Bitbake dry run diagnostics

Skill BenGardiner/bitbake-yocto-agent-skills/bitbake-dry-run-diagnostics

Agent skills for making and fixing bitbake stuff

Install

npx -y skills add BenGardiner/bitbake-yocto-agent-skills --skill bitbake-dry-run-diagnostics

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Performs pre-flight validation of Yocto metadata and task graphs without executing a build. Use when checking syntax after a layer change, simulating build impact with dry-runs (-n), or verifying source availability. Do not use for troubleshooting active build failures or compiling target images.

SKILL.md

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BitBake Diagnostic & Dry-Run Procedures

Use the following methods to validate Yocto metadata and task graphs without triggering a full build process.

1. Metadata Parsing Check

Validate syntax in .bb, .bbappend, .bbclass, and .conf files after modifying layers to ensure the environment is still sane and indexable.

Run command:
```
bitbake -p
```

2. Execution Dry-Run

Simulate the build process for a specific target to visualize the task dependency graph and identify which tasks need to run ("dirty") versus which will be accelerated by the SState cache.

Run command:
```
bitbake -n <target>
```

3. Dependency Expansion

Expand all variables and functions for a specific recipe to see the final parsed environment. This is critical for debugging variable overrides (e.g., _append, _remove) or determining the final value of variables like SRC_URI.

Run command:
```
bitbake -e <target>
```

4. Source Fetch Validation

Attempt to download all remote assets required for a build without starting compilation. Use this as a pre-flight check to ensure no 404 errors or mirror issues will break a long-running build later.

Run command:
```
bitbake -c fetchall <target>
```