what is a reference distribution?

1
votes

I needed to understand what is poky in Yocto, so I typed the following question in Google:

what is poky in yocto

The first answer that I got was

Poky is a reference distribution of the Yocto Project. It contains the OpenEmbedded Build System (BitBake and OpenEmbedded Core) as well as a set of metadata to get you started building your own distro.

Then I tried to understand what is a reference distribution. I tried googling for it but came up empty.

Can someone explain what is a reference distribution? Are there non reference distributions? What does it mean for a piece of software to be a reference distribution?

P.S. I do know what Linux distros are. What I don't know is the meaning of the phrase reference distribution in the context of the Yocto project.

1
yocto
The word "reference" is used to mean "example" in this context. Poky is a reference for you to use in building your own distribution. It's a minimal working example for you to understand and build upon. – David
@David Thank you. Am I correct in my understanding that different branches in Poky would simply mean change of kernel used by the distro (speaking in the broadest possible terms) ? – flashburn
Poky's branches correspond to version, Rocko for Yocto is the equivalent to Artful for ubuntu. – Nayfe
@Nayfe Version of what? – flashburn
Yocto Project version – Nayfe

1 Answers

0
votes

I understand what you need. click the yocto-tutorial
for better understanding of Yocto Project and Yocto Reference Distro's(poky)