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Yann E. MORIN 970cb26ec2 docs/manual: using a branch name as FOO_VERSION does not work
For various reasons, we've always suggested users to avoid using a
branch as version string for their packages, because it does not work
as a they would expect:

  - it is not reproducible, because the branch may change between two
    builds that are done at different times;

  - it does not even follow the branch, as Buildroot anyway generates
    a local tarball, which it will reuse on subsequent builds.
    Furthermore, since we fetch and not pull, any existing local branch
    is not updated.

Yet, until recently, using a branch name would just work (with the
above limitations): the git tree was cloned, the branch checked out,
and the tarball created.

But with the advent of the git caching, using a branch name does not
work anymore. Indeed, we now do a git-fetch, and that does not create
a local master branch. So we can't check out master, because it does
not exist locally. And for other branches, as noticed above, the local
branch does not get udpated to the remote one.

Furthermore, the local branches are only created by chance, again as a
side-effect of trying to fetch the "special refs".

So, we can't say that we reliably support the use of a branch name.

Update the manual to state that using a branch does not work. Remove
the 'stable' example, as it looked like the name of a stable branch;
instead, replace it with a version string that ressemble a tag.

Fix the layout of the manual by making the version examples an actual
bulleted list.

Note: the above is only entirely true for git. For Mercurial, CVS and
subversion, the status may be mixed, but nonetheless, using branches is
still a bad idea, if at least because it is not reproducible, and
because Buildroot does not even follow the branch. So, we do not
differentiate between the various SCMs, and just flatly state that using
a branch name is not supported.

Signed-off-by: "Yann E. MORIN" <yann.morin.1998@free.fr>
Cc: Thomas De Schampheleire <patrickdepinguin@gmail.com>
Cc: Thomas Petazzoni <thomas.petazzoni@bootlin.com>
Cc: Maxime Hadjinlian <maxime.hadjinlian@gmail.com>
Cc: Peter Korsgaard <peter@korsgaard.com>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Petazzoni <thomas.petazzoni@bootlin.com>
2018-05-11 23:03:21 +02:00
arch arch: drop BR2_BINFMT_FLAT_SEP_DATA support 2018-04-15 22:04:09 +02:00
board configs/freescale_imx31_3stack: Remove target 2018-05-06 08:59:45 +02:00
boot boot/uboot: default to kconfig buildsystem for latest version 2018-04-25 21:35:35 +02:00
configs qemu_arm_vexpress: Linux kernel update to 4.16.7 2018-05-08 15:24:22 +02:00
docs docs/manual: using a branch name as FOO_VERSION does not work 2018-05-11 23:03:21 +02:00
fs fs/squashfs: add zstd support 2018-04-25 23:39:04 +02:00
linux linux: ensure correct make targets are used for cuImage/simpleImage.<dtb> 2018-05-06 17:35:00 +02:00
package strace: disable (again) mpers for musl 2018-05-11 22:31:32 +02:00
support support/dependencies: check that PATH does not contain CWD 2018-05-09 23:26:18 +02:00
system skeleton: add /dev/fd, /dev/std{in, out, err} symlinks for static /dev on readonly rootfs 2018-05-01 21:53:45 +02:00
toolchain toolchain-external-custom: allow specifying relative path to binaries 2018-04-19 23:04:44 +02:00
utils scanpypi: add support for the new PyPI infrastructure 2018-04-18 17:11:47 +02:00
.defconfig arch: remove support for sh64 2016-09-08 22:15:15 +02:00
.flake8 .flake8: ignore utils/diffconfig 2018-03-13 22:37:54 +01:00
.gitignore
.gitlab-ci.yml .gitlab-ci.yml: update after removal of freescale defconfigs 2018-05-06 17:36:37 +02:00
.gitlab-ci.yml.in .gitlab-ci.yml: extend check-package test to Config.* files 2018-04-01 10:16:35 +02:00
CHANGES CHANGES: additional updates for 2018.05-rc1 2018-05-09 22:53:39 +02:00
Config.in Config.in: add BR2_HOST_GCC_AT_LEAST_8 2018-05-02 14:50:14 +02:00
Config.in.legacy package/mplayer: remove package 2018-05-09 21:36:14 +02:00
COPYING COPYING: add exception about patch licensing 2016-02-26 19:50:13 +01:00
DEVELOPERS package/mplayer: remove package 2018-05-09 21:36:14 +02:00
Makefile Update for 2018.05-rc1 2018-05-09 23:00:18 +02:00
Makefile.legacy Remove BR2_DEPRECATED 2016-10-15 23:14:45 +02:00
README README: add reference to submitting-patches 2016-02-01 19:16:08 +01:00

Buildroot is a simple, efficient and easy-to-use tool to generate embedded
Linux systems through cross-compilation.

The documentation can be found in docs/manual. You can generate a text
document with 'make manual-text' and read output/docs/manual/manual.text.
Online documentation can be found at http://buildroot.org/docs.html

To build and use the buildroot stuff, do the following:

1) run 'make menuconfig'
2) select the target architecture and the packages you wish to compile
3) run 'make'
4) wait while it compiles
5) find the kernel, bootloader, root filesystem, etc. in output/images

You do not need to be root to build or run buildroot.  Have fun!

Buildroot comes with a basic configuration for a number of boards. Run
'make list-defconfigs' to view the list of provided configurations.

Please feed suggestions, bug reports, insults, and bribes back to the
buildroot mailing list: buildroot@buildroot.org
You can also find us on #buildroot on Freenode IRC.

If you would like to contribute patches, please read
https://buildroot.org/manual.html#submitting-patches