[oe] getting started - docbook

[Tobias Pflug]

hi,

i am jumping into this discussion a bit late as I had not much time
recently. I also recently started working with openembeded at work
as I convinced my boss that it's the best way to go for our embedded
product. 

Now i've spent some good time getting into it and understanding the
use cases / patterns behind it. I am pretty sure that I still don't
get the full picture and partially things are still a bit of a black
box to me. So I am glad to see a discussion coming up about
documentation on this list. I'd very much like to share my point
of view on it and I am also very willing and interested in helping
out with updating and extending the existing documentation. (hi david..)

So to get to the facts - I think there are basically two issues
with the documentation as of now:

(1): big picture
(2): bitbake


on 1: 
with big picture I mean there should be a description of the 
"system" with its main components. Currently i think there is too
little of that, and too many use-cases. ("In order to change xyz,
apply abc to 123").

For starters a diagram would do some good. I did one for a small
report at work which however is rather incomplete. I should polish
that a little. Depicting the interaction between bitbake, the different
config file sets, internet resources, distributions and images. I think
all of this should be presented before even starting to elaborate on
how to build something


on 2:
To me the biggest black box is still bitbake. The documentation
seems somewhat lacking and I have a bad feeling about carrying out tasks
where I don't quite understand what's going on. 

I still don't quite get how the dependency checking works and when
changes to specific files will trigger an automatic rebuild and when
I'll have to trigger that myself with a -crebuild / or maybe even 
by fiddling with timestamps? Although my guts tell me that the latter
is a NO-NO.

David, I gather you are still working on the setup section? Maybe I
could try contributing a "big picture" description, however my
text will certainly require a lot of refinement from those with
more background knowledge. 

David, will you also write on how to set up an OEDEV directory sturcure/
sharing of working directories etc? Personally I am using the structure
that cliff presented on the ml (I think) at some point which I find
comfortable.

best regards and a nice weekend,
Tobi

PS: A little off-topic sidenote to any potential compulab board owners..
do not fiddle around with GPIO commands in armmon. My devboard is
unusable right now and resetting via jumpers does not help ;/