Why do we allow empty -dev/-dbg packages ?

Hi All,

This might be a dummy question, but it has been puzzling me for some time. So if someone could give me some explanation, that would be really appreciated.

In bitbake.conf, we have:
ALLOW_EMPTY_${PN}-dev = "1"
ALLOW_EMPTY_${PN}-dbg = "1"

That means we allow emtpy -dev/-dbg packages. But what are the benefits of these empty -dev/-dbg packages?

Best Regards,
Chen Qi

In some cases it's useful to satisfy default dependcencies:
bitbake.conf:RDEPENDS_${PN}-staticdev = "${PN}-dev (= ${EXTENDPKGV})"

and -dev needs ${PN} even when it's empty in some recipes where all files are split into separate packages bitbake.conf:RDEPENDS_${PN}-dev = "${PN} (= ${EXTENDPKGV})"

Not sure about -dbg one.

Martin 'JaMa' Jansa     jabber: [email protected]

Hi Martin,

Thanks for your explanation.

If I understand it right, the above two RDEPENDS are the default for most recipes and are expected to be overridden in some special recipes, right? For example, if a recipe is separated into several packages, it's possible that we need to override the RDEPENDS_${PN}-dev.

Here's another question. If a -dev package is empty, does the default RDEPENDS on "${PN}" still make sense?

Best Regards,
Chen Qi