BitBake recipe language support in Visual Studio Code

November 28, 2023 · View on GitHub

Configuration

Some advanced features of this extension will need to locate and run BitBake. It can be configured from VSCode's settings.

To access the settings, you can navigate to Files -> Preferences -> Settings (or use the shortcut [Ctrl+,]). BitBake's settings are under Extensions. More options are available to tweak the extension's behavior.

Here's an example settings.json reflecting some default values to run bitbake on your host machine:

{
    "bitbake.pathToBuildFolder": "${workspaceFolder}/build",
    "bitbake.pathToEnvScript": "${workspaceFolder}/sources/poky/oe-init-build-env",
    "bitbake.pathToBitbakeFolder": "${workspaceFolder}/sources/poky/bitbake",
}

BitBake Command wrappers

Various tools provide ways to automatically configure the BitBake environment, or even call it inside containers. The bitbake.commandWrapper option allows you to use them through this extension by wrapping around the bitbake invocation. The resulting commands generated by this extension will be for example:

 $ $commandWrapper "bitbake core-image-minimal"

Or, if pathToEnvScript and pathToBuildFolder are defined:

 $ $commandWrapper ". $pathToEnvScript $pathToBuildFolder && bitbake core-image-minimal"

Here are some examples using the most popular bitbake wrappers. You can also control the directory from which they are started by using the bitbake.workingDirectory option:

{
    "bitbake.commandWrapper": "docker run --rm -v ${workspaceFolder}:${workspaceFolder} crops/poky --workdir=${workspaceFolder} /bin/bash -c",
    "bitbake.pathToEnvScript": "${workspaceFolder}/sources/poky/oe-init-build-env",
    "bitbake.pathToBitbakeFolder": "${workspaceFolder}/sources/poky/bitbake"
}
{
    "bitbake.commandWrapper": "kas shell -c",
    "bitbake.workingDirectory": "${workspaceFolder}/yocto"
}
{ "bitbake.commandWrapper": "cqfd run" }
{ "bitbake.commandWrapper": "${workspaceFolder}/build.sh --" }

Features

Syntax highlighting

The extension provides syntax highlighting for BitBake recipes, classes, configuration and inc-files. Syntax highlighting also supports embedded languages inside BitBake recipes including inline Python variable expansion, shell code and Python code.

The BitBake language is automatically detected based on the file extension: [.bb, .bbappend, .bbclass]. [.conf, .inc] are also supported but may be used by other tools.

Syntax Hilighting

Context-based suggestions

CTRL+SPACE may be used to provide suggestions. For example, typing inherit and pressing CTRL+SPACE provides the suggestion inherit kernel. Suggestions are context-based, only providing suggestions that apply to your specific layer configuration.

The following suggestions are currently supported:

Keywords inherit, require, include and export
Context-based suggestions for keywords inherit, require and include (provided by language-server)
Context-based suggestions for all symbols within the include hierarchy

Directive-statements

Go to definition

This feature requires to have properly configured the extension

CTRL and click may be used to open the file associated with a class, inc-file, recipe or variable. If more than one definition exists, a list of definitions is provided.

The go to definition feature currently behaves as follows:

Definition	Target(s)
class or inc-file	file
recipe	recipe definition and all bbappends
symbol	all symbols within the include hierarchy

Go-to-definition

Show definitions of BitBake's defined variables on hover

This feature requires to have properly configured the extension

Place your cursor over a variable. If it is a BitBake defined variable, then its definition from the documentation will be displayed.

Hover

Other code suggestions

Overrides, variable flags, frequently-used task names and more.

Other-suggestions

BitBake tasks

BitBake build tasks may be defined through the tasks.json file. They allow to build or a run any specific BitBake command on a set of recipes. This feature requires to have properly configured the extension. Learn how to use VSCode tasks on the official Visual Studio Code documentation.

Here's an example tasks.json configuration:

{
    "tasks": [
        {
            "label": "Build core-image-minimal",
            "type": "bitbake",
            "recipes": [
                "core-image-minimal"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

BitBake commands

The extension provides commands and shortcuts to run BitBake tasks. These commands are available in the command palette (CTRL+SHIFT+P) and in the editor's contextual menu.

BitBake recipes view

The extension provides a view to display the list of recipes in the current workspace. This view is available in the left panel. You can quickly navigate to a recipe's source or build it by clicking on it.

Recipe tree view

Problems matcher

By default, this extension will run BitBake in parse only mode in the background on file saves to identify syntax errors. They will be displayed in the problems panel. You can disable this feature through the extension's settings.

Problem matcher

BitBake status bar

Bitbake parsing status is displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the screen. It will show wether the last BitBake run was successful or not. The BitBake server queues all BitBake commands and runs them sequentially. The status bar will show you if the extension is currently trying to access the bitbake server.

Status bar