A bitbake recipe is a set of instructions that describe what needs to be done to retrieve the source code for some application, apply any necessary patches, provide any additional files (such as init scripts), compile it, install it and generated binary packages. The end result is a binary package that you can install on your target device, and maybe some intermediate files, such as libraries and headers, which can be used when building other application.

In many ways the process is similar to creating .deb or .rpm packages for your standard desktop distributions with one major difference - in OpenEmbedded everything is being cross-compiled. This often makes the task far more difficult (depending on how well suited the application is to cross compiling), then it is for other packaging systems and sometime impossible.

This chapter assumes that you are familiar with working with bitbake, including the work flow, required directory structures, bitbake configuration and the use of monotone. If you are not familiar with these then first take a look at the chapter on bitbake usage.