On Wed 2017-01-18 @ 09:26:53 PM, Richard Purdie wrote:

On Wed, 2017-01-18 at 11:57 -0600, Mark Hatle wrote:
do_configure is special, we call its dependencies DEPENDS. 

There are special dependency requirements for do_package,
do_packagedata and RDEPENDS are actually only really mapped to
do_package_write_*.

...

The rules in some ways are simple, it comes down to:

"""
If your postinstall can execute at rootfs creation time rather than on
target but depends on a native tool in order to execute, you need to
list that tool in PACKAGE_WRITE_DEPENDS.
"""

Is there not already a mechanism for generically saying "I need <this> task of
<that> recipe to be completed before my <such-and-such> task can run" of which
DEPENDS and RDEPENDS are simply short-hand notations?

If "yes" (and I understand the discussion correctly) couldn't that be employed
here?

If "no" (and I understand the discussion correctly) wouldn't adding such a
mechanism be a possible solution. The use of which, hopefully, would make it
easier for a user to understand what's going on (without requiring ad-hoc
knowledge of the system)?