OpenEmbedded

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The OpenEmbedded Project (OE for short) is a software framework to create Linux distributions aimed for embedded devices. It was created by merging the achievements of OpenZaurus in addition with contributions of projects like Familiar and OpenSIMpad into a common codebase. OpenEmbedded superseded these projects and is now used to build any of them from the same code base.

Primary, the project maintains and develops a collection of BitBake recipes, similar to Gentoo's Ebuilds. The bitbakes consist of the source URL of the package, dependencies and compile or install options. During the build process they are used to track dependencies, cross-compile the package and pack it up, suitable to be installed on the target device. It's also possible to create complete images, consisting of root file system and kernel. As a first step the framework will build a cross-compiler toolchain for the target platform.