How to integrate external recipes into yocto image using packagegroup?

Question

I am using a yocto distribution from STM: https://wiki.st.com/stm32mpu-ecosystem-v1/wiki/STM32MP1_Distribution_Package

The directory structure is as below

openstlinux-20-02-19  OpenSTLinux distribution
├── layers 
│    ├── meta-openembedded                Collection of layers for the OpenEmbedded-Core universe (OpenEmbedded standard)
│    ├── meta-qt5                         QT5 layer for OpenEmbedded (standard)
│    ├── meta-st
│    │   ├── meta-st-openstlinux          STMicroelectronics layer that contains the frameworks and images settings for the OpenSTLinux distribution
│    │   ├── meta-st-stm32mp              STMicroelectronics layer that contains the description of the BSP for the STM32 MPU devices
│    │   │   ├── recipes-bsp
│    │   │   │   ├── alsa                 Recipes for ALSA control configuration
│    │   │   │   ├── drivers              Recipes for Vivante GCNANO GPU kernel drivers
│    │   │   │   ├── trusted-firmware-a   Recipes for TF-A
│    │   │   │   └── u-boot               Recipes for U-Boot
│    │   │   ├── recipes-extended
│    │   │   │   ├── linux-examples       Recipes for Linux examples for STM32 MPU devices
│    │   │   │   ├── m4coredump           Recipes for script to manage coredump of cortexM4
│    │   │   │   └── m4projects           Recipes for firmware examples for Cortex M4
│    │   │   ├── recipes-graphics
│    │   │   │   ├── gcnano-userland      Recipes for Vivante libraries OpenGL ES, OpenVG and EGL (multi backend)
│    │   │   │   └── [...]
│    │   │   ├── recipes-kernel
│    │   │   │   ├── linux                Recipes for Linux kernel
│    │   │   │   └── linux-firmware       Recipes for Linux firmwares (example, Bluetooth firmware)
│    │   │   ├── recipes-security
│    │   │   │   └── optee                Recipes for OPTEE
│    │   │   ├── recipes-st
│    │   │   │   └── images               Recipes for the bootfs and userfs partitions binaries
│    │   │   └── [...]
│    │   ├── meta-st-stm32mp-addons       STMicroelectronics layer that helps managing the STM32CubeMX integration
│    │   └── scripts
│    │       ├── envsetup.sh              Environment setup script for Distribution Package
│    │       └── [...]
│    ├── meta-timesys                     Timesys layer for OpenEmbedded (standard)
│    └── openembedded-core                Core metadata for current versions of OpenEmbedded (standard)

I have cloned a layer from openembeddedlayers and added it into bblayers layers file in the build directory... Now, what i would like to do is to make a packagegroup.bb file and add the recipes from that layers and all the other layers into that packagegroup file so that it get added into my image when i bitbake the image.

My packagegroup file look like this

SUMMARY = "packagegroup containing packages  
client"LICENSE = "MIT"
inherit packagegroup
RDEPENDS_${PN} = "\
nano \
tmux \  
python3-pyserial \  
python3-paho-mqtt \  
python3-pymodbus \  
sqlite3 \  
python-pysqlite \  
python3-sqlite3 \  
"

Now, where should i put this file and also where should i add it in my project? i am quite new in yocto and not able to understand this.

Answer 1

Packagegroups are just bitbake recipes for all intents and purposes. Therefore, you can simply create a new directory relative to your image directory, and put it there. Historically, I've done this

<path to>/recipes-images/images
<path to>/recipes-images/packagegroups

Then just put your packagegroup file in the packagegroups directory. As long as your layers and meta directory are configured correctly, they will be found.

EDIT I should mention you can also just put a packagegroup file in the same directory as your images as well. If you only have one or two, this may make sense.

You don't have your own meta layer, which means you either skip packagegroups and add each recipe to your local.conf, or create your own meta layer. The local.conf option would be much faster/easier.