the bitbake server to bind to.
      --no-setscene         Do not run any setscene tasks. sstate will be ignored
                            and everything needed, built.
      --remote-server=REMOTE_SERVER
                            Connect to the specified server.
      -m, --kill-server     Terminate the remote server.
      --observe-only        Connect to a server as an observing-only client.

## Fetchers

BitBake also contains a set of "fetcher" modules that allow retrieval of source code from various types of sources. For example, BitBake can get source code from a disk with the metadata, from websites, from remote shell accounts, or from Source Code Management (SCM) systems like `cvs/subversion/git`.

Fetchers are usually triggered by entries in `SRC_URI`. You can find information about the options and formats of entries for specific fetchers in the BitBake manual located in the `bitbake/doc/manual` directory of the Source Directory.

One useful feature for certain Source Code Manager (SCM) fetchers is the ability to "auto-update" when the upstream SCM changes version. Since this ability requires certain functionality from the SCM, not all systems support it. Currently Subversion, Bazaar and to a limited extent, Git support the ability to "auto-update". This feature works using the `SRCREV` variable. See the "Using an External SCM" section in the Yocto Project Development Manual for more information.