Distributing binaries
Mainstream Linux distributions are in most cases constructed from collections of binary (precompiled) packages in either RPM or DEB format. RPM stands for Red Hat Package Manager and is used in Red Hat, SUSE, Fedora, and other RPM-based distributions. Debian and Debian-derived distributions, including Ubuntu and Mint, use the Debian package manager (DEB) format. There is also a lightweight format for embedded devices known as the Itsy package (IPK) format, which is based on DEB.
The ability to include a package manager on the device is one of the big differentiators between build systems. Once you have a package manager on the target device, you have an easy path to deploy new packages and to update the existing ones. I will talk about the implications of this in Chapter 10.
Now for the main event. We will start with Buildroot. As the simpler of the two build systems, Buildroot is easier to get started with than Yocto and the quickest way of generating...
