Difference between layer and metadata in Yocto

Question

I am trying to understand yocto terminology. I understood that recipe is a set of instructions used by bitbake tool to fetch the source code, configure, compile and generate the package ( software component ).

Metadata is collection of Configuration files ( .conf ), Recipes ( .bb and .bbappend ) , Classes ( .bbclass ) and Includes ( .inc ).

What I don't understand is the term 'layer'. Is the term 'layer' and 'metadata' both same or different

For example: meta-fsl-arm : Is this a layer or metadata.

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 21 '17 at 10:39

Metadata is just a generic term for data describing other data as wiki explains.

Layers are recipe containers (folders), so meta-fsl-arm is indeed a layer.

I suggest you to read some documentation, those slides helped me, as well as mega manual and Yocto wiki.

yoctotutor.com · Answer 2 · 2017-12-22T05:59:11.893

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meta-layer: A meta-layer contains the meta data. meta-data means conf, classes, and recipes.

e.g:

meta-fsl-arm is a meta-layer which contains the meta data(configuration and mechines classes and all recipes )
meta-phytec is a layer which contains the meta-data(like conf files, classes, and all recipes)

edited Dec 22 '17 at 05:59

answered Dec 22 '17 at 05:36

yoctotutor.com

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What about meta-fsl-arm and other layers. Will it not contain metadata – md.jamal Dec 22 '17 at 05:49
meta-fsl-arm is a layer which contains the metadata(conf, classes and recipes) – yoctotutor.com Dec 22 '17 at 05:50
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So you are saying both are same and can be interchangeably – md.jamal Dec 22 '17 at 05:51
I modified the answer ,now you can undestand – yoctotutor.com Dec 22 '17 at 05:56
Do meta layer consist any additional files including meta data or it only consist metadata – md.jamal Dec 22 '17 at 09:34
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meta-layers are just folders, they can contain anything you want. You can put recipes, configs, patches, closed binaries, sourcecode, etc ... – Nayfe Dec 22 '17 at 10:47
@nayfe, you are obsolutely correct. we can keep any data in meta-layers like binaries,source code, patches, conf, classes and so on., – yoctotutor.com Dec 26 '17 at 05:16

Difference between layer and metadata in Yocto

2 Answers2