Utilizing a development shell

A development shell can be a helpful tool when editing packages or debugging build failures. The following steps take place when we use devshell:

1. Source files are extracted into the working directory.
2. Patches are applied.
3. A new terminal is opened in the working directory.

All the environment variables needed for the build are available in the new terminal, so we can use commands such as configure and make. The commands execute just as if the build system were running them.

The following command is an example that uses devshell on a target named linux-yocto:

Figure 10.9 – Running devshell for the linux-yocto recipe

The command from Figure 10.9 allows us to rework the Linux kernel source code, build it, and change its code as needed. In Figure 10.10, you can see the log after executing the bitbake linux-yocto -c devshell command:

Figure 10.10 – The log for bitbake...