how to remove specific packages from the final rootfs image built by bitbake

Question

I am trying to remove some open source packages that have GPLv3 licensing attached to them that we cannot distribute as part of the final production image . While these packages can be removed using "INCOMPATIBLE_LICENSE=GPLv3" in local.conf but it removes every package that's tagged GPLv3. I have used PREFERRED_VERSION_recipename=(GPLv2 recipe_version) and downgraded all the GPLv3 packages to GPLv2 that we want to push into the final image. But there are several GPLv3 packages that we want to keep as part of the debug image for example M4, make, gdb, bison. There is no need for these packages to be in the final production image but these cannot be removed from the build completely as they are needed during the build/debug.

SO, How do i remove these packages/recipe from the final rootfs image while letting them being as part of the build process and letting them build. In other words I want to let the bitbake build them from the GPLv3 source but keep them out the of the final rootfs image.

I did look at the poky/lib/oe/manifest.py and rootfs.py create function ==> where the final rootfs manifest is being created but couldn't figure out what exactly needs to be set from the bitbake. Does the do_rootfs need to be overwritten. if so what variables need to be set for overriding the final manifest.

Anders Anders · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-07T06:37:17

There's no single way of doing what you want. One way is to have your production image consists of what you need to deliver, and then let your dev-image require production-image.bb. In that way you can easily extend the dev image with your extra packages.

I've got a similar issue, as I want gdbserver in my dev-image. (Sofar, nothing else that's GPLv3 is necessary / wanted in my dev image). What I've done, is to set INCOMPATIBLE_LICENSE = "GPL-3.0 LGPL-3.0 AGPL-3.0" INCOMPATIBLE_LICENSE_pn-gdb = ""

That basically allows gdb to be built, but nothing else that's GPLv3 licensed. Then, my images inherit a company-image.bbclass instead of directly inheriting image.bbclass. In company-image.bbclass, I've got a function like:

python () {
    for p in d.getVar('IMAGE_INSTALL', True).split():
        if p in ['gdb', 'gdbserver'] and not d.getVar('IMAGE_BASENAME', True) == 'company-dev-image':
            bb.fatal("gdb/gdbserver is not allowed in this image!")
}

That will ensure that gdb and gdbserver can only be installed in company-dev-image; thus, there's no risk of having them distributed in the production image.

how to remove specific packages from the final rootfs image built by bitbake

2 Answers