Yocto Project

The Yocto Project is a Linux Foundation workgroup whose goal is to produce tools and processes that will enable the creation of Linux distributions for embedded software that are independent of the underlying architecture of the embedded software itself. The project was announced by the Linux Foundation in 2010.^[1] In March 2011, the project aligned itself with OpenEmbedded, an existing framework with similar goals, with the result being The OpenEmbedded-Core Project.

The Yocto Project is an open source project whose focus is on improving the software development process for embedded Linux distributions. The Yocto Project provides interoperable tools, metadata, and processes that enable the rapid, repeatable development of Linux-based embedded systems.

Project scope

The Yocto Project has the aim and objective of attempting to improve the lives of developers of customised Linux systems supporting the ARM, MIPS, PowerPC and x86/x86 64 architectures. A key part of this is an open source build system, based around the OpenEmbedded architecture, that enables developers to create their own Linux distribution specific to their environment. This reference implementation of OpenEmbedded is called Poky.

There are several other sub-projects under the project umbrella which include EGLIBC, pseudo, cross-prelink, Eclipse integration, ADT/SDK, the matchbox suite of applications, and many others. One of the central goals of the project is interoperability among these tools.

The project offers different sized targets from "tiny" to fully featured images which are configurable and customisable by the end user. The project encourages interaction with upstream projects and has contributed heavily to OpenEmbedded-Core and BitBake as well as to numerous upstream projects, including the Linux kernel. The resulting images are typically useful in systems where embedded Linux would be used, these being single-use focused systems or systems without the usual screens/input devices associated with desktop Linux systems.

As well as building Linux systems, there is also an ability to generate a toolchain for cross compilation and a software development kit (SDK) tailored to their own distribution, also referred to as the Application Developer Toolkit (ADT). The project tries to be software and vendor agnostic. Thus, for example, it is possible to select which package manager format to use (deb, rpm, or ipk).

Within builds, there are options for various build-time sanity/regression tests, and also the option to boot and test certain images under QEMU to validate the build.

Governance

The Yocto Project is one of the Labs collaborative software projects at the Linux Foundation.

The project's governance is divided loosely into administrative and technical arms, although many members participate in both camps.

At a technical level, the project is overseen by the project architect Richard Purdie (a Linux Foundation Fellow) who has a long history of involvement with many of the project's components and technologies. The architect maintains a hierarchy of maintainers for the different components of the system, much as the Linux kernel is maintained.

The administrative arm consists of an Advisory Board made up of representatives from the project's member organizations, including several major silicon vendors and software vendors as well as representatives from groups such as software consultants and community members. The member organizations of this board provide resources to the project. There are also several Advisory Board working groups that handle administrative functions for the project such as finance, infrastructure, advocacy and outreach, and community management.

Versions

See also

• Buildroot

References

External links

• Official website
• Deciding between Buildroot and Yocto, LWN.net, April 6, 2016, by Nathan Willis